Tales from the Chamber : Annual General Meeting

The Wirral Chamber of Commerce (WCoC) AGM kicks off any minute now so we’d provide an alternative to the formalities. No doubt with their local connections the Chamber must feel as though they have gold plated protection from criticism from either us or the growing number of aggrieved former employees. However perhaps they’ll take more notice of their own ‘strategic partners’ –  well they are for now anyway!-  who have been getting in touch. It comes to something when their quite happy to share the Chamber’s  audited statutory accounts , revised Articles of Association and the agenda for the AGM. We wouldn’t want to spoil the excitement of tonight’s meeting by publishing them in advance but we would like publish this comment made by one of our sources about the accounts:

Chamber accounts……..less an income and expenditure statement which the

directors would rather not disclose!!!!!!

Moreover here’s a unique insight into how WCoC operates from one of their  ‘strategic partners’ which we guarantee won’t be aired at tonight’s meeting :

I work for a company who are strategic partners with the WCoC.

Well we are until the renewal date and then we will be leaving all together. What a disgrace. On more than one occasion we have used the cafe in the Lauries for dinner and seen the “Golden Girls” Paula Basnett, Kate Eugini, Sara Davies and I forget the other names, sat there drinking wine in the afternoon.

However, the main reason for my email is the Construction Forum run by Sara Davies. The summer forum saw us all at Thornton Hall Hotel (who were excellent by the way). The guest list was pure VIP!! Muse, YPG and Peel all there. Of course it was hard to speak to them because they were placed on a table at the front guarded by the “Golden Girls”. Did I mention the “Golden Girls” were necking bottles of Prosecco on the “Chamber” tab???? I saw 6 and I left at 7pm so God knows how many they had. Muse and Peel, once again, failed to answer any questions and “our chamber” failed to ask any questions.

“60% OF THE WORKFORCE MUST BE LOCAL!!”

Paula Basnett told me that she would be personally overseeing this!!! That’s a bit like Harvey Weinstein saying he will look after your wife!!!

I then attended the Construction Forum last month. Sara Davies promised the world, YPG, Carrol Build, Peel!! None turned up obviously, but then why would they when they had already told her they were not. They were placed there to attract people to the forum, which was awful!! “A talk from Jonathan Quinn”. Wow!!! I wont be slagging that gentleman off but let’s face it he brings nothing to the table does he!!!

I have also seen the 2 best members of the chamber staff leave (Lisa Furlong and my favorite Heather Heaton!!!). They both left having a gripe with the chamber!!!

They need new management!! And they need to start working FOR Wirral businesses!!!

Tales From The Chamber : Chapter 2 – Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes…

Wirral Chamber CEO Princess Paula and new Chair Sandra Kirkham

As the late,great David Bowie once sang ‘Ch-ch-ch-ch -changes…’ have been afoot at Wirral Chamber of Commerce (WCoC) this week. We’ll leave you to judge whether they’re for the better.

First of all there’s the news that Kate Eugeni has been appointed as the new WCoC ‘Visitor Economy lead’ ( and if someone can tell us WTAF that means we’d be grateful)

http://www.wirralchamber.co.uk/Press-and-PR/News/Wirral-Chamber-announces-Kate-Eugeni-as-its-new-Visitor-Economy-lead/

A WCoC insider has contacted Wirral Leaks to comment on this particular appointment and commented as follows:

Because of course Kate has a background in the Visitor Economy. Ffs.

Headline states she’s ‘new visitor lead’ when she’s been appointed as Director of Visitor Economy.

Who’s budget is she being paid from? How many members in the visitor economy exist in Wirral, is it enough to pay her salary and deliver outputs?!

Has the council given money to the chamber to deliver on these outputs? And isn’t Lucy Barrow the lead for Visitor Economy in Wirral?

All valid questions but they need to be put in the context that the poor love once had to return from a Christmas break skiing in France with her father only to find that a treasured sculpture had disappeared from her garden . Can we please just imagine the sheer horror of that situation for a moment? #prayforsuperlambanana

Stolen Superlambanana

Did we mention that Ms Eugeni’s father is, of course , former Parks hamper magnate,Tranmere Rovers owner and current tax exile Peter Johnson. We don’t have to tell you how this insular peninsula nepotism shit works again once again do we?

Meanwhile another source tells us :

Worth noting that another chamber member left this week. ‘An agreement’ was reached and she left straight away. Lisa Furlong was the only person on the Enterprise team who actually had any knowledge of running a business and who was credible to offer business advice. 

Good luck Warren Ward

But the big announcement was the appointment of Sandra Kirkham as the new Chair of WCoC following on from Asif ‘Massive’ Hamid, who having squeezed every bit of financial advantage out of the role, has moved on to pastures even more lucrative as Chair of Liverpool Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

We’ve a bulging file on the previous exploits of Ms Kirkham but her profile hasn’t been big enough . But as this promo video shows it is now :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_4xDpjHMZA

Now as you know we try not to judge at Wirral Leaks but the most interesting aspect we gleaned from the promo, amid the corporate BS,was the fact that ‘Our San’ is a Kylie Minogue fan. But then, let’s face it ,she would be wouldn’t she?

As we can exclusively reveal here are ‘Our San’s Top Five Inspirational Kylie Minogue Tunes’ for Wirral’s business community :

Theme tune : Better The Devil You Know  (even if it’s Kevin Adderley)

I Should Be So Lucky ( to be ‘best buds’ or related to Princess Paula) 

Especially For You ( Duet with Cllr Phil Davies) (but mainly for us)

Spinning Around (spin is what we do – get over it)

Can’t Get You Out Of My Head (but if you sign a non-disclosure agreement it would help)