Councillor Sanderson needs to grow a backbone before Gove puts him in a body bag?

 

D.I.V.O.R.C.E. as the song goes, often causes problems for those involved but in the case of a major local authority caught up in a personal matter the need for cash has become king and the problems surrounding what was regularly hinted too by our fellow blog the Northumberland Murky Blogspot as a scene from another song, that of Stevie Wonder's My Cherie Amour has now got out of hand and is dragging Northumberland County Council deep into the mire and ever closer to closure by Government every day.

Councillor Jackson, the former disgraced leader of the Council, one of those mentioned in the hints is central to the degradation of the Council must have had to dispose of his luxury Mercedes Benz sports saloon and can now be seen driving the Land Rover which starred in series one of ‘Vera’ and as we all know, just like him has seen better days.

Regular readers will by now have grasped the picture that the Council has split into three distinct groups, but only two of them feature in this awful mess, the Leaders Group, close to Councillors Sanderson and Wearmouth and the Splinter Group sitting at the feet of lover boy Jackson. The other group from Cramlington and Seaton Valley have already begun secret talks with their Whitley Bay counterparts to get an early run on Labour to try to win a prospective new seat being formed to help the Government, but on voting numbers and the move away from the Tories expected by the press they may wish in future to have supported a different model.

But back to the mess Northumberland is in, the video from the recent Audit Committee is now out on YouTube, the most recent meeting was a rerun for acceptance of the draft accounts which had bumped into a technical hitch at a previous assembly due to the meeting becoming inquorate as a member had to leave early.

The draft accounts have passed the test of compliance and been accepted by Cabinet, led by Councillor Sanderson and the Tory Group also led by him but in an attempt to topple the Leader to get a few more quid to live on now he’s been turfed from his family home Councillor Jackson’s mob who control the audit committee refused acceptance and on video spoke about illegal this and that in the accounts.

With the whole Governance of the Council now being challenged Councillor Sanderson now needs to sack his audit committee or directly face the wrath of Michael Gove the minister in charge of all things Local Government who may choose to sack the whole Council and have it run by professional officers who will report back to him, and all because to manage ‘amour’ a top Councillor and well known bully boy needs more!

What an abysmal administration?