Lady Leader

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…

An UnSatoorsfactory Appointment

Needless to say we were given the heads up about Paul Satoor being made Interim CEO of Wirral Council before the last Employment and Appointments Committee confirmed the appointment

Also needless to say we understand that the current Wirral Council CEO Eric ‘Feeble’ Robinson now isn’t working his 3 month notice and is hastily taking up his new appointment as CEO of the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) on July 16th. It’s all very much a case of : ” I’m a nonentity – get me out of here”

How ironic that someone who repeatedly turned a blind eye to the abuse of power at Wirral Council is the now head of the national organisation who are meant to be protecting the vulnerable from abuse.  It doesn’t augur well does it? But hey! that’s how things work in backward Britain these days . The bland leading the blind.

Meanwhile we thought we’d check out Stressed Eric’s successor…or more accurately his Wirral Leaks rap sheet and see what Satoor is bringing to the party. And it’s not a lot if you ask us. It’s the usual case of :  “Use what you know to get what you want” (see also – Burgess, Adderley, Degg, Downey, Green, Armstrong, Blott etc;etc;)

For starters he was up to his neck in the Halliday debacle . No wonder Stressed Eric stressed that no-one was going to take the rap for this particular dereliction of due diligence. No doubt the rubicund public servant was too busy lining up his successor whilst standing behind the shredder and preparing  his press statement about how it all happened before he was appointed when the proverbial hits the fan. And it will dear reader. Oh, believe us, it will…

 

Pip Pops Off : A Wirral Leaks Tribute

Before we provide you with our post local election reflections we need to commemorate that a week ago today the Annual Meeting of Wirral Council saw the  end of an era (pronounced error) as Phil ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies’ tenure as council ‘leader’ officially ceased.

Here at Wirral Leaks we couldn’t let the momentous event pass without providing our own fitting tribute to a ‘man’ who given the choice between right and wrong would always choose the latter option . In our opinion this didn’t make him a political game player it just made him weak. A man who always seemed uncomfortable with ‘leadership’ being thrust upon him after the ignominious fall from grace of that consummate political game player Cllr Steve ‘Foulkesy’ Foulkes  in 2012, in the aftermath of a series of damning reports. This is how we commented on his ascendancy to the top of Wirral Council’s greasy pole:

As we were to subsequently find out if Power Boy Pip (as he was to become known to Wirral Leaks readers) excelled at anything it was ‘denial’. At this point we’d like to take a leaf out of Kipling’s ‘Just So’ stories and pose the question : ‘How did ‘Power Boy Pip’ get his name?’ Well, thereby hangs a tale from 2013 which you can read here where we mocked how Pip invested in himself ‘Strong leader powers’ and a Cabinet system that screamed weakness. A council criticised for its secrecy becomes less open and transparent,  a council criticised for its lack of accountability concentrates its power in someone who abuses it ,  a council criticised for the conduct of its elected members lets its councillors run amok  as George Davies, Louise Reecejones, Jim Crabtee and Steve Foulkes show their contempt for their ‘leader’ with their out of control conduct and yet somehow Pip only publicly criticises Reecejones – go figure .

We nailed it in our We Leak, Pip Squeaks  post when we wrote :

Of course we believe that ultimately what what will do for Power Boy Pip is his failure to rein in Cllrs  Steve Foulkes and George Davies and to stand up to Birkenhead MP Frank Field over the Wirralgate scandal. These are not the actions of a leader – this is a man out of his depth clutching onto a red flag of convenience and not waving but drowning………………

Pip was never a leader but always the ‘front man’ –  a turd-polishing pollyanna . The pinnacle of this ‘achievement’ being Local Government Chronicle’s ‘ Most Improved Council’ Award in 2015.

Needless to say Pip took his cue from the ne plus ultra of local political game players, Frank Field, who as we know , has spent 4 decades surrounding himself with ugly bullies and useful idiots . Conveniently Pip was to find many of both, not only in his own party but in the paid ranks of public servants at Wirral Council. However where Pip really began to become unstuck was the alliance made in hell (via West Kirby) with his infamous appointment of politically motivated spin doctor Martin Liptrot to whatever job ‘Liptrotsky’ wanted. The pitiful correspondence from Liptrot to the Council ‘leader’ dictating terms of his  grace and (political) favour employment was pitiful to behold and further evidence of Pip’s reliance on others to sustain him in power. This episode and further details of this disastrous appointment can be read in The Liptrot Mystery.

This reliance on the bad will of others has meant that the past 7 years have been one one long pay off party for some really horrible senior council officers . The routine seemed to be –  Inept? Here’s a cheque. Inept and knowing –  here’s a bigger cheque. Inept , knowing and prepared to do Pip’s dirty work (Hey, Joe  name your price!…)

Compare and contrast that with the fact that throughout his tenure as ‘leader’ (and even before that…) there wasn’t a Wirral Council whistleblower he wasn’t prepared to screw over. Except, of course, the one set of  bogus , so called Wirralgate ‘whistleblowers’ who had him over a barrel and could shaft him at the drop of a tape recording. Luckily for him he had those ‘special leader powers’ to get him out of a deeply corrupt hole of his own making by deciding to bring the Highways contract back in house and give Gary’s Gang what they wanted all along.  Obviously when the hired hands with their hands on the ‘record’ button it’s time to go visit your grandkids in Canada. For more details read here

So many unanswered questions and it shames councillors of all parties that Pip was allowed to quietly depart without them ever being asked. We never did hear the end of the Wirralgate saga did we ? The one that led to front page news stories, and an ‘independent’ investigation that has never seen the light of day ? But oh, believe us before we go you will dear reader!…

Typically, Pip isn’t around to see whether any of the 20 pledges in his much lauded 20/20 Vision thing are ever realised in 2020. Funny how we don’t hear about the pledges anymore isn’t it? There was a time when it seemed that every Labour councillor had to preface every utterance with reference to ‘pledges’ . Could it be that it was all complete bollocks and another reason Pip bailed out before the 20/20 Vision was, to mix a metaphor with a bit of the Bard,  proven to be the usual smoke and mirrors signifying nothing?

However whilst Pip will be gone he will not forgotten as the last ever Leaky Awards will be known as Pip Memorial Awards for Public Dishonour – winners to be announced in a glittering awards ceremony hosted by Pip beneficiaries – the Wirral Chamber of Commerce.

With our nasty head on (do we have any other? ) we were going to wish Pip a very short retirement but we suspect that as he merrily frolics with the Davies clan in Canada and he’s finally free of a position to which he was manifestly unsuited that the red suffused face ( part high blood pressure/part embarrassment) will be replaced by the rosy glow of contentment of knowing that he managed to blag it for so long.

Finally …do we have an extradition treaty with Canada ? Askin’ for a friend!

A Blott on the Wirral Political Landscape

We had one of our wanting to bang our head against the wall moments when we’ve been reading, one year on from our Spot the Blott  and Blott’s Pension Pot stories, that mainstream media are suddenly outraged that last year former Wirral Council  Super Director turned Managing Director of Delivery Joe Blott bagged a cool half a million plus of Wirral council taxpayers money.

The outrage was sparked by Taxpayer’s Alliance annual report of highly paid public servants and this was the headline in the Daily Mail :

Needless to say the local press also belatedly gegged in on the story although the Liverpool Echo studiously avoided mentioning Blott by name. We were alerted to the fact that Tom Houghton did a bit of shit-stirring and sent his cut and paste job for the Liverpool Echo to the Crimewatch Wirral Facebook  page:

Of course we know that what lies behind the payment IS A CRIME and  we’d’ve thought an ambitious young journalist or local government basher the Daily Mail would want to investigate the matter further. Curiously neither want to question how a complete nonentity like Blott wheedles and schemes himself into a position where Wirral Council have no choice but to hand over massive wedges of public money.

Needless to say we have no qualms about joining the dots , making the connections and revealing how this truly appalling situation came about especially when ,for us, Blott has become the personification of the modern public servant  – where protecting the powerful takes precedence over protecting the public purse and the public interest…

 

The Twelve Days of Christmas : Day Eleven – The Otter/Blott Incident

Joe Blott – the former Wirral Council Super Duper Director who inspired such admiration and reverence. 

When not gallantly attending Wirral Council meetings and recording the goings on for posterity it would appear that John Brace has taken to attending and reporting on Tribunal hearings. Up until now the cases have been fairly humdrum but we just had to comment on the latest featuring a certain ‘Leyland Otter’ v Wirral Borough Council.

Read more here: Senior Manager at Wirral Council dismissed for gross misconduct for email about Joe Blott

Now we didn’t know whether ‘Leyland Otter’ was an alias referencing a Beatrix Potter character – or if the definitions on Urban Dictionary are anything to go by – the best gay porn name ever! But no! apparently Mr Otter was Chief Investment Officer at Merseyside Pension Fund which is administered by Wirral Council.

However it would appear that Otter came a cropper by making offensive remarks about former Wirral Council Super Duper Director Joe Blott which inadvertently found their way to Blott via Mr Otter’s friend Mr H (we don’t know if this is the fella from Steps but nothing would surprise us in this astonishing story ). For those who are interested to find out what a toxic and dysfunctional organisation Wirral Council is, was and always will be it will be really informative to read the Tribunal decision notice here

More specifically Otter’s offensive comments read as follows :

“FMBI
Nigbo’s witch doctors voodoo spell on Blotto seems to be working quicker than I anticipated!

Hope the CUNT is in the primary stages of inoperable brain bum hole and liver cancer and that his demise is lingering and agonising which is no more than that deceitful, lying corrupt piece of SHIT OVERPAID FUCKING CUNT deserves!

We will finish the FUCKING TWAT off when we incinerate the CUNT on BONNYNIGHT!

Hope you are practicing the dance and chant that I forward to you from NIGBO’S WITCHDOCTOR.

FMB The Marsh will be wondering WTF IS going on in the garden when we get going….like the LAST ONE with NSG although…..mind you….he might have found something to WARM HIMSELF UP avin GREAT SEX in the compost heap(s) or out in the Jigger!”.

Oh dear that’s not very nice is it ? But then we can’t say we’re particularly sympathetic to ‘Blotto’ as as far as we’re concerned he and current Wirral Council CEO David Armstrong are the senior officers most complicit and collusive in the biggest cover up in Wirral Council history and therefore, whilst not condoning some of the Anglo- Saxon language, we can certainly agree with the ‘corrupt’ bit. But then what does Blotto care about how he’s perceived by his former colleagues with his record breaking £390,000 pay-off , which ironically included pension contributions?

Meanwhile if his Freedom of Information requests are anything to go by (read here ) we’re sure Mr Otter would have some interesting information concerning the administration of the Merseyside Pension Fund and particularly about the chair of Pensions Committee and soon to be ex -councillor Paul Doughty. Hopefully he knows where we are…

Fieldwatch 4 : ‘Vulgarity is the conduct of other people…’

The Blott,Pip & Addled Caption Competition – answers to Wirralleaks @gmail.com

Vulgarity is the conduct of other people, just as falsehoods are the truths of other people – Oscar Wilde

We’re really sorry we started this but since we’ve been monitoring the local and national media appearances since Birkenhead’s Labour MP Frank Field became an ‘independent’ we could make Wirral Leaks a wall-to-wall Frankenfield-fest…but ain’t nobody got time for that.

However there are a couple of stories which have caught our attention this week which we think highlight his hypocrisies.

First up we have Field seeing fit to comment on the Daily Mail non- story Fury after Bake Off Sue compares PM to ‘s*** on a shoe’

The story concerns Sue Perkins ,ex Great British Bake Off presenter and leading media figure from the LGBTQXYZ community – we really try and keep up with the latest acronyms but apologies if this is not quite right – and her less than flattering assessment of Brexit in general and Theresa May in particular on a late night TV programme ‘The Last Leg’ on Channel 4 that about half a dozen people accidentally watch after they’ve got in from the pub. In response to the question How do you think Theresa May has handled this week? Do you admire her?’ Perkins replied :

‘In the same way I admire s*** on a shoe in that it endures and no amount of using a twig on it or power-hosing it will remove it, so her ability to cling on is the stuff of legend and I don’t want it near me.’

The Daily Mail reported :

Conservative and Labour politicians reacted with fury to the comments yesterday, including Ministers who demanded an apology from the star.

MP Frank Field said: ‘There is a worrying trend in public life that people are getting more and more obscene and violent in their comments and are being allowed to get away with it. What Sue Perkins said crosses the line. Channel 4 and other broadcasters should not let her on again.’

We’d have thought there were more pressing matters for MPs to comment on at the moment but it does allow us to reiterate a point we’ve made before about powerful politicians. Frankenfield, in particular, seems to be cursed with the delicate sensibility of a Victorian maiden aunt forever being offended by the vulgarity and lack of deference of the ‘others’ towards their ‘superiors’. But then Frankenfield has always had a particularly low threshold about what he considers ‘obscene’ . We must tell you ‘The Mary Whitehouse Story’ one day which concerns a poem the anti-obscenity campaigner once showed Field which described Jesus Christ having sexual intercourse with Mary Magdalene. Apparently he’s never got over it…but we’ll save that one for another time.

However back to the point that we wanted to make. We believe that  Conservative and Labour politicians reacting with ‘fury’ to the Perkins’  ‘shit on a shoe’ comment is all about powerful people wanting to control the language,control the political discourse and ultimately control everything. It’s not only as though freedom of expression doesn’t exist – and some might say it doesn’t- but as an expression of righteous anger goes it’s a far cry from the actions of France’s gilets jaunes!

We’re left wondering whether Perkins first encountered this earthy expression when mixing with Wirral Council reps at the Local Government Chronicle awards in 2015 ?

As we know ,since the picture above was taken Kevin Adderley and Joe Blott have left the Wirral Council ‘shoe’ courtesy of being power-hosed off with vast amounts of public money whilst council ‘leader’ Cllr Phil ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies is scraping himself off before he’s kicked to the kerb. Unfortunately the stain they all leave behind will be indelible and forever stink to high heaven.

As far we’re concerned another quote published this week by a different  national newspaper about their making Universal Credit work campaign (to which we not be providing a link) demonstrates the further hypocrisies at play:

Frank Field MP, Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, also congratulated The S*n on its campaign.

Might we suggest that for many people on Merseyside any association with the tawdry rag following its campaign of hate after the Hillsborough disaster is more worthy of the word ‘obscene’ than a pottymouthed celebrity putdown of the PM.

Good Advice

Such is the sage advice we receive on a daily basis we really should do a ‘ Wirral Leaks’ self  help book.

Chapter 1 would be about the ruling administration at Wirral Council taking themselves down the steps at the back of Wallasey Town Hall and throwing themselves into the River Mersey. If this is a hate crime we are proud to say we are guilty as charged.

However in the mean time we publish the recent contributions we have received that we feel the need to share in the public interest.

First off we follow up our Wirral Council Have Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two… with this pertinent advice :

Dear Sirs,

I have as well as many other businesses received a letter stating that I will be fined if I do not process my business waste via their channels.

I urge all businesses to send the letter back minus their name and address to the sender of the letter stating that in future we do not want their waste!

Regards

Next up we have some advice from down south (not a euphemism) as we know when something is kicking off when we get loads of hits on a long lost post.On this particular occasion it is our updates on the progress of infamous local government cheque collector Anna Klonowski . You know the one , she flew in to Wirral ,made a killing telling us what we already knew  that Wirral Council was a basket case and offering absolutely nothing to rectify the situation she moved on to her next lucrative gig ticking the boxes of mutual mediocrity along the way – for cold hard cash of course.

However it has been revealed that another pay-off of almost £100,000 made by Bristol City Council to its former chief executive ‘the Blessed Anna’ was not a contractual obligation, according to auditors.

Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees insisted Anna Klonowski was entitled to the cash when she left in September 2017.

But the council’s auditors said it was “inappropriate” for the authority to say the payment was contractual. Read full story here : Bristol council’s £98k payout to chief exec ‘not obligatory’

So can we advise when Wirral Council wants to pay off the likes of  Webb, Noone, Fowler, Maddox, Coleman, Wilkie,Adderley ,Burgess, Degg ( we always put these 3 together – we can’t think why!) , Fish, Hassall, Blott, Norman, Lyon  etc; etc; they need to act in the public interest and remember the words :

NOT OBLIGATORY 

However we’ll leave the last word to ‘our betters ‘ at Wirral Chamber of Commerce  and particularly their Chair, Sandra Kirkham aka ‘Our San’, who advises us lesser mortals in a Tweet from last month:

Whilst is looks as though San has also attended the ‘Sybil Fawlty School of Statin’ The Bleedin’ Obvious’, along with Anna Klonowski, it would also appear her message about skills and what we do in schools is somewhat undermined by the fact that she (or whoever writes Wirral Chamber of Commerce’s tweets) doesn’t seem to know the difference between ARE and OUR…

 

 

A Sticky End?

Sticky Change : Fridge magnets made flesh.

As we said yesterday in our Spot the Blott post we do like to follow the progress of former Wirral Council alumni who have graced (and disgraced) our pages. Fortunately for us (and unfortunately for them ) there are correspondents around the country – and particularly from Bristol, Hereford, York and  Sandwell – who have kept us informed of  Wirral Council’s cast-offs and how they carry on regardless of any scandals or scrapes they’ve been involved in beforehand. However it would appear that we have a particular keen following in Cheshire East. Thanks mainly to the travels and travails of Wirral Council ‘s former head of law – the infamous Bill Norman.

Firstly we hear that there are currently no less than SIX ( count ’em) police investigations concerning Tory led Cheshire East Council. Read more here : Cheshire East police investigations

Kudos to the Cheshire Constabulary for actually taking allegations of Council corruption seriously which is more than be said of Merseyside Police who are seemingly too lazy and/or too busy exchanging funny handshakes and going to the confessional box to be bothered investigating legitimate concerns about Wirral Council . We’ll be interested to know whether the mud will stick and there will be a sticky end for Cheshire East councillors and council officers.

However particular thanks go out to  “A member of ItsRandom the Wirralleaks franchise in Cheshire East”  who sends us this particularly interesting missive concerning Mr Norman and the use of Wirral based consultants ‘Sticky Change’. Now we know that ‘ Sticky Change’ may sound like an old Wirral Leaks headline from the days when we were covering stories about Wirral Council senior management sex romps but this change management consultancy firm website reads like satire to us : Sticky Change .  Their ‘Our Values’ page has to be seen to believed (and sorry we don’t believe any of it). Any one who uses the word ‘ Passionate’ to describe the process of making money is to be viewed with great suspicion as far as we’re concerned. And as for the ‘ look at my backside’ quip – oh do give over ! It’s more a case of all my arse as far as we’re concerned.We’re not sure whether Wirral Council have ever used ‘Sticky Change’ (perhaps somebody would like to enquire) . Meanwhile read this and weep :

Wirral Council and Cheshire East Council have far more in common than anyone realises, so its little wonder that whistle blowing staff and residents are in fear of speaking out. Bill Norman left his mark at both Councils, but the blame lies with those that allowed his appointment…..and they are the ones which always keep their jobs. When Councils appoint people like Bill Norman they know exactly what they are getting. Cheshire East and Wirral Council are not alone in appointing expendable people to take the flack when wrongdoing is exposed. 

Corporate organisations like to appoint people who share the values of the company, but what happens when the people at the top of an organisation not only tolerate wrongdoing but potentially reward employees via promotion for allowing it to happen. With these type of organisation all employees are seen as expendable. In fact to the people at the very top of many public sector organisations the sacrificing of employees is little more than a snake sacrificing its own skin – it means nothing because its still a snake. 

 

In fact looking at Bill Normans work history at other councils I would be amazed if Cheshire East Councils didn’t provide details of the payoff and compromise agreement as part of the employment contract for new starters. Most organisations want honest consciousness employees, but Cheshire East Council see these employees as potential whistle blowers and manage (bully) them out. 

 

Sticky Change…….

I feel Cheshire East Council spending over £150,000 to bring in a consultancy firm called Sticky Change in order to help the authority tackle its ‘bullying’ culture is more about creating good PR to fool the public into believing that the leopard really wants to change its spots. It was reported that Sticky Change worked with Everton Football club and this might help explain my point. 

 

Football is a results based business, and even when the decision was made by Everton FC to bring in Sticky Change the directors knew that the manager would still be the one picking the team to play a 442 system. It wont be any different at Cheshire East Council.

As Cheshire East Council seem committed to at least appear to be drag their reputation from out of the sewers then perhaps they would answer the question I made a week ago:

The real question is when did Sticky Change work with Torbay Council – before, during, or after Bill Normans employment with Torbay Council?

This is very important because Cheshire East Council need to be aware that the decision to choose Sticky Change as external consultants should be open to public scrutiny.

• Sticky Change previously worked at Torbay Council and it is important to know if this was before, during, or after Bill Normans time with the council? If it was during or after Bill Normans time with Torbay Council then Bill Norman and Sticky Change may have a connection. 

• The fact that CEC didn’t mention Torbay Council in their press release when naming who else Sticky Change had previously worked with seemed strange, so was it a deliberate omission to avoid drawing attention to any potential link?
  

• Just months after the departure of Bill Norman from Cheshire East Council it was announced that Sticky Change would be brought in to tackle the bullying culture. So how and when did CEC first look at using the services of Sticky Change and did his overlap with Bill Normans time at CEC?

• Sticky Change are based on the Wirral and whilst working at Wirral Council its believed that Bill Norman also lived on the Wirral (Bill might have continued to live on the Wirral whilst working at CEC). Given the points above and Bill Normans very close geographical relationship to Sticky Change on the Wirral there is a possibility that there is a connection/relationship between Bill Norman and Sticky Change. What steps have CEC taken to ensure that the decision to use Sticky Change (and their independence) will stand up to public scrutiny?

I cant speak on behalf of other people but I don’t think I would be comfortable discussing the bullying culture at CEC with consultants from Sticky Change if the above points remain unanswered. The fact that CEC didn’t seem to carry out any due diligence when appointing Bill Norman means how can anyone be sure that it wasn’t Bill Norman that recommended CEC to bring in Sticky Change?

Sticky Change (Consultants) Ltd

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05084024/filing-history

Sticky Change (Partners) Ltd

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05070937/officers

Spot the Blott

Joe Blott : Laughing all the way to the bank …….and at our expense.

As we exclusively revealed in February (2016) Wirral Council Super – Duper Director Joe Blott is about to escape. Most appropriately the article featured a ticking clock as we can only imagine that Blott must be counting the seconds until his exit as he knows all too well that the proverbial is about to hit the fan. Read more here :The Final Countdown

OK it’s been two years but it seems that it’s finally time to say : so farewell then Joe Blott – the last of the infamous Super Duper Directors appointed by failed Wirral Council CEO Graham ‘Burgesski’ Burgess.  Although you won’t be surprised to hear that Blott’s £390K bung is identified in the topsy-turvy world of Wirral Council as a ‘saving’.

The summary of costs in relation to above are as follows:

BLOTT’S BUNG
Severance	£93,412.60
Employer cost	£296,763.43
Total	£390,176.03
Annual Saving	£158,300.82
Recovery period	29.53months

To which we can only say  – “Oh it’s a saving all right – but of who’s skin?” because as we anticipated the proverbial may be FINALLY about to hit the fan!

Following on from the departure of previous failed Super Duper Directors Kevin ‘ Addled’ Adderley and Clare ‘Wet’ Fish we have to ask ourselves what did we get for our money?  Er ,not a lot ! From what we can gather Adderley was utterly appalling on every level except when it came to a left hook, Fish flailed around in shallow waters and laid the foundation for the inadequate rating of Children’s Services by Ofsted and as for Blott , well , Joe seems to have avoided blotting his copybook by being the chief co-ordinator of Wirral Council cover ups. But is that what we pay public servants to do? Are they there to serve us or their political paymasters?

Blott will forever be known by us for his infamous quote: ” No comment”  – Sorry  but you said it Joe and then lied about it to investigator Patricia Thynne and what’s more the ‘Wirralgate’ complainants have (yet another) recording to prove it !

He will also be known by the repeated use of the phrases : ” I can’t recall” and ” I have no recollection”  – which proves either  a)  a pre-requisite of a senior manager at Wirral Council is selective amnesia or b) Blott has early onset dementia

Nevertheless and needless to say we predict that with his connections and the favours he’s dealt Blott will find a nice little niche somewhere after his long anticipated but hastily arranged departure. We wonder if the previously alleged delayed hook-up with Labour councillor Paul Doughty will finally materialise ? See here : Blott’s Pension Pot

Of course , as we have done with many ex-Wirral Council employees who have previously featured on Wirral Leaks , we will be regularly checking where Blott pops up next . Any information will be gratefully received and it will be your chance to win a pair of Joe Blott endorsed ‘Personality Lifts’ – shoe inserts that will make the vertically challenged feel really, really important .

Life’s short but you don’t have to be!

Mark your entries ‘Spot the Blott’ and send to wirralleaks@gmail.com

 

A Blott On The Lauries

Set out below is the (feeble) response to a complaint from Wirral Council Super Duper Director Joe Blott to the long running ‘The Lauries’ story . Blott is, laughably,allowed to describe himself as a ‘Managing Director’ of Wirral Council. As far as we’re concerned this inadequate little man will always represent to us everything that is wrong with local government. How did we get to the stage where we reward ‘public servants’ with six figure salaries – not to serve the public – but to advance their careers by protecting a   public institution’s reputation?

And if Blott wants to complain to us  directly – can we suggest he does so from a legitimate email address  Blotto?

We offer in evidence that Blott will soon be on his way out of Wirral Council with a £390,000 reward for what exactly ?  Certainly his role in helping cover up the Wirralgate scandal will no doubt have helped his cause (and particularly his participation in the first Thynne investigation and dealing with the aftermath of the second one).

However the background to Blott’s  Lauries response can be found here :

The Sorry Story of The Lauries

The Sorry Story of The Lauries Part Two

However this is his final kiss-off for Wirral Council . What a luxury it must be to treat those who have paid your overinflated wages for years with such utter contempt and drag out an ‘investigation ‘ for as long as you can. By the time this reaches the Local Government Ombudsman – he’ll be long gone.

Now we’re not legally qualified to comment on much of this response but the fact that even Blott concedes that Wirral Council have allowed trustees to act ‘de son tort’ is deeply worrying as it would appear that Wirral Council and their agents have allowed trustees to act wrongfully : https://thelawdictionary.org/de-son-tort/

But then when it comes to Wirral Council it’s a case of  : ‘plus ca change ,plus c’est la meme chose!’