Monday, October 22, 2007
The truth laid bare for all to see
At last, after months of investigative work and meetings with various people the truth about this councils behaviour came out at our meeting last night in front of nearly 500 people in the Coatham Bowl. The most explosive information that we exposed, was the evidence provided by a whistleblower at the highest level of our council, a suppressed Audit Commission report from September 2006 which shows that this council in not doing a mid term financial plan for 06/07 08/09 and in not presenting it to council, the council was struggling to even be considered a 1 star authority, never mind the four star authority that they keep on boasting that they are.
This document was suppressed and taken out of circulation by a handful of senior officers who didn’t want the information that we aren’t a four star authority being made public and bringing to the attention of the council. They didn’t want to lose the money paid by the Government for councils that have four star status and according to the information that we have received from the whistleblower, they also did not want to jeopardise the chances of the old coalition taking control of the council once more at the local elections this May. This is serious now. In suppressing this document these people have acted fraudulently. Not only that, they have altered council minutes from March 2006 to make it look like this mid term financial plan had been done and presented to the council, when the Audit report from September 2006 that they have suppressed, shows that they haven’t! The thing is that councilors from the Redcar and Cleveland Borough council have known about the existence of this document, yet none of them have ever spoken out about it.
We have painstakingly collected all the evidence and have given it to the serious fraud office. It has also been taken to the Auditor general, G.O.N.E and the local Government ombudsman. We have approached an outside police force and an MP from another constituency who was appalled by the situation and who told us that they would be neglecting their duty if they did not intervene. We have approached a well respected investigative journalist and national publications and we are determined to get the independent inquiry into the actions of this council over this issue and the issue of Coatham. Which brings me to the Environment Agency documents that were given to us late on Saturday, which appear to show collusion between the Environment Agency, council and Persimmon about the issue of flooding in Coatham. The council and Persimmon have desperately tried to get out of building a multi million pound sea defence in Coatham. They have, in the documents provided, got the EA to go against their own consultants reports which show nearly two thirds of the site as being a zone three high flood risk area, and instead go with Persimmons' consultants who state that the area isnt a flood area hardly at all? Council officer Ian Hopley even states that he thinks that there may not even be a need for a sea defence!
In one email from an employee of the EA to other employees of the EA, it clearly states that the EA were going to do all they could to help this scheme because, and I quote “ a lot of money and the councils credibility is at stake”. When was the councils credibility or a lot of money ever deemed to be a consideration that had to be taken into account by the EA?
Once again, the truth and the real facts have been suppressed. Not only that, in one document it states that the decision to add their own planning condition to the planning consent for Coatham and not the Environment agencies planning condition, was taken by the LOCAL AUTHORITY AND NOT THE PLANNERS! In doing so the document clearly states that the council have gone against DEFRA/government guidelines. This statement backs up totally the information given to us by the whistleblower, that the decisions in Coatham were taken by a handful of officers in the council.
In this instance they have overrode the planners who had already agreed the wording of the Environment Agencies planning condition that stated that no houses could be built until the sea defence in Coatham had been built. It just so happens that in the main, the officers who have changed this condition to allow houses to be built before the sea defence is built and who have overrode the planners, are the same officers who have made most of the decisions in Coatham and are the same officers who have acted fraudulently in suppressing the Audit report which shows that this council isn't a four star authority and which is struggling to be a ONE STAR AUTHORITY, not the four star authority that they have been misleading people into believing that they are.
All of these documents will be scanned and put on this blog as soon as possible. All of these facts will be there for all to see. These truths were spoken in front of nearly five hundred people last night at the Coatham Bowl.
We are going to make sure that the investigation into the whole stinking lot begins.
This document was suppressed and taken out of circulation by a handful of senior officers who didn’t want the information that we aren’t a four star authority being made public and bringing to the attention of the council. They didn’t want to lose the money paid by the Government for councils that have four star status and according to the information that we have received from the whistleblower, they also did not want to jeopardise the chances of the old coalition taking control of the council once more at the local elections this May. This is serious now. In suppressing this document these people have acted fraudulently. Not only that, they have altered council minutes from March 2006 to make it look like this mid term financial plan had been done and presented to the council, when the Audit report from September 2006 that they have suppressed, shows that they haven’t! The thing is that councilors from the Redcar and Cleveland Borough council have known about the existence of this document, yet none of them have ever spoken out about it.
We have painstakingly collected all the evidence and have given it to the serious fraud office. It has also been taken to the Auditor general, G.O.N.E and the local Government ombudsman. We have approached an outside police force and an MP from another constituency who was appalled by the situation and who told us that they would be neglecting their duty if they did not intervene. We have approached a well respected investigative journalist and national publications and we are determined to get the independent inquiry into the actions of this council over this issue and the issue of Coatham. Which brings me to the Environment Agency documents that were given to us late on Saturday, which appear to show collusion between the Environment Agency, council and Persimmon about the issue of flooding in Coatham. The council and Persimmon have desperately tried to get out of building a multi million pound sea defence in Coatham. They have, in the documents provided, got the EA to go against their own consultants reports which show nearly two thirds of the site as being a zone three high flood risk area, and instead go with Persimmons' consultants who state that the area isnt a flood area hardly at all? Council officer Ian Hopley even states that he thinks that there may not even be a need for a sea defence!
In one email from an employee of the EA to other employees of the EA, it clearly states that the EA were going to do all they could to help this scheme because, and I quote “ a lot of money and the councils credibility is at stake”. When was the councils credibility or a lot of money ever deemed to be a consideration that had to be taken into account by the EA?
Once again, the truth and the real facts have been suppressed. Not only that, in one document it states that the decision to add their own planning condition to the planning consent for Coatham and not the Environment agencies planning condition, was taken by the LOCAL AUTHORITY AND NOT THE PLANNERS! In doing so the document clearly states that the council have gone against DEFRA/government guidelines. This statement backs up totally the information given to us by the whistleblower, that the decisions in Coatham were taken by a handful of officers in the council.
In this instance they have overrode the planners who had already agreed the wording of the Environment Agencies planning condition that stated that no houses could be built until the sea defence in Coatham had been built. It just so happens that in the main, the officers who have changed this condition to allow houses to be built before the sea defence is built and who have overrode the planners, are the same officers who have made most of the decisions in Coatham and are the same officers who have acted fraudulently in suppressing the Audit report which shows that this council isn't a four star authority and which is struggling to be a ONE STAR AUTHORITY, not the four star authority that they have been misleading people into believing that they are.
All of these documents will be scanned and put on this blog as soon as possible. All of these facts will be there for all to see. These truths were spoken in front of nearly five hundred people last night at the Coatham Bowl.
We are going to make sure that the investigation into the whole stinking lot begins.
// posted by Chris McGlade @ 4:51 AM 
