You may recall from yesterday’s Gym’ll Fix It story concerning Wirral gyms closure scandal under Tier 3 and Environmental Health officers apparently going all gangsta in their determination to keep gyms closed , trying to prevent gym owners from distributing £55K monies to mental health charities and criticising police who had the unenviable task of doing something they really didn’t want to do which was trying to enforce an unjust and untenable law.
Needless to say there has followed the mealymouthed response from Wirral Council on the matter where the inevitable Wirral Council spokesman is quoted in the Liverpool Echo :
“We are looking into the comments allegedly made by council officers during that leaked meeting.
“However, the claims apparently attributed to those officers do not reflect the council’s position”
Under the circumstances we’re wondering whether the recruitment drive launched by Wirral Council this week for new Environmental Health officers who are more ‘on message’ in ‘securing the best future for residents’ is entirely coincidental …
Good news for all Wirral gym bunnies with the announcement that gyms across the Liverpool City Region will re-open on Friday.
With gyms being allowed to remain open in Lancashire and Greater Manchester under Tier 3 restrictions it was clear that the government’s stance on imposing gym closures on the Liverpool City Region alone was becoming increasingly untenable and especially with widespread local protest including the open defiance of some local gyms who tried to remain open.
No doubt we’ll have local politicians currying favour and claiming it was them ‘wot won it’ for their constituents to pump iron. But we all know that’s BS. What we’ve witnessed on this score has showed local politicians blaming central government and central government throwing it back like a medicine ball and saying the agreement to close gyms was a local decision. As far as we’re concerned they’re all as bad as each other and couldn’t organise a circuit training class if an Olympic gold medal depended on it.
However what the situation has exposed once again is the scheming duplicity of Wirral Council and their appalling managers. The extraordinary allegations made by Nick Whitcombe of Bodytech gym in the video first aired on Facebook (see below) won’t come as any surprise to Wirral Leaks readers. It would seem that once again that Wirral Council has gotten itself in a shitstorm of controversy over a leaked telephone recording which whilst perhaps is not on the scale or seriousness of ‘Wirralgate’ it is nevertheless deeply troubling.
It is alleged that council officials were badmouthing the police and conspiring against gyms on Wirral and Bodytech in particular in trying to prevent the latter making a donation of £50K to mental health charities raised through a Go Fund initiative.
We are also familiar with the well worn tactics deployed to ‘sabotage’ or ‘fix’ individuals like Mr Whitcombe who stand up against the council. Once again we ask ourselves WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THESE PEOPLE? The notion of being a public servant seems to have been entirely lost .
We understand if Mr Whitcombe is reluctant to name the power trippin’ Environmental Health officers involved but we’re not. Naming and shaming on social media is the only form of public accountability that Wirral Council understands.
As you know we like to keep up to date with Wirral Leaks favourites especially those that courted controversy and have made great copy for us over the years.
Therefore imagine our delight when one of our readers contacted us to say that they felt the need to prick up their ears when it was announced that Wirral Council alumna and former communications czarina Emma Degg was gegging in on the central government enforced Greater Manchester Tier 3 debate and the Andy Burnham/Boris Johnson battle of wills.
Ms Degg in her role as the Chief Executive of North West Business Leadership Team (NWBLT) felt the need to present a statement to the LBC (Leading Britain’s Conversation) radio station.
Unfortunately our reader and LBC listener was not able to recall the details of the statement but was left wondering as to whether Degg was morphing into pompous political commentator Robert Peston?…
From our self imposed exile shielding in sunnier climes far away from the insular peninsula – a place that seems to be in permanent lockdown from what we can remember – we just had to comment on the appointment of Cllr Janette ‘Milly Tant’ Williamson as the new leader of Wirral Council.
After the unlamented departure of Cllr Pat ‘Can’t’ Hackett aka Mr Freebie as leader of Wirral Council we warmly welcome a lay-dee disrupting the long running Lad’s Club that have been the leaders of the Liverpool City Region. However we can’t help wondering what ardent royalist Our Jan will bring to the party political.
Well, based on previous experience it will consist of plenty of fringe fiddling, retro sloganeering and feigning victimhood. Our unsolicited advice to Our Jan would be that if you have chosen to be the ‘leader’ of Wirral Council be prepared for the brickbats that come your way . It’s called fair comment and public accountability and any criticism that comes your way is not because you are a lay-dee it will usually be because of a council cock up that’s been covered up. I’m sure former Labour council ‘leaders’ Cllr Steve ‘Foulkesy’ Foulkes and Phil ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies have filled you in on that aspect of your new role.
Talking of Power Boy Pip we also applaud Our Jan’s move back to a Committee system rather than the ‘Strong Leader’ model adopted by Pip. This model was always the mark of a weak leader with too much to hide.
And talking of too much to hide we also note that disgraced councillors -by us at least-Tony Smith and George Davies have been asked to (self) serve as Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Wirral respectively until May 2021.
We were beginning to think that coronavirus was God working in his well known mysterious ways and it was his way of telling us he didn’t want racist, dishonest Cllr George Davies as Mayor of Wirral but clearly all those hours -oh so many hours- in the confession box have worked wonders and it would appear that Gorgeous George will get the opportunity to ride around Wirral in the back of a chauffeur driven car with his missus gurning at the poor unfortunates who find themselves in the Mayor’s Diary for 2021-22.
But let’s end on a positive note. Kudos to Our Jan for her appearance earlier this week on the telly (see above). Not quite as scary as ex Wirral Council apologist Joe ‘ Big Cheque’ Blott who was turning up with alarming regularity as the spokesperson for ‘ Spirit of Shankly’ at the start of the pandemic, but pretty close.
Nice to see that Our Jan eschewed the obligatory beautifully curated bookshelf and tasteful flower arrangement in favour of an ironing board in the background in what will no doubt be the first of many addresses to the nation. Our Jan was speaking out in favour of gyms remaining open on Wirral. A subject which has been the cause of much local controversy. If Our Jan really wants to win the hearts of the Wirral electorate we suggest she has a word with Merseyside Mayors Joe Anderson and Steve ‘ Brickie with a Filter’ Rotheram and explain the therapeutic benefits of exercise pronto…
Wirralleaks 