Dorset Council formally apologises to The Skidder

Following the initiation of a legal protocol process Dorset Council has issued an apology (set out below) to The Skidder via its external Solicitors.

Background

The story started when Dorset decided to replace a departing Director with an "interim" one. Applications were sought via the Council's "framework" but Chief Executive, Matt Prosser, claims to have received unsolicited applications via Solace in Business Limited, the trading arm of Solace, a membership organisation formed to promote the interests of local government figures. At the material time, Prosser was the President of Solace. 

Prosser received the CV of the disgraced former Chief Executive of Sandwell MBC, Jan Britton, from Solace in Business although Prosser says that Britton is not a member of Solace. Despite the appalling misconduct of Britton over many years at Sandwell (see Note One and Skidders passim ad nauseum), Prosser agreed to pay the appalling Britton £900 per day plus a payment of £125 per day to Solace in Business for the interim job.

The pathetic groveller who claims to have seen nothing, heard nothing and certainly said nothing at corrupt Sandwell!

(Later, Prosser wrote that he was a Director of Solace in Business Limited (SIB) although he is not shown as such at Companies House. The Skidder duly wrote to the Company Secretary of SIB, Ruth Hyde, querying this anomaly but she has not bothered to respond. I will now take this matter up with Dorset again.)

You can see the history of Britton's appointment by Prosser and the hapless (and now out of power) local Tories via Note Two.

The Skidder wrote to a number of (then) Dorset Councillors from a selection of political parties asking why they thought spending £1,025 per day of taxpayers money on Britton - given his atrocious record, much of which is in the public domain - was good value. It quickly transpired that Dorset's Head of Legal, Jonathan Mair, had arranged to intercept Councillor's private emails without their knowledge (this was seemingly with Prosser's agreement and a later "independent report" by one of Mair's deputies said this appalling action was actually ok although, in future, it might be nice to ask the councillors' for permission to intercept their private emails first!)

Mair then sought to bully The Skidder. It's the same old, same old story for journalists covering misconduct in local government - bullying Councils ignore the facts and shoot the messenger. Mair threatened to use taxpayer's money to protect Britton's non-existent reputation and to take legal action if The Skidder attempted to contact any of Dorset's apparently pusillanimous Councillors about the appointment. Mair also told colleagues he was contacting the pathetic local mainstream media to warn them off the story! In fact, during the recent legal process, Dorset confirmed that they did not actually go on to nobble the local clickbait brigade (hence the wording of one of the paragraphs in the official apology). Interestingly, the feeble local mainstream media were alerted by The Skidder regarding Britton's appointment, but only the splendid, and independent, Dorset Eye covered the story.

Mair then wrote to the Councillors The Skidder had tried to contact making what The Skidder considered to me grossly defamatory remarks about him and his journalism. See Note Three below (from our associated blog).

Interestingly, one of the Councillors contacted was Nick Ireland. He was then the Lib Dem opposition Leader, but is now the Council Leader following the Tory rout locally. Ireland was apparently unconcerned (a) that his private emails had been intercepted, and (b) that his Council was paying £1,025 per day for the awful Britton. There is a curious "Lib Dem" aspect to all this. When Britton was kicked out of Sandwell (without compensation other than his statutory/contractual entitlement - almost unheard of for miscreant local government officers) a very aggressive Lib Dem Councillor in the Cotswolds  called Joe Harris decided that someone as hopeless as Britton was just what was needed in that neck of the woods and gave him a job immediately! All very odd.

Incidentally, Ireland did not have the b*lls to tell The Skidder that Mair had written to him (and the others) in the manner in which he had, putting the poison down. But, incredibly, Dorset then put the incriminating documents on a public website for all to see! The Skidder started the protocol process to commence legal action.

For the record, Mair wrote to all the Councillors listed in the apology below (two of whom have since lost their seats) and - so it seems - not one of them had the guts or gumption to question what Mair and Prosser were up to, nor to contact me for verification of the facts. Clearly spending £1,025 per day on someone as dreadful as Britton is not, in their view, a matter of concern.

The Legals

Mair made it quite clear Dorset would use taxpayers' money to shut me up thinking that a small independent journalist would just rollover and comply. But, fortunately, I have the excellent Mark Lewis, Solicitor, and 5RB Chambers ready and willing to fight my corner. Thus Dorset's external and commendable lawyers quickly offered an apology. This is in the knowledge that I still intend to take regulatory action against a party involved in all this.

There is also a Freedom of Information request about Britton's appointment outstanding. Realistically, it should be Dorset Councillors asking the questions given Britton's long history of incompetence and misconduct and not me, but it seems they are incapable or unwilling to do so. Poor Dorset taxpayers!

There is also the ongoing question - which I am sure Prosser will wish to hasten to answer - about declarations he made in the Register of Interests in respect of his involvement with Solace before the appointment - in particular, his alleged directorship of SIB.

There is also some evidence that at least one of the Tory Councillors who gave Britton the job, Jill Haynes, (Chalk Valleys). knew of Britton's history of gross misconduct before the interview, but ignored the facts! That also remains an outstanding issue.

Here is the formal apology:

Prologue

Incredibly the story of Britton's misconduct at Sandwell is still ongoing. This blog published the still officially secret "Cox Review" into his appalling behaviour and so that was also available for Dorset Council to see before they appointed Britton at huge public expense (see Note Four). The Cox Review confirmed, amongst other things, what this blog had been saying for years - that Britton was hiding what he was doing by using an encrypted Blackberry device rather than his Council iPhone. There is a lot more that still remains hidden ...

And after, literally, YEARS the final costs of the Hackett case are about to be revealed. This followed on from Britton's very deliberate subversion of a Council standards review which also led to the bullying and dismissal of the Assistant Chief Executive at enormous cost to the taxpayer, and then a legal claim for damages from other parties which, of course, succeeded. Watch this space folks!

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

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

Note Three: https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2024/08/dorset-council-foi-response-grossly.html

Note Four: https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2022/02/here-it-is-folks-cox-review-revealed.html

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