The news that one half of the split Tory camp
at County Hall in Morpeth are cheering and whooping at the removal from office
of the County Council’s Deputy Leader from the chairmanship of the Private
company he designed, Advance Northumberland, the other half have gone into the
dumps, interests us here at the still socially distanced Murky desk.
The man seen as the ‘Gepetto’ of the Conservatives in Northumberland, pulling string after string to get the Tories into a powerful position now has to sit on the sidelines and watch as his mice and men plans unravel before him.
And what you may ask has brought down such a powerful beast? and will the Mob from his patch protect him? We will have to see but acting outside the rules has brought the man described by his peers as ‘RW’ to his knees.
Being a Councillor in a Unitary Authority like Northumberland County Council means you have rules to follow. Those rules cover the activities of you and your family and how your interests in the real world (after your head is extracted from your bottom) may affect the business of the Council. Councillors at a Unitary all purpose level are paid an allowance to negate their need to use their influence for self gain and Councillors have to declare those interests publically. Most have none to hide and undertake the task with gusto but some appear not to bother because they, like vampires, can't stand the daylight or the scrutiny in public life declarations of interests cause.
Or of course you may think you're simply above the law!
Councillor Wearmouth the Councils deputy leader was self-selected through his influence over the Tory Party, Chairman of the Company Advance Northumberland a company it's said he designed to keep prying eyes away from its activities. That was managed quite well until recently when it allegedly got involved in an £8.5M lawsuit and owed HMRC £1,000,000 on its dealings the secrets then oozed out.
Advance Northumberland on behalf of the County Council, the North of Tyne Combined Authority and the Local Enterprise Partnership is involved in some of the UK’s largest energy projects: the interconnector from Norway to Cambois and the British Volt GigaFactory. Councillor Wearmouth is big in energy as they say, yet you wouldn’t believe it if you look on the County Council website at his declarations but his inability to hide from the rigours of Companies House has let him down along with the news that on behalf of Northumberland Conservatives, ‘Gepetto’ and his party mates took in a huge donation from a Russian energy sector donor on his parties behalf. Those interests compromised his position and really anyone finding themselves in a similar situation would resign from their position on the Council.
A report to the Audit Committee of
Northumberland County Council this week shows that the Police are in,
investigating who from the Tory Cabinet, as its a single party cabinet as only
they get issued with the Cabinet Papers, leaked the confidential Council Papers
which appeared on a Blyth social media site and showed the public how badly
Council Officers were being bullied by top Councillors surely the Police will
be asked to look into the activities of Advance Northumberland to see if the
papers were leaked via that organisation or satisfy the public that
non-declaration of interests is really punishable by Law?
Links
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/second-tory-minister-recuses-herself-24471351
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