Wirral Leaks Weekly Dispatch #6

Hey! people of Wirral – we’re supposed to be semi-retired here! But in the mean time keep ’em comin’……

CONDUCT UNBECOMING 

This is a postscript to our Intimidation and the Hypocrisies of Public Life post where earlier this week we witnessed Cllr Moira ‘Matron’ McLaughlin desperately querying whether a particular website was intimidatory. Hey , Matron – we pay for your taxis , it would appear you now want us to pay for your phone. As Her Ladyship said : ” It’ll be bad dye jobs and manicures next !” Can we just pitch in that we agree with a recent Guardian report (that’s a first for us) where ex- Tory minister Sir Eric ‘Who Ate All The Pies’ Pickles gets a deserved kicking (or this being the Guardian – a mild riposte). It was Frank Field’s mate who dismantled the external scrutiny of Councils with the abolishment of the Audit Commission and Standards For England and my goodness haven’t councillors at Wirral Council taken advantage of the fact since? For more read here : Blame Eric Pickles for councillors guzzling high on the hog

It is apparent that electors on Wirral don’t or at least don’t in any coherent way police the conduct of councillors. So we try to instead – and if that’s ‘intimidatory’ Matron we make no apologies! Just sayin’

HUBWATCH  

Her Ladyship turned to me the other day and said :

What the world needs now
Is hubs, more hubs
It’s the only thing
That there’s just too little of
What the world needs now
Is hubs, more hubs
No not just for some – but for everyone

Lord, we don’t need
Another mountain
There are mountains
And hillsides enough to climb
There are oceans
And rivers enough to cross
Enough to last – ’til the end of time

What the world needs now
Is hubs, more hubs

And who was I to disagree? So in honour of Her Ladyship we are introducing a new Wirral Leaks feature – Hubwatch. This week’s hub is the ‘Maritime Knowledge Hub’ exclusively featured in Wirral Council’s favourite website Insider Media Ltd. 

The ‘Digital Staff Writer’ for this exclusive for this is one Matthew Ord. Now we’re not being rude here Matthew but your profile pic makes you look slightly deranged. We suppose that’s what happens when you have to cut and paste press statements from various interested parties into a vaguely coherent article so that it doesn’t read like complete BS for a living. Just sayin’

WIRRAL WINDFALL 

The latest contribution from regular Wirral Leaks contributor ‘The Prof ‘ may be a bit controversial but we’re a broad church and we like to encourage debate and dispute

It was good to read in the February Wirral View that according to Cllr. Phil Davies Wirral is now the centre for ‘Offshore Renewable Engineering’! Orsted’s new ‘flagship’ site for windmill maintenance is apparently the best thing since sliced bread ! Phil must have read the piece in Renewable Energy News, etc, which reported that several hundred offshore windmills supplied by Siemens, including those of Orsted, have suffered unexpected problems including severe blade erosion requiring expensive repair or replacement. That should keep Orsted’s base busy in the short term. But, as to the medium term,  did Phil not also read the Financial Times piece (23.02.18) :’Global Renewable Energy Sector Faces Enron Style Collapse’. With the end of cheap money and subsidies and the US shale gas revolution ,the ‘windmill era’ may be ending again just as it did when coal and oil arrived in the 19th century. If Phil wants economic renewal for Wirral he should forget politically correct fantasy, embrace reality and talk to Cuadrilla.                                                                        Professor D P Gregg (retired)

 

Juergen Maier is Siemens CEO and North West Business Leadership Team (NWBLT) Chairman

Emma Degg (ex Wirral Council, Wirral Leaks passim) is CEO of NWBLT

Oh and DLA Piper, Grant Thornton, Orsted and Unilever have representatives on the NWBLT board. Have you all worked out how this shit works yet?

NWBLT Members

Just sayin’

STIR IT UP

Now you know we don’t judge here at Wirral Leaks and we fully support local businesses and recognise you gotta do what you gotta do to make a living these days. However from time to time who question the appropriateness of some sponsorship deals . We say this as we’ve been sent these pics and comment from a local resident :

Good to see Somerville Medical Centre being sponsored by the cheapest e cig shop on Merseyside……sponsored by Marley’s where (if you zoom in on this photo) you will also see that you can buy ‘spliff boxes’, ‘bongs’, and associated drug taking paraphernalia ……. ha ha

Perhaps Julie Webster Head of Public Health at Wirral Council could comment on the matter and at the same time confirm she has an MSc and therefore has the authority to do so. Just sayin’

AND FINALLY 

We’ve been sent this picture and asked  ” What does this former party political leader and his partner have in common with a Wirral political power couple?”

We were stumped – perhaps Wirral Leaks readers can enlighten us………

Welcome to Neverland

 

There are times when we wonder whether there’s a greater force at work (other than Frank Field). We say this as we received these beautifully juxtaposed alerts which allow us to contrast fantasy with reality and proves that ‘WIRRAL WATERS’ IS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!

First we have a Financial Times report

Meanwhile a day after the announcement of the closure of Birkenhead’s Marks & Spencer and on the same day that it was  reported that a woman had been assaulted by a man wearing a knuckle duster in House of Fraser , which for now anyway is the town’s last remaining department store, local politicians were obviously in desperate need of a good news story.

We’re afraid to say the closest they got was this Wirral Globe puff-piece optimistically titled ‘Multi-million pound boost for Wirral Waters housebuilding plan’ Read the full bogus story here :  Millions,Billions,Trillions,Gazillions

Here we discover that Wirral  has the honour and the privilege to have been bequeathed £6 million of public money alongside such glamorous destinations as Sheffield, Grimsby ,Cleethorpes, Barnsley, Sandwell , Blackburn and Burnley. Shitholes one and all.

Bigging up the news is the dubious duo of Cllr George Davies : “It’s fantastic news for local residents.” and the man for whom he acts as an electoral agent , Birkenhead MP Frank Field who’s sermon on the mount is : “This is a timely and vitally important boost for Wirral…….Having been working for the past year with the leader of the local authority to try piecing together such a programme, I hope shortly to report further developments”

Working with the ‘leader’ of the local authority Frank ? – does that mean having a conversation with yourself in the mirror? Is it just us or can you smell the desperation or is that the familiar aroma of bullshit?

Since when did handing over £6 million of PUBLIC money to a PRIVATE enterprise like Peel Holdings to piss into the River Mersey constitute a ‘good news’ story? There must be another celebration going on in the Isle of Man as the usual Peel Group tactic of holding on to a previously owned public asset until it attracts public money to GET A BLOODY MOVE ON reaps rewards.

And as for the pitiful manoeuvres of local politicians and their allies the expression ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ doesn’t come close  – and surely nobody but nobody wants to see Gorgeous George and his political master Frankenfield in the buff!

The Emperor of Dissemblance

“He keeps saying he’s going to sort it out. He needs to get his chequebook out and write a cheque” – is Frank Field addressing this statement to Sir Philip Green or to Wirral Council Chief Executive Eric Robinson? 

I was awoken from my golden slumbers this morning by Her Ladyship shrieking :

” Darling , come quickly, that ghastly man is on Radio 4 again…..”  

As there seem to be so many ghastly men (and women) about at the moment it was only when I heard the familiar condescending drawl that I realised she meant dear old Birkenhead MP Frank Field (aka Frankenfield).

Whilst sat at the dining room table I settled down to listen to Frankenfield fulminate against “Sir” Philip Green   described as the “unacceptable face of capitalism ” in a report into the collapse of BHS published today by the Work and Pensions and Business, Innovations and Skills Committees . As we know Frankenfield is the chair of the former Committee and took the opportunity  to do his well worn holier than thou routine and asked :  “What kind of man is it who can count his fortune in billions but does not know what decent behaviour is?”

For the the full tawdry story : https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2016/jul/25/damning-bhs-report-leaves-sir-philip-green-under-pressure-business-live?page=with:block-5795a8a3e4b0d75e7e5f2dcd

That was bad enough however I nearly choked on my kedgeree as Frankenfield  with breathtaking hypocrisy called Green a “Napoleon figure who orchestrated all this ” and who was “used to everyone around him doing as they’re told”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36879241

Takes a Napoleon to know a Napoleon we thought to ourselves! .

Although in this case Frankenfield ‘s Napoleon being less like Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and more like the Napoleon from Animal Farm – Our Leader,Comrade Napoleon, Father of all Animals, Terror of Mankind,Protector of the sheep-fold,Ducklings’ Friend – the Emperor of Dissemblance.

Frankenfield went on (and on and on) to demand  that Sir Green should write a cheque for “at least” £571m for the BHS pensioners……..which in comparison his demand for £48,000 x 4  from Wirral Council for his favoured recording artistes seems quite reasonable! .

But what was it about Frankenfield’s insistence that the collapse of BHS  was all down to  model -botherer and yacht-collector Green ?  (he certainly has it in for Greens doesn’t he ?- whether they’re former Wirral Council Directors or the Wirral Green Party).More objective commentators have drawn attention to the fact that the BHS Inquiry deservedly lambasted not only Green , but the buyer of BHS Dominic Chappell and their enablers.

A report in today’s Financial Times titled “BHS report lays bare failure and liability” states that  – ” Some of the report’s most withering passages are reserved for the “directors, advisers and hangers-on” who surround the two men (Green and Chappell) . They “are all culpable”, the MPs say.”

Among the advisers were  Grant Thornton, the accountancy and auditing firm . Who also strangely enough are Wirral Council’s  auditors. We were particularly drawn to the Financial Times comment that these directors,advisers and hangers-on gave the greedy Green “the lustre of credibility”.

We can’t help feeling the same “lustre of credibility” is similarly given to  Frankenfield and the Wirralgate scandal by the likes of Council directors ,advisers, hangers on and in particular Grant Thornton.

We say this as we are in possession of some astonishing correspondence between Grant Thornton and a local person of interest who has asked us to hang fire for the moment as they (and us) await further developments.

So finally we’d like to ask our readers that whilst they’re demanding “Sir ” Philip gets stripped of his knighthood that St.Frank gets stripped of his sainthood and we’ll leave the last word to Napoleon himself …….

 

 

Year of Flogging A Dead Horse

Peel Director Lindsey Ashworth (left)  fondly remembers the table that he claims  Hong Kong bankrupt Stella Shiu could drink him under. Power Boy Pip (allegedly left) looks on gormlessly.

We’d like to thank the perplexed readers who contacted us about a couple of stories that have been published on consecutive days this past week in the Liverpool Echo. They’ve asked us if we could throw some light on the stories.  The first thing we’d like to say is that the Echo is certainly living up to its name. These  two stories appear to us as being not so much published as regurgitated – and much like vomit – equally sickening.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Echo

So let us do this chronologically  – firstly on 14th March we get this previously reported story about Peel Empires Inc – having quite reasonably given up on the Stella Shiu  No-Show – moving on to Plan B ( B for bullshit)  and now want to throw up ( there’s a theme here) residential units on the site previously earmarked for businesses ,offices and the International Trade Centre.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/business/peel-seeks-investors-partners-build-11039885

Yes ! –  23,500 more buy-to-lets! –  just what we need in the Liverpool Economic Partnership area (which includes Wirral) and which the English Indices of Deprivation indicates is the worst in England and bottom of the league when it comes to employment, income, health deprivation and disability.

Wirral – deprived and with a declining population that is becoming increasingly elderly and dependent .What an attractive proposition to investors!

Then on 15th March we get this follow up desperate “news”story :

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/wirral-trying-make-international-trade-11034120

Talk about late to the party !. It was 5 months ago we covered this bogus story about desperate Wirral Council leader Power Boy Pip Davies maintaining his blind faith in Hong Kong bankrupt Stella Shiu by flogging off some land miles away from the Wirral Waters site when it was first reported in the Financial Times :

https://wirralleaks.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/chinese-takeaway-1st-dibs-2nd-course/

Presciently we commented :

• The  FT report appears to us to have been a “controlled leak” via a national newspaper with a niche market . Who authorised this leak and what was the motivation to leak the jubilant news of the Sam Wa / Stella Shiu hook-up rather than being heralded as a “good news” story in the likes of the Liverpool Echo ?

Clearly in hindsight this was an early example of Wirral Council’s PR amateur Martin Liptrot’s early work  which he followed up months later with the  lazy / compliant local mouthpiece that is the  Liverpool Echo.

As Her Ladyship commented : ” Wasn’t it a Chinese New Year recently – what was it?  – The Year  of Flogging A Dead Horse ?”

Wirral Waters – the latest artist’s impression.

Chinese Takeaway : 1st Dibs / 2nd Course

We often have a Chinese banquet in the banqueting hall at Leaky Towers as we love Chinese food ( although we understand Wirral Council trade delegate Kevin “Addled” Adderley wasn’t too keen).But you know when they say that sometimes after you’ve eaten a Chinese meal you sometimes still remain strangely unsatisfied ?.Well we feel somewhat the same about yesterday’s Chinese Takeaway delivery.

The Financial Times report (with the obligatory artist’s impression) which we brought to your attention raises more questions than it answers.Although we are grateful for the fact that by the time the print edition was published on November 18th the title of the report had been changed from “Liverpool Goes After Chinese Investment”  to “Wirral strikes land deal with China group” as it seems to have been brought to the attention of the FT’s  “North of England Correspondent”  that Liverpool and Wirral are two entirely different places.

Courtesy of the Financial Times we have provided a full transcript of the report for your delectation below and we’re sure that keen followers of the Wirral Waters saga will note that anomalies abound.

Consequently we have a list of questions we’d like to set out below and if any of our readers have any more please send them to wirralleaks@gmail.com 

• The  FT report appears to us to have been a “controlled leak” via a national newspaper with a niche market .Who authorised this leak and what was the motivation to leak the jubilant news of the Sam Wa/Stella Shiu hook-up rather than being heralded as a “good news” story in the likes of the Liverpool Echo ?
• The plot of land on which  Sam Wa/Stella appear to have been given first dibs is a patch of  former Ministry of Defence land described as a “surburban industrial estate behind Port Sunlight Tennis Club” . Consequently how can this be described as being part of the plan to “kick start” the original £4.5 billion Wirral Waters development which was to built on 500 acres of redundant dockland?.
• Although the FT report makes reference to the fact that Wirral Council leader Power Boy Pip Davies was given “special powers” to approve asset sales up to £2.5 million there is no mention that at the same cabinet meeting that he was also given powers to  remove restrictive covenants on land. As this was a former Ministry of Defence piece of land we can only assume that there were restrictive covenants on the future use of the land.If so what were those covenants and have they been removed to “smooth negotiations”? http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/13944494.Sweeping_changes_will_see_Wirral_s_cabinet_councillors_given_extensive_new_powers/
• Apparently Wirral Council claim the sale of this plot of land “will proceed after due diligence on Sam Wa” .What is the due diligence process and does it include background checks on bankruptcy and financial viability?
• In the FT report Lib Dem council leader Phil ” Rent-A-Quote” Gilchrist has questioned the suitability of the site for a trade centre particularly as the site was “inland with no immediately accessible port facilities”  is “some distance from the M53″ and ” the site has not yet proved attractive to developers”. So we’d like to know whether this is a suitable site of an International Trade Centre or merely a very expensive and financially risky way to save face over the Stella Shiu affair?
• We’d also like to ask where Wirral Council Tory group leader Jeff “AWOL” Green has been during the unfolding of this (and many other) fiascos these past few months.You’d think he had something to hide and wanted to keep a low profile or something !.
• Knowing what we know about how Wirral Council conduct their business we can’t help speculating as to what went on during negotiations in China and led to the granting of special powers behind closed doors at Wallasey Town Hall .Why are Wirral Council absolutely determined to do business with Sam Wa when it seems to be a case of fools rush in where Peel Group fear to tread? .

 Wirral strikes land deal with China group –

ANDREW BOUNDS NORTH OF ENGLAND CORRESPONDENT

It was to be the centrepiece of a mini Shanghai on the Mersey. Now an international trade centre planned for the Wirral could be built on a suburban industrial estate behind Port Sunlight tennis club.

The original £175m scheme was an attempt to harness Chinese investment and to underpin the £4.5bn Wirral Waters development of offices, homes and warehouses on 500 acres of redundant dockland.It would have housed 1,000 Chinese companies wanting to do business in the UK in a tax-friendly zone.

Peel, the multibillion pound property group behind the plans, has ended a joint venture with its Chinese development partner Sam Wa “by mutual agreement” after several fruitless years attempting to recruit occupiers.

It has switched its focus, it says, to potential investors from Korea, India and other fast-growing economies.

But the Labour local council is pressing ahead regardless. It has agreed in private to sell a patch of former Ministry of Defence land in Birkenhead to Sam Wa, the Financial Times has learnt. The deal was approved by its cabinet on November 5, without public scrutiny as an “exempt item”.

The council said commercial confidentiality meant it could not discuss the deal publicly.

The challenges of development in the area were made clear at the same meeting, where the council set up a £16m investment fund for Wirral Waters, saying it would borrow money against future business rates to kick-start construction.

The council papers proposing the fund state that “there are a number of barriers to development, in particular that end values are far less than the actual cost of development”. They also warned that if land prices fell the fund could make a loss.

Peel owns the bulk of the waterfront on the Mersey and is pressing on with the rest of Wirral Waters, although a college and office block are the only buildings to go up so far.

England’s northern cities have been jostling for Chinese investment.

Last month, Manchester hosted President Xi Jinping of China. He announced that Beijing Construction and Engineering Group, a state-owned company already active in the city, would invest in two large offices by the airport, which would cater to Chinese companies.The £130m plan is part of Manchester’s Airport City scheme. President Xi also announced direct flights between Manchester and Beijing.

The Wirral wants to catch up. But the site being sold to Sam Wa is smaller and requires extensive work because it used to belong to the MoD.

Sam Wa was founded and is chaired by Stella Shiu, who changed her name after being declared bankrupt by a Hong Kong court in 2008 for failure to repay a loan.

The sale will proceed after due diligence on Sam Wa, the council said. This month it also agreed to delegate to its leader, Phil Davies, the power to approve asset sales up to £2.5m. The site being sold to Sam Wa was valued at £2m in 2013, according to a document seen by the FT.

Mr Davies said: “Sam Wa, who at an earlier stage were going to be partnering with Peel, are now looking to invest all the money themselves.”

Phil Gilchrist, leader of the Liberal Democrats on the council, said he could not comment on so-called exempt items but questioned the suitability of the site for a trade centre. He noted that it was “inland with no immediately accessible port facilities” and some distance from the M53 motorway.

“The site has not yet proved attractive to developers that I am aware of,” he added.

Sam Wa’s stated interests include electronics manufacturing, import and export, timber trading and a large mining concession in the Philippines.

An FT investigation in 2013 found its home at the time was a cramped office belonging to an organisation called “Shanghai Enterprise Top 100 Association”.

Sam Wa’s headquarters in Beijing was a closely guarded military hotel that did not allow outsiders to enter.

Several companies registered under Ms Shiu’s former name have been dissolved on the Chinese mainland.

Ms Shiu and Sam Wa did not answer emails seeking comment.

 

Chinese Takeaway

The fortune cookie who knows a place where they’ve got money to burn… Photo : Wei Quianjiang

On the same day that news of the Liverpool City Region Devolution Agreement was being splashed all over the place like champagne on a Grand Prix podium there was an extraordinary report published in the Financial Times on November 17 titled ” Liverpool Goes After Chinese Investment” which appears to have evaded any scrutiny or comment from the local press.

This is particularly surprising as the report concerns Wirral Waters and the elusive Ms.Stella Shiu.

Usually the mere mention of Wirral Waters and/or Ms.Shiu and the Liverpool Echo whips out the artist’s impression to splash across the front page and they’re telling us that we’re all going to be rolling about in yuan for eternity.

Now as we all know Peel Holdings ,the multi-billion property group behind the long touted and much anticipated Wirral Waters development ended a joint venture with its putative Chinese development partner Sam Wa “by mutual agreement” after frequent flyer trips to China proved fruitless.

Sam Wa was founded and chaired by the mysterious Stella Ching Yim Shiu , who acquired a new name after being declared a bankrupt in a Hong Kong court in 2008 for failure to repay a loan…..like you do.

http://legalref.judiciary.gov.hk/lrs/common/search/search_result_detail_frame.jsp?DIS=63547&QS=%2B&TP=JU

However whilst Peel are now looking towards potential investors elsewhere the FT reports:

” The Labour local council is pressing ahead regardless .It has agreed in private to sell a patch of former Ministry of defence land in Birkenhead to Sam Wa …….The deal was approved by its cabinet on November 5 , without public scrutiny as an “exempt item”.

The all new open and transparent Wirral Council told the FT that “commercial confidentiality” meant it could not discuss the deal publicly.

Also discussed in secret was the fact Wirral Council has borrowed money to set up their own £16m investment fund for Wirral Waters to “kick start construction”.Selectively leaked council papers proposing the fund also state:  “There are a number of barriers to development ,in particular that end values are far less than the end cost of development”.

Which basically means that if land prices fall then Wirral Council will make a loss. This means that the allegedly cash-strapped Council are gambling £16 million of YOUR MONEY to get this vainglorious pipedream up and running.

No wonder they want to be twinned with seedy gambling town Reno !.

Now for a bit of number-crunching : According to a leaked document seen by FT the site being sold to Sam Wa was valued at £2m in 2013 and funnily enough at the cabinet meeting held earlier this month it was agreed to delegate to its leader, Power Boy Pip Davies ,the power to approve asset sales up to £2.5 million !.

Well fancy that!

Meanwhile in an attempt to confront the Chinese dragon in the room  the FT reminds us that several companies registered under Ms.Shiu’s former name have been dissolved in China. However the elusive Ms.Shiu is not responding to their emails about this issue or the proposed momentous sell-off.

Under the circumstances we can’t speculating about those publicly funded trade delegations/shopping trips to China involving Wirral Council officials and exactly what went on to convince them that a bankrupt with an apparent penchant for drinking potential business partners under the table was an attractive business proposition?.

I think we should be told.

But we’d bet £16 million of public money we won’t be!………