Cramlington Conservatives

 May sound like the cavalry, they may smell like the cavalry but if they act like the cavalry they will end up like ‘Custer’?

Wanye Daley. The Northumberland County Councillor closest in thinking to Leon Griffiths the fantastic writer of the story ‘Minder’ which contained the character with a doppelganger surname Arthur Daley has appeared in this blog on a number of occasions covering the comedy of errors he has been in charge of at County Hall in Morpeth.

Most recently we asked the question about his resignation from the Cabinet led by the beleaguered and very avoidable Councillor Peter Jackson as to whether Wayne was lying in wait ready to pounce and devour him in order to race to the top of the pile and fulfil his dreams.

Cllr. Daley has managed to cluster his troops in Cramlington and tell the public through the press how he cannot support his Ceausescu style Leaders actions.

We hear his Leader asks different questions and makes contrasting statements regarding Councillor Daley’s antics when speaking behind his back, his closest allies now feel thoroughly let down by Daley’s actions. The disquiet revolves around the complete lack of achievement surrounding the bravado statements Daley has made since 2017 including his early desertion of the wreck known as Advance Northumberland (but more of that in another blog). Daley’s failures are enormous and when the investigations of the County Council cease will go down in history as HUGE by public sector standards.

Wayne Daley promised to seriously improve and raise educational standards in Northumberland. We haven’t noticed them yet Wayne?.

He meddled with educational clusters in the West to develop an ‘I know best one system for one County’ model and has pulled down the Tory votes of many of his colleagues from Prudhoe and Wylam in the east right along to the North Pennine wards in the West. The strong team of protesters known as ‘STARS’ will never forgive his interference and we know Peter Jackson won’t.

His reinvention of Post 16 travel arrangements has increased each year since its reintroduction and if taken on Months used considering the lockdown period is now much more costly to the ratepayer than in 2014 when Tory Government budget cuts forced a rethink of cost onto the last Labour administration to save services and jobs.

But his biggest mess so far is Hexham High School and its runaway costs to be covered by the County Council and it’s a school they are not involved with at all, its an academy, the estimate so far is over £4m in the red and expectant Council schools such as Astley and Holywell Primary will be losers as the Daley dosh drifts away into the pockets of his Contractors.

We could list much more but we need to get back to the last stand element.

Daley, the Labour Party and a group of well meaning independents may get away with ousting Peter Jackson from office on Wednesday 3^rd September 2020, but we would like to show how it might not pan out that way.

Peter Jackson and his prime allies the bedevilled Cllr Richard Wearmouth and the shadow lurking Jack Alexander Gebhart will still be sitting on the Conservative Parties regional committee, with the newly promoted to Cabinet in Daleys place Guy Renner Thompson, Barry Flux and the now infamous Kath Homer backing them up from their exalted Conservative Association standings in Northumberland. From those positions they will be undertaking the selections for Council candidates for next years local government elections.

Will the names of the Cramlington three go into the hat, Swinburn, Dunbar and Daley, or not?

Custer ring a bell here?



 

Why County Councillor Peter Jackson should go

 

Its another witch-hunt!

Murky witch hunting appears to be commonly practiced at County Hall in Morpeth, a female Councillor from the North of this massive County mentions it on a regular and ongoing basis particularly on social media.

Lately the unnamed Councillor’s attention has turned towards the criticism of symbolism and secret signage almost akin to fire raising into ones mindset that flaming crosses should block the path of those who defend the patriarchal society we live in and men, (we don’t know if thats all men or just politicians) should avoid the house containing six black cats.

This obvious difficulty in her thought processes may not be so far off becoming a cauldrons brew of reality as in most societies the witch is a wise women so for this story we believe that her misunderstandings of the past have been born out of a lack of match practice with the pentangle and not complete malicious madness. So in parking the broomstick and moving back towards mother earth we should look at whats being said across the murky universe whose ley lines converge at County Hall.

The politics within the County of Northumberland has suffered some of the dirtiest tactics ever invented with the ruling administration top of the list for crucifixion of their enemies and temper tantrums that flare into violence if orders and commands are not met with relish and gusto by those employed to be their henchmen or in the current case henchperson! Whatever the cost to the Counties residents the damage must be total annihilation of peoples characters and livelihoods and its happened to dozens.

Currently the CEX of the County Council is both the messenger, judge and executioner but its become clear that she is to suffer a similar fate to her victims in the forthcoming days as her useful ‘end in nigh’.

The question that sits on everyone’s lips ‘but is it fair’?

The County Council Leader seems from the information passed to us to have fallen out with the CEX who from the words above you should have gleaned that it’s a women and a women of some substance to boot, fearsome and an attitude like Boudicca who has worked hard for what she has achieved so we don’t expect she will give up without a heroic battle, but does the fair sex stand a chance against a patriarchal society who’s business is resolved behind closed doors. Her hearing is in front of three men, archaic in itself and a public fight has already begun as she is black and her accusers are not, with the majority of those hearing her appeal from the same political party as the Leader it will be difficult for her to achieve a fair hearing.

To confuse matters further the Black Lives Matter debate has been thrown in to cloud the issue for many by the current administration and a leaked non confidential e-mail has shown why the accusers should not be near this case. Other Councillors have tried in vane to force a special meeting to be held to discuss the matters openly that are contained within Council messages and emails to ensure fairness overrules temper tantrums and that the eventual outcome will achieve value for money for Northumberland’s residents but to no avail. The steamroller of right wing politics in Northumberland will crush the possible saviours of the CEX before an unbiased word is uttered in her defence.

The message that shows how low the current administration has fallen from grace and why the external auditor and the police need to be all over this matter sits below.

Please look at this with an open mind because too many closed ones are already lining up to ensure that you our readers don’t fear the destruction of your services by those who use power for less than the correct, honest and reputable reasons and make certain the Councils reputation doesn’t recover for decades whoever’s next in power.

Message

Daljit Lally GCSX <daljit.lally@northumberland.gov.uk>         27 July 2020 at 22:00
Peter Jackson <peter.jackson@northumberland.gov.uk>
Wayne Daley <wayne.daley@northumberland.gov.uk>

Hello Peter thanks for your email. It is helpful that you have articulated your understanding of the meeting as I have a different recollection and perspective on a number of the issues you have raised.

The meeting this morning was at your request following the issues of concern I raised with you last week. I provided you with some context in relation to the emails that you quoted to me when requesting todays meeting.

I raised with you my whistleblowing concerns about the actions of two cabinet members specifically and my well documented concerns about the Advance managing director Ken Dunbar and the lack of willingness to address my concerns, some of which include potentially illegal behaviour and also your subsequent reticence to act on the concerns that I have repeatedly raised.

The two member issues I raised are as follows.

Firstly I raised the issues of concern about Councillor John Riddle who as I have previously advised you previously in one or two meetings and again in out one to one meetings in March this year has sought to seek the purchase by the Council of land in which I am led to believe he has a financial interest and also  continues to seek confidential information and inappropriate social services action via myself and Cath McAvoy social services action in relation to his son and grandchild. I detailed these concerns on both these matters to you and I have not had a satisfactory response. I also raised Councillor Riddels inappropriate comments to me.

Secondly I raised my continuing concerns about the issues relating to your personal relationship with Councillor Homer. When I raised the monitoring officer guidance that I sent you about declarations you did not deny the relationship but you were clear that you were unwilling to comply with the advice of the monitoring officer.

At our meeting this morning I set out some of my concerns via a whistleblowing disclosure about Cllr Homer’s behaviour towards staff and in some ways your behaviour towards staff clearly in conjunction with Cllr Homer, this has included discriminatory behaviour and the fact that I have had to put in place specific support arrangements for staff (including myself) due to the stress we are being put under.

You stated to me you had a number of issues to raise with me indicating that I was not performing in my role. I found the latter statement very surprising as you have never raised any performance issues or concerns either at our regular briefing meetings with members  or when I pressed for examples of the issues you were referring to so I could respond to them or put them to the executive team to ask for responses as is our usual process with any enquiries you make you really struggle to coherently articulate any issues. As I have always said I have no issue if members need to resolve issues as that really is the only mway we will get issues sorted out.

The issues you raised were:

Heads of service being prevented from speaking to cabinet members
My response to you was:
I asked if this was Glenn Sanderson as I have clearly previously arranged for local services heads of service’s to provide written notes as part of their performance. You will recall you agreed to the instigation of the notes when you said you and Glen Sanderson wanted David Laux dismissed. You will also recall that I said staff can’t just be dismissed at a whim and that a record of their meetings would be required to determine if  there were any performance issues that could be looked at and acted upon.. You stated that it was not Glen but Councillor Riddle who was being prevented from meeting the Director of planning. As I said this morning I was not aware of Rob not meeting with Cllr. Riddle and that I would raise this with Juliemma. Having thought about it this afternoon I have however considered that it might be Rob being careful about meeting with Cllr. Riddle given Cllr. Riddle’s track record of making inappropriate requests of planning officers. An issue of concern I have raised with you before.

Bedlington Leisure facility and your false allegation that I was withholding information from you only my response to you was:
I advised you that I was aware that yourself and Cllr. Homer have made political promises to a member of Bedlington Independent group but that I am duty bound to act in line with the budget that the Council has set and following Neil Bradley’s the £250k you then promised the member for the development would actually need £3.3m which are unbudgeted for and cannot demonstrate VFM. I said I was happy to share the report Neil has drafted but it has not been agreed through the usual officer process. I also stated subsequently Cllr. Wearmouth has asked Juliemma to take forward  the development via a town centre gym it would be helpful if you could advise which scheme you want to pursue and I will advise Juliemma of the correct course of action.

Seaton Delaval school site and your false accusation that I was seeking to purchase land. The rather odd issue that you raised that I was seeking to purchase land to redevelop the school. As I advised you this morning this is a clearly false accusation that you were making. I advised you of the most recent dialogue that I have had with Cllr Daley and Cath McAvoy and I am sure you will check that out and find my comments to you are factually correct. I must say I am very concerned about theses false accusations that you made particularly as you appear to have based them on false information which you could have checked at the housing board last Friday.

Performance Reporting
You raised concern that performance is not being reported to cabinet members. As I stated to you the cabinet and execs meet very regularly. The execs have evidenced that to me regularly in writing. The issue you raised of the report is as I have stated i.e. the report is ready but we were holding it until Cllr Sanderson could leave his harvesting to join in the informal cabinet meeting which is what you said you wanted. If you change your mind the report can be brought next week to JC.

Appraisal
You indicated that I had not completed an appraisal. This is incorrect. I drafted my objectives and passed them to you for comment. Unfortunately you failed to complete the assessment template, comment on the objectives and you failed to attend the agreed meeting with Sir James to discuss them.

After the above issues you again said you have issues and I asked what they were. As you appeared to be able to articulate these issues I stated maybe it was the elephant in the room which was clearly which was clearly resulting from Cllr Homer’s inappropriate and discriminatory behaviour to myself and other staff members and it was may view that issues were not being dealt with because of your close relationship and the influence Cllr. Homer is exerting is the reason you are asking me to leave my job and that the potential of bias really needed to be considered as I was being detrimented by her and your actions. I advised you there were numerous other concerns that myself and some other members of the staff team have raised or would wish to raise particularly your behaviour and that of Councillor Homer and that I would be more than happy to share the information as the behaviour is inappropriate. Some examples that I cited include unagreed use of resources in a manner targeting advantage to Cllr Homer’s preferences rather than needs based spend on her ward area including your insistence to develop Hexham Middle school even though it is not in council ownership, pressure to purchase a Hexham site outwith its valuation and preference to spend on Cllr Homer’s portfolio rather than based on appropriate need.

You were clearly unhappy about the advice you have received about declaring that relationship and that potential bias was being evidenced.

I stated I was more than happy to continue working in the unbiased way that I have as I was just seeking to do my job well. You then stated you have taken advice from the LGA about asking me to leave the Council due to my not performing. When asked about ahta specific advice you had sought you said “about this”. I believe you were referring to one email which you described as curt. I advised you the email was polite and professional. I then stated the issues that you have asked about have all been appropriately responded to, these include the structure of the organisation and preparation for my role as interim head of NOCTA in January 2021.

I asked you if you were asking me to leave my job with the Council and you said yes you were and that it was not just yourself and that you had agreed with your cabinet just as I was raising issues on behalf of the executive team. You said that I had asked to leave some weeks ago and I said we have often joked about you being out of a job after the election and possibly myself too. At no time have I resigned as you put it in your email below and I would ask that in any discussion you have with cabinet members about forcing me from my role as you are doing via this email you need to make it clear to cabinet members that I have not at any time offered my resignation.

I did say that as you were asking me to leave my role in the Council that there is due process to follow via the monitoring officer which is in a report to the staffing committee followed by a report to full council. I asked if you wanted me to ask the monitoring officer to arrange the staffing committee and you said no you would seek further advice from the LGA. I’m presuming you have taken that advice and hence your email to me below. I would reiterate that I have not resigned my role and should you feel you have written evidence that you should provide it to me by return. Also if you are now suggesting that our conversation of 30^th June was seriously questioning my continued employment with the Council I would have expected to have been offered the courtesy of representation both there and today accordingly.

I am disappointed to have received your email below as the context of our discussion is entirely distorted. Since the brief discussion of 30^th June we have had many face to face discussions, video calls in the presence of others which have been very positive. Most recently our briefing last week where we discussed the issues listed on that agenda. I am unsure what is obvious in determining yourself as leader and myself as CEO has deteriorated to a level as I believe my email responses are professional and business like and it would be helpful if you could outline on which occasions you feel I have deliberately undermined you in front of senior officers and or members. The allegations of bullying are statements based on examples where members have spoken to/emailed staff (including myself) inappropriately.

I am also disappointed that you are now suggesting to me in writing that my performance as CEO is not acceptable. This is the first occasion you have stated this and I would now suggest that you enact the councils performance management process so that we can both be clear on the expected level and outcomes of performance and behaviour.

I am clear I do not have any intention of resigning from my role if however you wish to enact the disciplinary process regarding my statutory role as CEO I suggest you seek formed advice in this regard.

I would like to make it clear that I do not believe that you have grounds to discipline me or question my performance as the CEO. The council has had many successes since I was appointed and it is to the testament of the Executive team and the senior leadership that they are now regarded as high performing and nationally well regarded.

I entirely accept that you and your cabinet set out the strategic direction of the Council and the operationalisation of that and subsequent delivery of that is my responsibility along with the executive team.

If you are now suggesting that our conversation of 30^th June was seriously questioning my continued employment with the council, I would have expected to have been offered the courtesy of representation both then and today accordingly.

I appreciate you are now suggesting we need to find a constructive way forward and that you have decided to write to the LGA to ask for the option of formal independent mediation. I am unclear on what basis you are requesting mediation e.g. my employment relationship etc., therefore I would expect this to be clarified in due course.

I would expect all discussions and correspondence to remain business like however where you are proposing to discuss any aspect of my employment I must insist on having representation at any future meetings.

In relation to future meetings I will ask the Deputy Leader and Deputy Chief Executive to be present at my meeting and notes to be taken and any requests for information to be clearly articulated in writing by cabinet members and with agreed timescales.

As you are aware I have notified the deputy leader Cllr Daley of our discussions today as you informed me that you were acting on behalf of the cabinet. I now understand that this was not the case.

I would also make you aware that my employment is through also through a formal joint contract with the NHS and should you take steps to terminate this with or without good reason you should notify Sir James Mackey.

At no point in our discussion today did you indicate our meeting today was confidential so I will advise you that I will share the discussion as necessary.

Also as I was concerned that you were recording our last conversation I would be clear with you that that you do not have my permission to record todays conversation or in fact any previous subsequent conversations so if you have done so please provide me with written assurances whether you have or have not and provide me with a copy of the audio by return.

Apologies for the lateness of my reply but I did not get home from work until after 7pm. I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Mrs Daljit Lally
Chief Executive
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
NE61 2EF










 

Farmers reap a secondary harvest in Northumberland

In April 2020 the Government released £12Bn to Council to issue to small businesses to help them through the Covid crisis.

On 3^rd August 2020 the Federation of Small Businesses reported that £1.5Bn lay in Councils bank accounts unclaimed. But as we saw in mid-July Northumberland’s finance portfolio holder told the press that he thought the Government owed the Council an additional £9M that they may not be able to recover.

His statement could of course have been simple accounting measures to fill another of his now famous ‘Black Holes’ but we thought we would ask around the County to see whats happened to the cash.

Quickly we found that in the Bars near the marts across the County that Farmers were praising the Tory touts who have performed miracles for them helping to gift as many small businesses involved in farming a separate grant to cover losses caused by the virus. You may think that admirable?

But those left behind are fuming at the way they have been treated. An example we have been given from the trade is that of Taxi and Coach firms who do a fantastic job either getting our children to school across Northumberland’s vast wildernesses and back home in the evening, and those who ferry people in greatest need to the places of safety where they spend their days through small beneficial to the Council social services contracts.

Early in the pandemic period these businesses were paid a small retainer. That pittance was key to the Councils attitude towards them, months later, they were denied access to the grant payments received by those they ferried home in the middle of the night from the reopened bars and restaurants with their pockets bulging.

Were certain from the cabbies and mini-bus/coach pople we spoke with that they won’t forget this treatment of them and their trade in a hurry.

We won’t know what the £9M from Councillor Oliver is about until after the 2021 Local Government election period but we expect that a Government audit instruction on Councils is issued to have their external auditors check the details and we will be watching to see if the Truth will out.
   

 

The Spider spins it web at County Hall

 As the press winds up the story of the battle between Northumberland County Council Leader and its Chief Executive we at the Murky have been lucky enough to see some of the leaked e-mails that are held by the press and we can say they are explosive stuff indeed.

They are not at all about what’s being talked about by the public locally who seem to think the fall out is about an over-claim for Councillor Expenses by Councillors in love and the BLM debate, the Tories have made a good job of spinning these stories out onto a gullible public as they strive to gain the latest news from the cesspit that is Northumberland County Hall.

One of the e-mail’s centres on a Councillor pressurizing and bullying officers over the sale of a piece of Council land to him on the outskirts of a lovely rural village in the County which we are led to believe has some very valuable  planning permission for housing attached to it.

It appears that the Chief Executive and the Leader of Council have argued on a number of occasions about the situation and a threat to report this Councillor to the Police and the external auditor is contained in the message we have seen.

Our concern at the Murky is why in the last three years has the auditor not been asked to look at this so that he can make a Police or Standards Board report as necessary?

Why has the Councils internal fraud investigation team not been mobilised? because they are not mentioned in the e-mail and should have been if its context is to be believed.

And why has the chair of audit simply allowed the Chief Executive to run out reports aimed directly against opposition members after the Police found no criminality in their actions and not bother to follow the Governance Plan set by the external auditor EY?

When are semantics really not the truth?

 This week in the press we have seen Councillor Nick Oliver of Corbridge, the Tory Councillor who is in charge of the financial portfolio on behalf of the disgraced Councillor Peter Jacksons 'Cabinet of Secrets' and  dysfunctional Council has had complete oversight of a staggering £880m of borrowing over the last three years and hasn't yet come clean about the £350m Advance Northumberland debt currently exposed to the whims of contractors writs.

In an article by Hannah Graham on Chronicle Live Councillor Oliver Coun  "I am not a director or shareholder of this business so it would be inappropriate for me to comment."

Councillor Oliver in his spin is moderately correct but he is the husband of the sole director and listed as the company secretary and the person in significant control of this company at Companies House.

 He has some complex history surrounding insolvency and has been involved with the closure of some high profile companies in the same field as Katie Kerr in the recent past such as Penny Plain a much discussed mess in the press. Does this make him a write off regular?

 In his current position of influence within Northumberland County Council, he oversees the write off of debt and or the choice of the Council to prosecute bad debtors.

 Were sure at Murky that he will choose the former and oversee the write off of Katie Kerr's debts to Northumberland County Council prior to election 2021 but because of the timeline he will probably leave the clear up of the mess Advance and the Council is in to the Labour Party. Time will obviously tell!

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06331841/officers

 

 

 

Councillor Nick Oliver of Corbridge the portfolio holder for Finance Penny Plain TROUBLES

 

Councillor Nick Oliver of Corbridge the portfolio holder for Finance at

Northumberland County Council is also the man famed for the loss of a long established company ‘Penny Plain’ when his business planning and his desire for acceleration of the business failed.

He now looks after the Budget and Financial Matters of Northumberland County Council valued around £1Bn in total yet he doesn’t know how to describe his most recent failures.

Just like his counterparts in Government who have sat there for the last eight years in office, the copycat Oliver is continually harping on about the last Labour administrations failures, particularly what he calls ‘Labours Black Hole’.

Today we have decided to expose why his well known lack of business planning skills when exposed in the Council financial sense has damaged his ability to understand why the Black Hole is actually the ‘Tory Black Hole’, always has been and always will be and its been caused through his failure to manage his own Government cuts and savings package.

In the last Labour Councils financial plan 2017-2020.  A savings requirement was identified of £36 million split over the following years, 2017-2018 £6 million, 2018-2019 £20 million, 2019-2020 £10 million. 

The new Conservative administration who’s finances are managed by Councillor Oliver, presented a plan which covered the period 2018-2022. He stated at the time that his administration would ensure sound business planning took place for every project they undertook.

Oliver’s 4 year plan including two of the years covered by the Labour Group administration plan.  He altered the savings plan over the two years common to both plans from £30 million to £29.3 million.

The two years added at the end of his plan period included further savings totalling £35.8 million.  Councillor Jackson in his budget speech spun this matter out as discovering a black hole of £65 million left by Labour. 

Councillor Oliver of Corbridge has continually run this misnomer as fact at each and every Council meeting he has spoken at, enhancing the knowledge to all in business and politics that his financial skills although never high are Titanically sinking fast.

 

For editors

https://www.questia.com/newspaper/1G1-115642696/nick-s-ambition-is-plain-for-everyone-to-see

 

 

http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/penny-plain-pulls-down-shutters-4518727


Sent from my Huawei tablet

Northumberland Audit Failings? Councillor Hill Cultivated ‘No Independence’ and allowed it to fester further

 1. Lack of Independence in Audit:

What it means is that the Audit Committee led by its Chairperson, Councillor Georgina Hill has allowed the committee to be influenced by the Tory administration and legitimise reports that are released to the media containing attacks on opposition parties and Councillors while sitting in the shadow of a committee who’s reputation should be built on honesty and integrity.


Who’s lack of independence is it?
In November 2019,Ernst Young told Mrs Lally the Chief Executive forced onto extended leave by the conservatives: “‘From the additional procedures undertaken we did not find evidence to support the allegations regarding a lack of independence and integrity of senior management, bullying, or the inappropriate use of funds for political purposes.’” so the conundrum is if it wasn’t the officers of the Council who was it?

2. Inability to follow the annual governance plan:
Each year the Audit Committee of Council must agree an annual governance statement. It instructs the Council and its Internal Audit Team on areas of weakness where they need to improve greatly and or inspect on a regular and ongoing basis.

Under Councillor Hill’s watch over the last three years the Plan, probably the most important document that should influence the total work ethic of the Council and direct resources to ensure compliance with the plan has been completely ignored by the political wing of the Council and its Audit Committee. Luckily for the leading opposition party, Labour, their old hands at this function abstained on agreeing plans they knew wouldn’t be delivered.

New Auditor
Following Ernst Young who are also the External Auditor for Newcastle City Council and North Tyneside Met. leaving NCC, Northumberland brought in Mazars another reputable organisation who know the size of the task ahead of them and have asked in simple terms that the Audit Committee change their ways to ensure probity in audit in future.

Why won’t it happen?
Well while Mazars were getting their feet under the table the Leader of Council Peter Jacksons team who expect and get outstanding loyalty from the former press secretary for Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, Councillor Georgina Hill, had the former Leader of the Tory group on South Cambridgeshire Council Peter Topping brought in as the new ‘Independent’ person on the Audit Committee to support the Chairperson.


How independent does that make the committee now?


Watch this space!




   

Add caption

Education Algorithm! will Renner-Thompson Help those young people in need (or hide like Wayne Daley)?

 

40% of young people in larger classes above 15 or more are suffering for the rest of their lives through the intransigence of the Boris Johnson Tory Party’s social barrier of Algorithm exam marking.

With the Tories ensuring those from poorer backgrounds are consistently kept as part of the underclass, Johnson and Cummings are hell bent on maintaining the system that is an intrinsic part of their ideal and they have refused to change the system that could ensure a quality future for many of our young.

In Northumberland the Tories former Deputy Leader and education spokesperson Councillor Wayne Daley obviously saw this coming and used the nasty ditching of the Chief Executive of the County Council as an excuse to bail out leaving the beleaguered and damaged Council Leader, Peter Jackson forced to promote a scrutiny chair Cllr Guy Renner-Thomson into Daley’s vacant seat.

Guy Renner-Thompson won’t be remembered on how successful his role is in pursuing his own Government on the chaos they have achieved with A level results destroying the futures of people from primarily deprived backgrounds (and he has GCSE results arriving this week). He will be judged on the mess his predecessor has abandoned so we do need to look at them.

In May 2017 Daley promised to improve schools in Northumberland by bringing in teachers from bed-sits in London without any evidence that they could deliver improvements.

He has poured millions into building an academy school in Hexham while leaving Council schools, Astley School in Seaton Delaval and Holywell Primary to deteriorate further instead of being renewed.

He began a wrangle in the West of the County closing middle schools and delivering on his one model fits all education system across what has to be England's most diverse County.

He has pushed up the cost of post 16 educational transport to an unaffordable level that has begun to stretch budgets and will increase Council tax if its not capped this years.

He has ignored the funding plight of Northumberland College in Ashington allowing Sunderland University to begin an asset stripping program that may lead to its closure.

He promised to deliver a series of ‘Pop up Schools’ and hasn’t.

He ditched the winning fixed price contractor for Ponteland school and leisure centre for a cheaper contractor who has since renegotiated the contract to make it ever more expensive.

In fact we can’t find anything that has been a success in Daley’s reign so Councillor Renner-Thompson your future looks very bleak indeed.
 

Is Northumberland County Councils Fill-in Deputy Leader Being Used by his Boss?

 

With Northumberland Conservatives, history often repeats itself. Councillor Glenn Sanderson was the Leader of Castle Morpeth Borough Council during the 2000’s. He had to take an unplanned break from the role for personal and family reasons.

Most people involved with local politics in Northumberland fully expected that when he was able to return to his Council that his Deputy, Councillor Peter Jackson who had been promoted to temporary Leader would stand aside and Glenn would lead Northumberland Conservatives into the charge to control the new Unitary Council when it formed in 2008/9. Its believed that Councillor Jackson in a vicious moment reused to honour the agreement between them and pressurised him out of his political inheritance.

History shows that Councillor Jackson couldn't rally his troops in 2009 and lost the election to the Liberal Democrats having to form an alliance with independents to stop his party sitting in third place at the unitary table.

Supported by the majority of Conservatives Councillor Sanderson was brought back to life as the Tories Deputy Leader in opposition for two council sessions of 9 yeas in total, but even after all his hard work in gaining control of the Council, Peter Jackson ditched him once again in May 2017 preferring Cramlington’s Wayne Daley as his Deputy.

Now in their hour of need with with Wayne Daley’s desertion of his post, a Council and its attached companies operating in a heavily damaged and unstable operating environment and with the public baying for blood, Councillor Sanderson has once again stepped up to the plate to save the day.

The question the public want to have answered and those on many observers lips is Why does a long serving Magistrate want to be tied up with his nefarious colleagues in a police investigation for wrong doing?

Or is it in that why Peter Jackson who’s questionable decisions have led the Council to the cliff edge chose to enlist his help?

May we remind you Councillor Sanderson that even Justice of the Peace do time for wrongdoings, and how can you trust your cohorts when they so openly stabbed you more than once previously?







 

Is Cllr. Wayne Daley hiding in Full Public View?

 

On the back of the absolute mess Northumberland County Council finds itself in its deputy leader and spokesperson for Childrens Services and Education Cllr. Wayne Daley resigned his cabinet post.

His spin in the Hexham Courant is that his resignation is centred on his undying support for the suspended Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Daljit Lally who in an email to all elected members in Northumberland exposed some of the myriad of problems surrounding the current leadership of both the Council and its subsidiary company Advance Northumberland of which Wayne Daley was an integral element until this week.

His huge ambition to lead the Conservative Group in Northumberland is not a hidden fact but because he is a true Conservative and not a Tory his many Leadership bids have fallen on Stoney ground as support for ultra right wing politics has grown among Northumberland's Tories in recent years, the recent revelation from Mrs Lally in a leaked Council e-mail surrounding the current Leaders actions over the Black Lives Matter stance of the Council illustrates that perfectly.

Therefore the question that must be asked is Councillor Daley hiding in full public view in case his Leader Councillor Peter Jackson stumbles and the public outcry forces him to retire from politics to save the Conservative Party in Northumberland?

Wayne Daley is a political survivor and his resignation at the peak time for Education due to the current position with A level students results across his former realm is at an all time high. He has managed though this soft resignation to dodge the bullets being aimed at many who hold similar positions across other Councils nationally.

But his biggest failings are because he is a Conservative and not a Tory, his complete lack of joined up thinking surrounding the Governments huge investments in Energy Central and the complete ignorance by the County Council of an adult training plan to ensure local people from Northumberland can access the highly paid jobs on offer at this massive and ever growing national facility in the River Blyth basin is notoriously obvious.

On his watch he has ignored the running down of services at Northumberland College in Ashington by its new management group from Sunderland College who have been accused by TU’s of engineering an asset stripping program as investments from Industry in the College haven’t arrived in time for is survival. Without a solid plan from Cllr. Daley and his officers the College will not be able to re-engage with business in a timely fashion and will become another brownfield site for Tory doners and developers to profit from.

The snakepit that is the Conservative Party in Northumberland are still up to their tricks of ignoring the needs of working families across in particular South East Northumberland and the Rural Coalfield who need to access the well paid jobs on offer at energy central to revive the post BREXIT and Covid damaged County but the Tories will be hoping trained personnel who take up posts on the River Blyth will strengthen the Tory vote. Their antics can be easily seen through and if Wayne Daley becomes their next Leader that ignorance and lack of support will carry on regardless.
 

Wor nanny was a ‘Mazar’ and why Northumberland County Councils external auditor needs to live up to their name!

 

This week the erstwhile reporter Sean Seddon began to run out the story on Chronicle live regarding the absolute mess the audit function is in at Northumberland County Council and how it isn’t independent from Tory politics.

His story explained how the Council and its audit committee missed the utter turmoil which surrounds the planning of audit and how the well merged twosome of Cllrs Oliver and Hill ran out poisonous personal bullying attacks on their enemies whilst missing the blatantly obvious simple task of auditing the processes of the Council.

Each year Councils have to agree a plan with their external auditor to correct any weaknesses found from the previous years audit, in order to correct any imbalances that may occur in the use of public funds. During early 2019 the massive audit company Ernst Young issued a plan that outlined the changes required to correct the anomalies found during 2018. Auditors use a traffic light system to show the problem areas and Advance Northumberland featured heavily as a ‘RED RISK’. http://committeedocs.northumberland.gov.uk/MeetingDocs/41093_M9232.pdf

The link above shows the plan agreed by Cllr Georgina Hill, the Audit Chairperson and Cllr Nick Oliver who holds the finance portfolio.

But following the agreed plan was a difficult matter for the two in charge as serious political interference wasn’t quelled by either of them and they continued to roll out unexamined and secretive reports into the public domain using the Audit Committee to legitimise bullying and press sensationalism.

It got so bad that Ernst Young left the clutches of the Council following a damning report on ‘lack of independence and having no trust in the accounts produced by Oliver and presented by Hills to her team.

These actions are unprecedented in Local Government. The Council has the Local Government Associations top ‘Peer Group Leader’ for the North of England within its ranks, Councillor Glenn Sanderson ,yet he didn’t bother to call time on the nonsense happening under his very nose and did not call the LGA in to help resolve the issues and locate the truth behind the veil of secrecy that has been cast over Northumberland County Council since May 2017.

In a letter to the council from Ernst Young they explained that the Audit Committee and Internal Audit were not working independently from the administration and that hey felt changes had to be made. After looking into Advance Northumberland’s audit and accounts they left the Councils clutches.

The well known auditor Mazars have taken over and have begun the task of viewing the past and making recommendations on the future when suddenly the CEO of the organisation Mrs Daljit Lally blows her cover and threatens to report the nefarious goings on at Morpeth County Hall to the Police and the Eternal Auditor.

As simple local residents we don’t know what Mazars will make of this but the Labour Party, Ian Lavery a local MP and some of the Independent Councillors have come out to seek information regarding whats going on including who was sleeping with who at the ratepayers expense, how much has Advance Northumberland lost over the last three years and the truth behind whether the CEO actually spoke with the Chief Executive of Advance let alone instruct him to change his ways as their starters for 10.

In the meantime we the public would like to see Cllrs Georgina Hill and Nick Oliver inspect through her audit committee where the £880M borrowed has been spent. Whether any Councillors owe Council tax or NNDR cash to the Council and some of the simpler things in the Council such as how many top officers have been paid off and how much has been spent supplying dozens of senior staff with gagging clauses. Of course Northumbria Police may scoop up Hill and Oliver in their investigations. At this moment in time the e-media pilots believe Cllr Oliver owes more than the value of 600 bottles of wine at French Euro exchange rates to the Council in unpaid personal debt from his latest failed company and yet he has the choice to write that debt off next year from the position he holds as portfolio holder for Finance.


What a lot!

Murky update on the troubles at Northumberland County Council

 

Northumberland County Council leader Cllr. Peter Jackson has featured in two strongly critical expos'e items in the mainstream regional press today and will probably make the nationals tomorrow.

Some of the news centred on his personal life and some on his inability to manage neither the Council nor its externally attached companies with the failing Advance Northumberland featuring heavily.

A comment in one of the articles featured Cllr Nick Oliver who may be hoping his inept personal business affairs aren't questioned by the opposition parties as it's said he's still racing on with the formation of 10 commercial companies to trade with the Council as well as others.

The question needs to be asked knowing what's out there in the press and online would you trust these people with your services?

PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN NCC AT ITS LOWEST EBB SINCE 2009

With the airwaves full of rumour about the happenings at County Hall Morpeth from the disgruntled Conservatives with their Chief Executive suspended and two top councillors (its only politics) Wayne Daley and Healths Veronica Jones resigning from their cabinet posts, the public debate has been interesting. It seems members of the public couldn't believe the debt the Council is in and how the Tory administration is split on the suspension of top staff and the loss of top councillors. The lack of confidence in the Council has the stink of shot foxes hanging over it and it's rumoured Labour is waiting in the wings to mop up the mess once the Police have got stuck into their investigation.

Trouble at Northumberland County Hall

 

Does wor Nick Oliver who went into administration for umpteenth time owing taxpayers in Northumberland £30.000