Frank Field – ‘ The Truth Will Out’…

First of all – thanks to our stand ins who I’m sure you’ll agree did a sterling job in our absence. A few editorial points and one-liners from us and they got the house – or Leaky Towers – style down to a tee. Thankfully some of the more contentious and controversial matters have been left for our return. This included a tip-off to check out a particular post from June 2018 on Frank Field’s Westminster blog which ,if you wish,you can find on his website…

Out of respect for the dead we won’t provide a link to the post especially as it names someone who’s anonymity had been carefully preserved for the best part of a decade. Field’s strange tribute seems to us to be less a eulogy and more a rewriting of history. We reproduce the post omitting the initial naming of the deceased and adding the bold type :

…the power that he put into trying to ensure that the truth that underpinned the case for the group that I call ‘the whistle-blowers’ should be made known.

There is this small group of whistle-blowers who were concerned over the Colas highways contract in Wirral. Wrongdoings were alleged by the whistle-blowers and their case resulted in a clutch of cheating officers leaving the council. Cleverly drawn contracts and powerful legal representation resulted in Wirral having to pay compensation monies to these individuals over the contract – tens of thousands of pounds or more that each of them have had to walk the plank.

What an injustice that Wirral ratepayers had to pay these sums by law to people whose position was untenable in the council once the whistle-blowers had completed their work.

Contrast that with the treatment of the whistle-blowers. These were the agents by which less than proper doing was unmasked. The package of compensation for them, of their careers being blighted, and one of their names being published “by accident” on the council website, was around £5,000.

The injustice to these noble citizens has still to be countered. X died before that day arrived but that day assuredly will come as truth is on their side.

It often takes so long in this country which I love to get this elemental truth established. The inquiry, for example, to establish full the truth about BHS goes on and on, and Parliament won’t give up until it has that truth.

Likewise in the Wirral. Now diminished by X’’s death, the whistle-blowers will go on and on, with my support, until truth is established.

The next stage in establishing that truth will come, I guess, with the publication of the Nick Warren report. The whistle-blowers agreed with the council that this stunning lawyer should carry out an inquiry into their case. The report will be made public, I’m sure, as a freedom of information claim has been lodged.

Slowly but surely the truth will out. The citizens of Wirral owe the whistle-blowers, including X, such a debt for shifting officers that were found wanting in respect of the public good.

We really don’t know where to start with this one. But perhaps we’ll concentrate on the tortuous language and why Field feels the need to use the word ‘truth’ 8 times (count’em). It’s as if he’s trying to convince himself of his version of the ‘truth’.

Furthermore the reference to the publication of the Nick Warren report as a means of establishing ‘truth’ is both puzzling and intriguing . Is this the same report that Wirral Council have kept secret for nearly 3 years and is the subject on ongoing legal proceedings which have lasted 2 years? You’d think that Field and the ‘stunning lawyer’ behind the report would have the power,influence and legal knowledge to have the report published before now wouldn’t you? How does Field know that the Warren Report will be made public? Does he know something that we don’t or is he interfering with ongoing legal proceedings ? What’s more can Field tell us who lodged the ‘freedom of information claim’? So many questions and all of them seemingly so far,far away from the truth.

Wouldn’t it be ironic, when we understand Field’s broken arm was a result of tripping over a pavement stone in Hamilton Square ,that it could be the guys from highways who might be responsible for his ultimate downfall.

However on reflection we don’t think that it will be these ‘noble citizens’ or even the Birkenhead CLP  that will be his undoing . It will be Frank Field’s own hubris.

The truth will out …

Wirral Leaks Weekly Dispatch #4

WW1 : Artist’s impression # 256

                                                                   WW1

As far as ‘Wirral Waters’ press releases goes this really is the best one yet. You can almost smell the desperation.  Note how the quietly abandoned ‘Wirral Waters’ scheme has suddenly and mysteriously been ‘transformed’ into ‘Wirral Waters One’ . Whoever thought of that new branding needs shooting – say it out loud , it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue does it? Can we also point out that when it comes to acronyms WW1 has already been taken? Just sayin’

Apparently Wirral Council’s Cabinet will announce tomorrow that a massive (! )£100,000 will ‘kick start’ a £90,000,000 residential development in ‘Wirral Waters One’ !

The proposal is a joint venture between the council and landowners Peel Holdings, and includes the Legacy Foundation – an investment fund established by former Tranmere Rovers player Aaron Cresswell………..The Legacy Foundation will provide £100,000 of funding in the first year to be invested in community activities. Full story : Wirral Waters One

We don’t get a breakdown of the total investment between Peel Holdings/ Wirral Council/Legacy Foundation but you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be Wirral Council (or more accurately Wirral council taxpayers) who will be putting their hands the deepest into their pockets when it comes to ‘kick starting’ this proposal. Nor do we get an explanation as to what is meant by ‘community activities’

Instead stepping up to take credit for the momentous investment was Birkenhead MP Frank Field  (huh?)

“An idea bringing the largest programme of new housing to Wirral in living memory, announced today, is the brainchild of Andrew Forsey who is the head of my Parliamentary office.Through his work in making contact with footballers interested in making long term investments from their pensions. Andrew helped to persuade a crop of current and former Premier League players – including Aaron Cresswell, who was a Tranmere Rovers player and now plays for West Ham – to see whether it would be possible for his investment fund to begin work in Wirral Waters.”

Is it just us ? – or is is there something vaguely nauseating about poverty tourist Frank Field’s parliamentary office brainstorming about the ‘loadsamonies’ who they can approach with the begging bowl without considering whether it’s morally right that footballers and the like can earn such huge sums of money or question as to whether as a society we’ve got our values all wrong? Nevertheless it is interesting to discover that Wirral’s ‘largest programme of new housing’ is somehow the responsibility of Frank Field’s Parliamentary office isn’t it?!

NUMBER – CRUNCHING   – Aaron Cresswell’s  current fortnightly salary at West Ham Utd  = £100,000 ! (well fancy that!)  See here : West Ham Utd Salaries 2018

So what we’d like tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting to do is finally come clean and announce that ‘Wirral Waters One’ and indeed the ‘ Hoylake Golf Resort’ proposal are merely opportunistic housing developments and quit the soft soap.

 

                                                              Vexatious , Moi?

Wirral Council seemed to have backed off the desperate claim that Wirral Council taxpayer Charles Nunn is ‘vexatious’ for asking pertinent questions about the continuing employment of highly paid consultant Stewart Halliday . See their latest response here : Halliday FOI

Mr Nunn comments :

At last a part reply to my F.of Information request.

Halliday has had his contract extended for a further SIX MONTHS from 1st. January, 2018.

Another £90,000 odd from the Wirral Council Tax payer.

It may be worth a mention in your esteemed publication.

Charles

                           

                                           CGL:  “……and nobody seemed to care “

Many thanks to those who keep us appraised of national charity Change,Grow Live who are the grateful recipient of Wirral’s largest ( £7 million +) Public Health contract. Their latest mishap involves them in a massive data breach involving abandoned files found in an empty Tameside office  containing highly personal details about the lives of vulnerable young people – including abuse survivors. Once again we fear we have seen the future of health and social care. Be afraid, be very afraid.

CGL- Tameside

 

                                                     Posted Truth

A source writes :

By way of obscure and tenuous response to you excellent ‘Post Truth’ contribution/blog

… I am sending you this ‘Posted Truth’ image… I reckon you could say it is both a statement of fact…. and a protest. (Which I obviously feel to be a good thing).

 

 

                                                       De-Stressed Eric 

A local barfly informs us :

Eric (Robinson) was recently seen in a pub in Liverpool when he should have been working – the pub being ‘Brew Dog’ dressed in casuals.
The council is no better than when we had the other 3 – it’s probably worse.

Now we can’t confirm whether Stressed Eric was on council duty or not whilst allegedly quaffing the craft ale – but we have to ask as to whether anyone would notice the difference ? Plus we simply don’t want to think about him dressed in his ‘casuals’.

Having said that we don’t need convincing that Wirral Council is worse than ever under his , ahem, ‘leadership’  As for ‘the other 3’ – whoever could they mean?!

       

                                               A Cautionary Tale

In Wirral Leaks Weekly Dispatch #2 we commented on recent developments where Mayor Joe Anderson was interviewed  by Merseyside Police ‘under caution’ in relation to the ongoing fraud probe involving Liverpool City Council CEO Ged Fitzgerald and others. We now hear of someone closer to home who it is alleged was also interviewed under caution by Merseyside Police in relation to an altogether different matter. However such are the extreme sensitivities surrounding this particular case we are precluded from reporting any further. Nevertheless we will be following developments with interest….

Another Blank Halliday

Lord Leaky’s Bullshit Detector is fully engaged.

Wirral Council workers must be breathing a huge sigh of relief as the second long weekend of May beckons. Shame it’s going to piss down tomorrow . But hey folks ! – at least you’re not in work on Monday.

We thought we’d leave this story for this weekend as it neatly book-ends the first May bank holiday story we ran and because that’s how we roll at Leaky Towers !

Blank Halliday

Accordingly this follow up is prompted by indomitable Wirral citizen Charles Nunn who’s still on the Stewart Halliday case. A Freedom of Information request about who exactly has the power to sign off a £188,000 employment contract whilst leaving the background checks to a recruitment agency  Matrix , who it would seem believe everything that’s written on a CV but don’t know how the interweb thingy works. This means they didn’t spot that the transformation guru had a chequered past with his previous employer – City of York Council (CYC) –  before hotfooting over the Pennines for a high chequed future in the desperado haven that is Wirral Council.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/who_authorised_the_appointment_o?nocache=incoming-980522#incoming-980522

Needless to say Wirral Council rather sneakily failed to answer Charles’ seemingly simple question . He asked who ‘authorised’ the shameful Halliday appointment. However they answered who had ‘overseen’ the appointment and , of course, failed to provide a name. Because we can’t upset Wirral council most senior snowflakes – after all we’re just here to pay their wages!

Consequently Charles asked us if we knew who could be the ‘ Council’s Senior Manager Transformation & Resources’  , but to be honest there are so many blighters with ‘Transformation’ in the title it could be any number of them. They’re like the ‘Transformers’ movie franchise but without the benefit of Megan Fox astride a motorbike. Children’s Services may not be able to recruit and retain staff but the ‘Transformers’ are everywhere.

We’d pin our money someone called Michele Duerden being Halliday’s authorisee as she is described as ‘Senior Manager Transformation and Improvement’ but we could be wrong . It could easily be Stephen Butterworth or Alan Evans . However we do note that Ms Duerden has just finished recruiting for a ‘Programme Manager ‘ ,  a post which is described thus:

This is an exciting new opportunity for an experienced programme manager to play a central role in delivering Transformation within Wirral Council. We have committed to the modernisation of services, and the delivery of improved operational efficiency and effectiveness. We are investing in digital infrastructure and capability to support business transformation as well as establishing a new change and business improvement capability.

The post-holder will be accountable for the management and development of programmes ensuring agreed outputs and outcomes are delivered. The role will ensure quality levels of delivery in line with the standards developed by the Programme Management Office (PMO).

As a PRINCE2 Practitioner you will drive an integrated, consolidated and consistent Council-wide approach to programme management, supported by the appropriate governance arrangements, processes and stakeholder engagement.

https://ww3.wirral.gov.uk/jobs/jobdetail.asp?VacancyID=7794&Other=

After reading that BS we’re no clearer as to what a Transformation ‘ Programme Manager’ actually does. Just as our friend Charles is none the wiser who’s signing the cheques for this latest expensive exercise in Emperor’s New Clothes. But hey ! – let’s not forget it keeps a lot of middle class no marks in gainful employment ……..and yet at the same time it’s everything that’s wrong with local government!

 

Critical Condition

 

As you must know by now we are (and have been) fierce critics of Wirral Council and their uncritical friends ( Local Government Association , Frank Field etc;) for some time.

However it is reassuring that some parts of Wirral’s mainstream media (i.e. Wirral Globe ), local bloggers and our regular correspondents not only have the gift of critical thinking they now have the means by which to express their thoughts.

Unfortunately those means of communication were not around when the power bases were formed which we believe are responsible for the critical condition that Wirral now finds itself in.

So here we find one of our valued Wirral Leaks correspondents Dr Robert B Smith giving us a brief introduction as to how we think we got to where we are and why we all need to challenge the ‘alternative facts’ peddled by the powers that be . As the redoubtable Dr Smith tells us , there’s a book to be written here – especially about missing monies. If he’s looking for a title might we suggest ‘ The Neverending Story’! – Wirral Leaks readers are invited to offer alternatives.

WIRRAL – a Critical Mass of attractions

WIRRAL COUNCIL – a Critical Mess of afflictions

As a recipient of one of then-Cllr Jim (Jumbo) Crabtree’s strident early morning emails at 2.35am, the Wirral Leaks piece reported in Private Eye regarding the exposure of his death threats to Cllr LRJ, prompted me to put a few thoughts together about Wirral Council and councillors.

To understand Wirral’s problems, and there are many, is to understand its history.

To understand Wirral Council’s problems, and there are many, is to understand its history.

Wirral Council should serve its residents, businesses and visitors, but has insidiously created the ‘insular peninsula’. Wirral Council is a stricken organisation, nationally acknowledged as an organisation where abnormal behaviour is so deeply embedded it is accepted as ‘normal’; and the organisation is in terminal decline. Wirral councillors, and chief officers now occupy a self-created netherworld. This is almost beyond comprehension in many ways as, unlike Chief and Senior officers, councillors do live in Wirral with the consequences of their actions, and presumably are friends and neighbours with Wirral residents, businesses and visitors. Maybe that defines peninsularity…or possibly vested interests?

And this is the critical factor that almost entirely divorces Wirral Council from the public it is supposed to serve. The concept of public service for the upper echelons of Wirral Council, both politicians and managers is a distant memory. Self-serving organisational protection is in full-flow, after gaining momentum over the last 15 years or so.

Wirral Council’s finances have been in free-fall since the early 1990s, although no-one in Wirral Council will admit it – but the evidence is all around in the media and archives. Gradually diminishing services, cloaked in desperate efforts to create an illusion of visionary leadership, is not actually about services. It is actually about survival of the organisation and those that significantly benefit from being part of it. That does not include Wirral’s residents, businesses and visitors.

Wirral Council’s self-perception, and its perception of Wirral (‘The Leisure Peninsula’), have led it until fairly recently to vehemently oppose any links to, or association with, Liverpool. This has changed more recently as a matter of necessity due to a now imposed concept, not at all understood by Wirral Council, of a city-region and its interdependences.

Strategic thinkers amongst senior officers are long gone. Over the years political self-interest and party-political power struggles of whatever political persuasion, have taken their toll, at the expense of a great many staff, and those Wirral Council is supposed to serve.

‘That was then, and this is now’. 7 words that embrace a few decades of disastrous planning, and financial management. If in fact there was any planning at all. Wirral residents, businesses and visitors are paying handsomely now, for what happened then. It is interesting to see which councillors were around then, and which are still around now.

When, in the late 1990s, a councillor states “this year’s budget is in a mess, but never mind. The Director of Finance will pull something out of the hat, he always does”. When successive years of budget cuts follow, it doesn’t take an Einstein to know there will be trouble ahead. Chase the regeneration grants…over £500,000,000 spent in Birkenhead by 2008…Wirral Council just walks away and allocates no additional revenue to maintain or run the new facilities. Just take a look around.

Wirral Council owes around £500,000,000 to private banks as a result of borrowing £137,000,000 from private banks between 2001 and 2008. No-one in Wirral Council appears to know where any of that money was allocated. Maybe no-one could find the hat any longer?

Parking charges…again. Another bankrupt idea from an almost bankrupt Council you may think? The Wirral Council mantra “We need to raise additional income.” “We’re having our grants cut again!” “We are the victims in this!”

Are they? And that is the key – the Council see themselves as ‘the victims in this’. It is actually Wirral residents, businesses, and visitors who are the victims.

Parking charges just keep creeping back in. It cost the Council in 2014/15 £119,000 to enforce parking penalties. So the good citizens of the borough are paying for the privilege of penalising parking offenders. However, a separate income line from the same year is ‘the full amount of Pay & Display parking income receipts banked by Wirral Council, £1,689,267’ – taken again from the good citizens of the borough.

Freedom of Information requests – one of which was asked about parking charges. How many requests are refused? There is a procedure called ‘the public interest test’. However, in Wirral it does not exist. What does exist is ‘the Council interest test’. Which is why so many refused Freedom of Information requests are overturned by the Information Commissioners Office.

From start to finish this is a very expensive process. If a request is overturned, then surely the ‘public interest test’ was ignored. How much public money is wasted by Wirral Council, defending the obviously indefensible? A ‘successful’ Freedom of Information request confirms that no records are kept…which appears to indicate there is a bottomless pit of money when the Council wants it to frustrate enquirers by refusing legitimate requests.

Then again £2,000,000 can also be magically produced when the Safeguarding Board isn’t up to the job, and £237,960 per year (with little sign of private sector income to offset the cost) public money to finance the ‘Wirral View’ of Wirral (seen through Wirral Council’s rose-tinted specs). They can’t be read at luncheon clubs now the minimal funding has been axed, can they?

Which brings me back to now. And the legacy of ‘that was then’. Only one of numerous examples…What price is being paid to service a debt of £500,000,000 owed to private banks by Wirral Council? At an average of 6% pa, around £8,000,000 per year (this is not the total of council borrowing by the way) with the final payments being made in 2078. Tell your kids and grandkids if you are in your 20s now – Wirral Council mortgaged all our futures just to save political skins.

What price is being paid by Wirral’s Council Tax and other tax payers? The price of political failure over decades. But the rewards to politicians and some senior officers have been significant. There are not many paid jobs where the serially inept are rewarded with such significant sums of money for continuous failure.

Do any occupants of positions in the upper echelons of Wirral Council management just ‘leave’ without an additional ‘package’ of some kind– if not, why not?

 

OH NO IT’S THE ICO!!!!!

OH NO IT’S THE ICO!!!!!

Well you could have knocked us all down with a ten-ton truck at Leaky Towers when we found out that the Information Commissioners Office had singled out Wirral as the only Local Authority in the country to be subject to close scrutiny between January – March 2013 .
A statement by UK Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said Wirral was selected for monitoring as it had failed to respond to 85% of FOI requests within the time limit of 20 working days and had exceeded the limit “by a significant margin on numerous occasions.”.

Full story here: http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/10124400.Information_Commissioner_puts_Wirral_Council_under_the_spotlight_over_FOI_failures/

Despite valiant attempts by Wirral Council to deflect their poor performance on the pesky and persistent Wirral public – they constantly miss the point that if Wirral Council was “open and transparent” in the first place then interested parties WOULD NOT HAVE TO RESORT TO FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUESTS !!!! (phew! – so pleased to have got that off our collective heaving bosom).

Luckily for us a transcript of a leaked tape of a conversation between a Freedom of Information Officer and a Council Manager clearly demonstrates how this regrettable situation may has arisen:

Freedom Of Information Officer (peeking round door): Coo-ee!, sorry to have to tell you but we’ve have had one of those damned annoying FOI requests and I’m afraid to say old chum but you’re in the frame for the 300th time this month –

Council Manager: Oh it’s soooo unfair!.What do they mistake me for?. A public servant?

FOI Officer: I know, I know. I do my best to ignore them and then Whatdotheyknow send me alerts and Councillors and MPs start pestering me – like they have a right to know how we run the show. I mean,really!!!!

Council Manager: Oh do come in and tell me how we can tell the blighters to bugger off.

FOI Officer: I’m not sure that we can – there’s a legal framework we have to comply with….

Council Manager: Really?,Legal requirements are not something Wirral Council usually concerns itself with, so what’s all this kerfuffle about ?.

FOI Officer: Well for a start the Information Commissioners Office says we jolly well need to pull our socks up…….

Council Manager: Well I’m sorry I don’t care who says so, they are not having the information and that’s jolly well that and they can stick that in their pipes and smoke it!…..

FOI Officer: But what excuse can I possibly give for not releasing information to which the public are legally entitled?

Council Manager: Er…. tell them my personal assistant is off sick

FOI Officer: What with?

Council Manager: Stress!

FOI Officer: Stress?.Filing her nails and making cups of tea can’t be that stressful surely ?.

Council Manager: Don’t be so insensitive!.She had to type all those redundancy notices

FOI Officer: What’s so stressful about that?

Council Manager: I fear that typing her own redundancy notice may have sent the poor dear over the edge…….. but anyway might I be so bold and say that’s a very pretty dress you’re wearing.

FOI Officer (blushing) : Why thank you kind sir, I got it in the Next sale, I queued for 4 hours on Boxing Day morning in the hope that I would get a compliment from someone as well appointed as yourself  …… (pauses pensively) ……Now hang on a minute I will not be distracted quite so easily like you did last time I asked you for information.You ended up telling me that a UFO had just landed on the steps of Wallasey Town Hall.

Council Manager: I swear it’s these bi-focals.How is it my fault if I can’t tell the difference between an empty crisp packet and an interplanetary space craft?

FOI Officer: OK,OK…. your faultless logic has worn me down and therefore in my fearless quest to serve the public good I will allow you a slight delay in responding.How long do you want?

Council Manager: Six months

FOI Officer: Six months???!….

Council Manager:  Just enough time to get a pay-off, sign a Compromise Contract and get the fuck out of here quick before I’m rumbled…….

FOI Officer: Cripes! ( Thinks: must go back to Next and see if they’ve still got that matching jacket for my dress).

Transparency, Accountability And The Rewards Of Failure.

We note the new regime of openness and transparency is as well oiled a machine as the previous regime.  Some things never change, and one can only assume the two officers (Nora Loone and Nike Fowla) mentioned in the Freedom of Information request below were paid HUGE amounts of public money to bugger off and keep quiet, and that Wirral Council has something to hide. Why else would they not comply with such a simple request?

Check out the tortuous process concerned members of the public have to go through to see how WBC spend tax payers money.  Are they morons ?  Well yes.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/dass_recent_departure_of_two_sen#outgoing-200932

The Blind Leading The Bland – Wirral Council FOI Requests.

Lots of interesting FOI requests here.

 http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/dass_staff_suspensions_2011#outgoing-161774  

Apparently only two Wirral employees have been suspended this year despite all of the bad reports etc. 

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/staff_suspensions_dass_2006_2010#incoming-223026  

The information on previous suspensions fails to disclose when senior officers were suspended.  

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/agency_social_work_value_for_mon#outgoing-162061  

They appear to spend a lot on agency social workers too which are expensive after getting rid of 29 exerienced to replace them with Social care burger flippers.

 They are also coy when it comes to revealing who will be looking at their CQC improvements

 http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/cqc_implementation_plan_monitori#outgoing-155643  

And they  refuse to reveal how they are getting on with their milestones

 http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/cqc_improvement_plan_milestones#outgoing-155625

 Here’s another with regard to social work agency costs being much higher than social workers. No wonder they have a huge deficit!

 http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/agency_social_work_value_for_mon#outgoing-162061