Trouble at Northumberland County Hall

 

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

KNOWING NOTHINGSEEMS TO BE POPULAR IN MURKEYLAND.

Over the Easter holidays it was noticeable that the hot weather led most Tories to dine at barbecues with lashings of grog.

The murkiest team of all were at lidl’s best from the moment the firelighters were thrown on and the charcoal tipped on top.

After a while the chatter turned to whom they thought was responsible for giving them as good as they have dished out for several years.

As they slurped and gassed it was decided that the former leader of the Labour Group and the Clerk of Berwick Town Council and their spin doctor, witness C, were responsible for some of the anti-tory truths that have been issued in response to their Murky Blogspot on Council servers and that the whole package was put together by Grant Davey when he was leader of Blyth Valley Council shows how strong and how much damage white lightning mixed with lidl larger can do to one's mind.

Their blame game rant shows that the Morpeth %&£ ring leader, the cuddly boys and their northern chick have actually lost the plot and expect to con all of the people all of the time, when in reality they have gone out on the airwaves with spin that shows they were too blasted to check that Grant Davey never held the post of Leader at Blyth Valley., or for reference, I would hope has no access to County servers from a domestic dwelling in the Town of Blyth and for security reasons only known to the current ‘secret council’ in Morpeth, neither has Northumberlands Parish Councils.

Keep trying team, but try to get at least one of your facts correct or just pack it in and accept Labour are coming back stronger than ever.

Northumberland Tories in a Mess

The recent changes in the leadership of Northumberland Labour Group have exposed the flanks of the local Tories to a massive blow from which they won’t recover from before the next local government elections or the local North of Tyne mayoral elections for that matter.

Although given three months notice of the impending change of leadership in the Labour Party in Northumberland the Tories massive internal mess at all levels has left them unprepared and extremely ill equipped to manage and plan for change in their oppositions ranks.

Tories in Northumberland have used the constant attacks filled from a stream of degradation, that criminal acts had taken place in the company ARCH. Although they have known for over seven months that Northumbria Police had found no criminality at ARCH they shelved release of that report until they could put together a cover all web to state their false disbelief.

They used their ally the chair of the audit committee at the council to legitimise their plans, letting her expose what little reputation she has to public ridicule as she tried to spin out falsehoods centred on the fact that the Northumbria PCC is a Labour Party member, wrongly attacking the Chief Constable into the bargain.

Their crumbling empire, based on spin and accusations of bullying and truthlessness, has led to them not being able to recruit a local candidate for a by-election in Holywell Ward, and having to rely on the aging Sir John Hall to endorse their candidate for North of Tyne mayor as Cllr Peter Jackson and his team fight and fail to prove they aren’t disgraceful bullies at an industrial tribunal.

The local Labour Party’s new team isn’t tainted or even linked with ARCH, have already had their wider party supporters expose the extreme costs to the ratepayer of remaining in County Hall at Morpeth and are seeking a full investigation into the costs of audits and investigators who purport to be experts at ARCH and let the public know how much those costly decisions, along with the legal protection bills to cosset the current Tory Councillors through the legal minefield their rougery has got them into has been ripped from services the Council Taxpayers expect to be delivered on their behalf.

Lifting the curtain on Daljit’s Kremlin

County Hall has become a strange and fearful place since 2017. Secret meetings and conspiracies are the order of the day, and constitutional abominations like the informal cabinet are accepted as if they’re reasonable and normal.

The outcome of the employment tribunal brought by Sarah Kirk and Chris Stephenson has shone a little light into some corners of Daljit Lally’s ways of working. What’s interesting is how little interest is shown in what’s been revealed by the self professed queen of transparency, Georgina Hill.

In case you’ve not followed the tribunal story, here’s the short version. Two senior HR managers were made redundant in 2016. Both went to tribunal with a skip load of claims about why their redundancy was unfair. Amongst the skip load of complaints was an allegation by Sarah Kirk that she’d been discriminated against because she complained about Barry Rowland leaving NCC with a compromise agreement and a confidentiality clause.

Barry was an Executive Director, and a former chief exec at Newcastle. He was pretty divisive; people either loved him or hated him. Sarah Kirk’s allegation was that Barry was manouvered out by Daljit Lally, who went to an employee who worked under Mr Rowland, and persuaded her to complain that he was bullying her.

NCC’s defence to that claim by Sarah Kirk wasn’t to deny her version of the facts, but to claim that she hadn’t blown the whistle in the right way, so shouldn’t be protected as a whistleblower, and any way, she deserved to be made redundant.

So what we’re left with is an accusation that Daljit Lally chose to reward a bully with a payoff and a secrecy agreement in order to secure a swift exit for him, and the job of Deputy Chief Executive for herself. What’s odd is that Daljit Lally hasn’t chosen to speak against that accusation.  Nowhere in the findings of fact made by the judge is there anything to suggest this was a fantasy or a fiction; instead there’s just the suggestion that Sarah Kirk went about it the wrong way, and got some of the details of who she told and when she told them wrong.

Now amongst the odd things, like the way Daljit Lally chose not to give evidence, is Barry Rowland;s response to all this. He could have offered to give evidence to rebut the central accusations about his behaviour. Instead he made an application to have the tribunal hushed up, because he had a confidentiality agreement. He failed, but he’s said nothing in public to defend himself against these accusations. Given that he’s still a public servant, in the Falkland Islands, you might wonder why that is.

What does Georgina Hill have to say about the use of public funds to pay off and silence an employee accused of bullying? Nothing. Zilch. Nada. She’s got lots to say about anyone who agrees with Northumbria Police that her ‘investigation’ into Arch has produced no evidence of any criminality, but on the subject of senior managers hiding each other’s disciplinary offences behind confidentiality agreements, she says nothing.

In all the circumstances, anyone with a shred of credibility would be asking how it can be that public money could be used in this way. The problem for Hill is that there’s no way for her to smear Labour politicians from such an investigation. Instead there’s a risk she’d sabotage the career of Daljit Lally, who is throwing money at Berwick to ensure Hill can continue pretending to be an independent advocate for the town while doing whatever her patrons at County Hall want. In Daljit’s Kremlin that appears to be how politics works.

Northumberland Tories Failing

in their attempts to Turn Back Laws Established in 1736

A Court set to sit for a fortnight in the established by the Romam Empire Fishing Port of North Shields (although its name derives from the Middle English from the sheds used by the fisherfolk who dwelt there).

This court is hearing the very complex witch hunt against a former Director of Advance/ARCH v Northumberland County Council naming among others the Current Leader of Council Peter Jackson, about whom its been fixed by the press, that he was a Director of Advance/ARCH and sat on the Audit Committee of that organisation.

In Court its now ingrained into the records that Advance Northumberland was simply a name change from ARCH and that through the Tory manifesto issued in Peter Jackson’s name, he stated he would scrap ARCH, a Company he was a leading Director of, Cllr Jackson was asked if he knew what the responsibilities of being a Director of a Company were.

Moving away from a case in motion but keeping on the subject of Northumberland County Council and the lead up to this very complex matter, the Council through its Audit Committee led by the ex- press secretary for the Tory MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan, witch-finder General, Cllr Georgina Hill, has over a series of months lined up the case being heard at the moment, by challenging the integrity of the new Chief Constable of Northumbria Police Winton Keenen, and the honesty of Northumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Vera Baird.

In a well rehearsed audit committee meeting that reported on a matter where Northumbria Police found no criminality occurred at the Company ARCH, the desperate for good news Northumberland Conservatives, sought the use of another Police Force in order that they can take the eyes off the findings that will come from the Court Case above.

Integral to the Georgina Hill debacle is the independent head of the internal audit partnership for Northumberland and North Tyneside Allison Mitchell, yes that’s the person who dealt with another massive mess by the Tories the devastating disaster that was the investigation into the ‘North Tyneside Crane’.

Allison Mitchell, is covered by her CIPTFA membership, she now needs to tell what she knows and answer the questions about the Committee she serves in Northumberland that of Cllr Georgina Hill whom she’s allowed to turn an audit committee into a scrutiny panel, a function the audit committee is not set up to embrace. A committee that is swamped with right-wing activists and is fixated through it chairperson on leading the charge on bad news stories against the Company Advance/ARCH in a wicked way designed to colour a Court Case against a former employee and others who dare defy the Tory farmers who have tight control over County Hall.

It’s a pity but its now squeaky bum time for Ms Mitchell and she needs to audit her options which are rapidly running out before confidence in her decision making runs out completely.

Support from Ms Hill will not ride to her rescue as history has shown in the past, she only loyal to her own thinking, so on this we will remind them both: Set in statute, witch hunting was outlawed in 1736.

Jacksons Dilemma

Sue or Resign.

Having read the excellent Letters Page in the PONT NEWS where Councillor Peter Jackson Leader of the Conservative Group and Leader of Council threatens to personally sue the Directors of Lugano Dissington Ltd., and one of the Directors of that Company, Allan Rankin surprisingly beckoning him on to do so in order that the truth behind Jacksons threats are revealed to the public, has left Peter Jackson with a huge dilemma.

Peter Jackson is the top Local Government representative for the largest geographical area, with the largest population in the North of Tyne Combined Authority. As such he carries the burden on his shoulders to show that local politics doesn’t carry the same stigma as the politics of sub-Saharan Africa.

Peter Jacksons and his group, openly attacked the business interests of Lugano in early 2017 with a strange move to make sure that Lugano did not build a Garden Village, backed by Peter Jacksons Government on land near his own. That action led to the commencement of a serious Law Suit the defence bills of which are being born by the Council Tax payers of Northumberland.

Due to circumstances that this blog is not party too but which Allan Rankin alludes to in the Pont News Letters Page, Lugano had to withdraw its case.

So much public money has been spent on this matter that due to the old adage ‘there’s no smoke without fire’ Peter Jackson needs to fulfil his threat contained in his letter in order that in Jackson’s own words “substantial legal costs” are at least revealed to the population who have been bankrolling him and his cronies for 17 months and that the true personal costs of the alleged bullying by Council top Councillors and Staff on others come out so that the electorate can judge for themselves.

Peter Jackson only has two courses of action if he wants to stifle the truth any longer, SUE OR RESIGN.

The letter are on page 10

http://www.ponteland-tc.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/PNV-Apr-19-issue-163.pdf