Saturday, 25 August 2018

A warning from Real Northumberland Murky


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Friday, 3 August 2018

Eeeeeee Yhy is the Chair of Audit hiding these 'significant risks' to the Council?


Is it because she voted for every single one? 

So with all the Fake News flying around from the tax payer funded 'investigations', we thought we'd do a quick catch up on the thing our 'Berwickshire Reiver', Lady G. Hill values most - publicity.

So our intrepid 'transparency campaigner' Cllr Georgina Hill (the woman who knocked back £19m for Berwick) held a low key audit meeting last week. Shock horror, Ms Hill and low key in the same sentence I hear you ask, surely not. So we looked a little deeper to find out what happened at her meeting at 'transparency central', County Hall (more on CH later). 

It turns out that Ms Hill presided over an important meeting which identified 'significant risks for the council' but seems to have been too preoccupied with her ongoing vendettas (and generally bringing the council into disrepute through her penchant for bullying). 

You get a flavour of the person below


The 'queen of transparency' missed some pretty important stuff from EY, the council's external auditor's yearly report. 

The auditor said 'what is a significant value for money risk' and he listed them below - and it turns out the very issues Labour have been warning about are now 'significant risks'. Oh how we wish Audit Committee had looked at these 'risks'. 


·  agreeing a termination package for the former CEO,

·  restructuring of the senior management team of the council

·  reversing the decision to move council headquarters from current site in Morpeth to Ashington

·  withdrawal of the Local Plan

·  announcing the intention to wind up the Arch group, a group of wholly owned subsidiary companies and transfer assets to a new development company

We wonder if the Chair of Audit and all round lover of ice creams in Berwick is considering the impact on the public purse of these 'significant risks' or whether they've entered her own personal 'twilight zone'? Here's a few examples of how each of these stories have been covered over her time as Chair of Audit (Or Peter Jackson's accomplice)











































Being such a media guru, our Georgina (or fill in the blank for her many aliases), we wondered how she had missed so many clues?

It's a good job, she's okay with paying over £500,000 for her investigations along with Jackson and the co-defendants. 

Who knows she might join that not so happy band very soon but we're sure she won't take the indemnity her fellow 'fakesters' have been offered on the tax payer. 


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Saturday, 28 July 2018

The department that doesn't exist starts to siphon cash from NHS while shafting the council taxpayer

The mysterious 'International Department' which, according to Northumberland County Council, doesn't exist has popped up in the trade press for the NHS


The department which is headed up by an interesting character who flits between the NHS, Arch and the Council picking up huge swathes of public cash from NHS, Arch and the Council. She's called Allison Joynson. Some of you may remember her from her role as 'chief' of the Tory campaign to make sure middle class parents kept their children's travel perks otherwise known as post 16 transport. Her prominent role in that highly partisan attack on the county council obviously brought her to the attention of Tory talent spotters Peter and Daljit. Or as they are now know 'the co-defendants'. 

Allison can be seen here 
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/post-16-transport-row-continues-after-7686644

It's a good job Labour didn't persecute people for their political views isn't it dear reader? 

So back to Allison. She's known as a bit of an 'Arch privatiser' in NHS circles as you can see here  

https://www.events.trade.gov.uk/health-and-care-innovation-expo-2016/expert/allison-joynson/


She's keen to export the NHS to China but a little less keen to keep doctors surgeries open in Blyth like the Collingwood surgery. 

Alison was drafted in to 'oversee Arch' (all the while working for the council and the NHS) and we don't know where she found the time to set up three very expensive investigations into Arch. 

We presume she was helped by her BFF, Ms Lally, another NHS 'entrepreneur' who seems to like to chase the 'dollar across the world' with her dual NHS/NCC hat on. 

Maybe both of them want to tell the public how much their 'travels around the world cost'? 

Alison (and Daljit) drafted in private investigators who have carried out 'exhaustive' investigations in Arch and across the council into individuals and, what seems like imagined political opponents of Chair of Arch, Cllr 'Mouth of Wear'. 

All we can find of the private investigator's work is ……… NOTHING. Despite questions we can find no evidence of any work carried out. We wonder who on the Board of Arch has seen anything produced through this 'secretive contract' awarded under 'secretive circumstances'?

Maybe the 'Queen of Transparency' at Audit could have a look at that contract?

Back to Allison (who is also listed as Deputy CEO at NCC) and her role at Arch. It's shrouded in secrecy but a basic company check shows some interesting questions which she may wish to answer about her interests outside ARCH/NHS/NCC. 

She was a director in her husbands company, Associate Designs which lists 'development of building projects and construction of commercial buildings'


https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06213948 

She resigned from the business officially on 16 April 2017, three whole weeks before the election that saw the 'co-defendants' and Cllr 'Mouth of Wear' take the reins of council and Arch.

Even though she resigned from the company, we wonder whether she declared her husbands interests in a company which was involved in the same construction arena as Arch? 

Maybe she declared it, maybe she didn't but it's another reasonable question given the controversy she orchestrated, along with Cllr 'Mouth of Wear', her Chair and fellow entrepreneur, her BFF, Ms Lally and the other 'co-defendant', Cllr Jackson, the 'Member for the Isle of Man'. 

Maybe she declared it in the same way as Cllr 'Mouth of Wear' declared his property development interests in North Tyneside where he stopped Arch from developing a project which would have netted over £4m for the Northumberland tax payer in Howdon?

We agree the governance problems at Arch are worth looking at very closely indeed particularly since 4 May 2017. 

So, dear reader, we'd like you to have a look at this picture and see if you can get NCC to explain how much cash will flow back to the council tax payer from a deal with Chinese property developers. Or to put it another way, why would property developers from China be interested in Northumberland without a core strategy and no power for neighbourhood plans?

 


 

We'll finish with an extract from Allison's own words when she was fronting 'Parents Against Decision to Scrap the Post-16 School Transport action group when she said she 'would be making a formal complaint to the council and the Local Government Ombudsman over misleading information'. 

We wonder if she'll now consider the irony of her threats to the council when she heads a 'ghost department' which the council refuses to confirm exists, overseeing 3 'secret investigations' in Arch costing a huge amount (we'd know how much if the council would release the Arch accounts for the first full year of Tory trading), jetting around the world while orchestrating a campaign against Arch and it's justified business generating trips to Cannes and other MIPIM events and we wonder if she'll be thinking of that old chestnut from right wing poster boy George Osbourne 'we're all in it together'?

This is an open question from the newly formed 'VOTERS AGAINST DECISIONS TO WASTE MILLIONS ON TORY PARTY POLITICAL ATTACKS' - 
When do we get the 'independent enquiry into the decisions taken by the 'co-defendants' since May 2017? 

A guide and nicknames of those mentioned 
Allison Joynson - Alison Joynson

Daljit Lally - co-defendant - she's being sued for misfeasance in public office. 

Peter Jackson - co-defendant - He'll be in the same court room. 

Richard 'Mouth of  Wear' Wearmouth - self explanatory but he really does like Sunderland City Council. 

Georgina 'the Queen of Transparency' Hill - she's also known as the 'co-conspirator' and the woman who refused £19m for Berwick

Not mentioned in this article but also part of the 'co-conspirator clan'  

Nick Oliver - Cabinet member for Corporate Affairs - 'the last man in the bunker' or the man who put the bent into Bentley

The rest of the Tory group - 'the useful idiots' or 'the lemmings' or the 'poor man's version of the Titanic orchestra.  

Bedlington Independents - see above plus 'we've sold out our town, what are we going to do to deflect' or 'Robbo's 'raiders' 




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Tuesday, 17 July 2018

Northumberland Conservatives Demand to Know what the Tories are Up To

Special signs have been put up on non-exits at County Hall, Morpeth as the Conservatives voted in on the groundswell of right-wing activity in May 2017 try to run away from the troubles brought to their door by Northumberland Tories.
A motion from a leading Tory to protect his mates the Tory Leader of Council and Tory Portfolio holder of Planning from personal ruin is to be put before the one party Cabinet, made up of Tories without Conservative input, on Tuesday 24th July at 11:00am to seek indemnity for two Councillors.
The report to Cabinet on-line states that public cash is to be paid out in lump sums of £10,000 and £15,000 as and when required, for an indefinite period, but doesn't inform the Council Taxpayer what the expenditure is for.
Real Conservatives and Independent Tories are running scared as they have no safeguards in place if they are dragged into the mire by the action of what were once their allies and whom they supported in removing the core strategy from inspection by their own Government, replacing it with a dire replica which closes the door to responsible affordable sustainable development in Northumberland dumping ever more homes on the South East and Rural Coalfield areas of the County.
Its been said by Labour Councillors that they will be drinking black coffee while this mess untangles and hope those who must indulge in the use of dairy products can dodge any escaping Conservatives who don't read the signs.



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Monday, 16 July 2018

Corbridge calling...… Corbridge calling.... Is Tory Nick Oliver the new Lord Haw Haw, king of fake news?

In a crowded field, Tory Nick Oliver, the twice bankrupt Cabinet Member for Corporate Services (that's finances to you and me) is staking out a strong claim to take over the King of Fake News mantle from the increasingly embattled council leader Peter Jackson. In an age where Northumberland's social media has been infected by the fake news virus, we're calling out the fake news purveyors and their toadies on social media. Whether it be fake profiles or fake 'independents', UKIP bailers or Lib Dem 'sell outs', Nick Oliver is certainly leading the way.



Here's a list of Oliver's favourite 'fake news lines' (We've nicknamed them the 'Fakies and there will be an awards ceremony to be held in the Ashington Hole) 

1.   There was a loss to the tax payer for the stand Ashington Football Club - even the auditor wouldn't back his claim up and his only ally in this claim was the increasingly shrill Chair of Audit who describes herself as an independent which shows she's not lost her sense of irony or her love of Ice Cream parlours. 

2.   The Chair of Arch was chauffeured around Cannes at the tax payers expense - The chair wasn't even in Cannes and the taxi was paid for by a private company - cue more shrill comments from the Ice Cream loving 'independent chair of audit'. 

3.   Labour created a £65m black hole - not even the auditor claims that the last administration created a 'financial blackhole' - in fact is created the opposite - £88m in reserves and £1b investment programme which increased revenue to the council at a time where Oliver's government were cutting council grants by over 85%. 

4.   There is no legal action alleging bullying, intimidation and corruption (or to give it its technical name misfeasance in public office) against the Leader, Oliver's Cabinet colleague and the Chief Executive - Lord Haw Haw once claimed 'that the people of England would curse themselves for preferring ruin from Churchill than peace from Hitler' - we all know how that ended up and its time local Tories woke up to the fact that they are faced with serious and potentially criminal charges. Instead of hiding behind the council tax payer who will pick up the bill for defending the serious allegations against the 'Core Strategy Three' why don't they just address the allegations lodged against them? Why not let the public decide on who is telling the truth?  

5.   There is a criminal investigation into Arch - Northumbria Police statement 'There is no criminal investigation into Arch' - Nick Oliver and his 'Neopolitan flavoured mukka the 'independent Chair of Audit' have regularly claimed that 'they can't speak about the evidence they've got, seen or imagined' yet they're quick to make claims without the evidence. When oh when will they end their illegal £500,000 witchunt? Not before the 2021 local elections we fear. 

6.   Arch once bought a £58 bottle of wine at Cannes - Oliver faces a future where a £58 bottle of wine will be described as value for money compared to potentially unlawful breaches of contract costing millions, dodgy and prejudiced investigations designed to smear their Labour 'demons' costing hundreds of thousands and a systematic politicisation of so called independent and non-political officers. Context is everything so when the legal action Oliver denies exists ends up costing the tax payer over 21,500 bottles of £58 wine, we'll see what his mea culpa is. 

7.   We're releasing this information about Active/Arch/Council finances because we're the most transparent council - The last council meeting ended up with a scene described as a cut from a Carry On film. Maybe the title could be Carry On Cover Up as the legal advice which stopped the meeting had a gag order placed on the legal advice. Councillors were warned they could not talk about the legal advice. Oliver has consistently made contradictory claims without any evidence. 

If ever there was a fitting metaphor for this scandal racked Tory regime is the news that the work being carried out on County Hall (which Peter Jackson infamously claimed only needed a £500,000 lick of paint) had caused the air conditioning to pack up. 

We hope that the £17m plus being pumped into a building which was described as 'clapped out' will keep the air conditioning on in the future while Ashington continues to be reminded every day of Tory failure with a massive hole. 

One wag claimed that Oliver was seen furiously digging in the Ashington 'hole'. For credibility's sake, one hopes that Oliver stops digging and takes a vow of silence as the facts are presented to the public of Northumberland by the growing number of external agencies who are taking an interest in Peter 'The Con' Jackson's first 150 days.

The sad thing is for 'Lord Haw Haw' and his co-conspirators is that they've done lasting damage in their short time and cost tax payers many millions and that really is no laughing matter.   


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