Dorset Council FOI response "grossly defamatory"

Yet another extraordinary twist in the Jan Britton scandal. Regular readers will know that Dorset Council decided to employ the disgraced former Sandwell Chief Executive at Director level on a £900 a day interim contract (recent posts below* and Skidders passim).

In the course of The Skidder's investigations into this appointment two Freedom of Information (FOI) Requests flushed out a considerable amount of information. The Skidder, as ever, used the excellent What Do They Know (WDTK) website for the FOI requests which is, of course, a public website open for the whole world to see.

In the course of its responses Dorset also decided to grossly defame The Skidder. Rather than send evidence of grossly defamatory material direct to Skidder HQ it deliberately chose to make public the libel via WDTK.

On 30th July, 2024 The Skidder wrote a legal letter to Dorset demanding, inter alia, that it removes the defamatory material from the WDTK site. Not only has it ignored the letter completely, but it has also failed to remove the offending material.

The Skidder has had to contact WDTK directly today and they have kindly made Dorset's response "requester only" for the time being i.e. only The Skidder can now see it. 

Addendum 22/08/24 - WDTK has kindly confirmed that, having reviewed this matter, they will NOT be reinstating Dorset's grossly defamatory content on the public site.

The matter is now in the hands on m'learned friends.

Prosser mystery

Those of you who read the second specific post on this scandal - set out below - will know that Dorset's Chief Executive, Matt Prosser, was, at all material times, the President of "Solace UK", a sort of medieval guild aiming to further the careers of "top"[sic] local government "workers". Solace has a commercial arm, Solace in Business Limited, to make dosh out of the jobs for the boys and girls network - mostly from the taxpayer.

Solace in Business was not on Dorset's "Framework" of recruitment firms when it sent Britton's CV to Prosser but, as we have seen in a previous post, he ensured that this would not hinder Britton's appointment in any way. And lo, so it came to pass and the Sandwell reject was appointed. 

Not only did Prosser agree a £900 PER DAY payment to Britton but he also agreed a £135 PER DAY payment to Solace in Business Ltd. This was at the end of 2003. It is noteworthy that it is not just councillors but also employees - particularly senior ones - who are obliged to maintain a Register of Interests so that conflicts of, er, interest are avoided.

On 25th January, 2014 - a month or so after the appointment - Prosser wrote to the Monitoring Officer and to another senior employee stating:

"I am President of Solace the membership body - Solace in Business (SIB) is a separate arm that covers interim and development work, although I declare I am a Director of SIB for the period that I am President."

The fact that he was making his "declaration" to the senior law officer of the Council a month after the appointment suggests, at the least - that he had NOT done so prior to the appointment. Neither does he make clear in any of the documentation disclosed to date that he declared an interest when granting a Company of which he claims to be a Director payments of £135 per day.

But soft, what is this? Companies House records do NOT show Prosser as a Director of SIB! The Skidder duly wrote to the Company Secretary of SIB, one Ruth Hyde, asking if she could explain this anomaly. She has declined to reply.

There's the mystery - and it would be very convenient if it was found that Prosser wasn't a Director after all wouldn't it (even when he claims that he was)?

(Companies House says it will not comment on individual companies, but there is an enforcement issue here and The Skidder is following this up.)

* https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2023/12/desperate-dorset-council-employ-jan.html

* https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2024/02/four-tories-go-mad-in-dorset.html

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