STANDARDS BOARD REPORT: The mystery deepens...

STANDARDS BOARD REPORT ON FIREMAN BRADLEY NOW 'IMMINENT'; DUE 'VERY SOON'; 'ANY DAY NOW'; 'JUST YOU WAIT', ETC, ETC, ETC

LIB DEMS ON TRIAL: 'Those mugs can pay for my legal costs'.

COUNCIL taxpayers are footing the bill for Fireman Bradley's legal defence against the Standards Board.

So far, the shock fee for assorted solicitors, barristers and legal advice has already reached a cool £10,000.

It is expected to at least TRIPLE when Fireman Bradley is hauled in front of the Adjudication Panel for England next year.

And every penny will be paid by the council's taxpayers.

So let us just recap on the story so far:

a) Bradley cocks up trying to get rid of the Harbarrowboy so badly that, in the end, the city council is forced to pay off Jase with a quarter of a million pounds.

Paid for by council taxpayers.

b) Bradley is prosecuted by ethics watchdogs over his blundering attempts to get rid of The Harbarrowboy. And his defence is now being funded by the city council.

Paid for by council taxpayers.

c) This is what is officially known in the trade as "adding insult to injury."

Bradley, who pockets £30,000 a year as Leader of the worst council in the country (special responsibility allowance of £20,600, plus the basic allowance of £9,900) on top of his firefighter's salary of £28,000 a year, has protested that he cannot afford to pay for his own legal defence.

So Colin CoverUp has authorised the city council's coffers to be thrown open to the current council leader.

No limit has been placed on the eventual legal bill.

The sky is the limit.

Meanwhile, after taking two weeks to read the secret Standards Board report which finds him guilty of repeated breaches of the councillors Code of Conduct, Bradley consulted with m'learned friends.

Then he finally submitted his response to the Standards Board last Wednesday.

(Basically his not guilty plea amounts to: "blame that Lee Forde fella and his mates; my children have suffered as a result of all this; I'm only a fireman; Look at how much Liverpool has benefitted from my leadership (sic); I never sent any emails or text messages to anyone.")

The Standards Board are now deciding how long they need to respond and/or amend their report.

Could be days.

Could be weeks.

Knowing them.

But publish the report they will.

Eventually.

Unless one of Bradley's legal eagles threatens them with a High Court injunction.

Which would be quite expensive.

But hey!

It's only council taxpayer's hard-earned money.

LIB DEMS ON TRIAL: " YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE, SOME OF THE TIME, BUT ...... (or, WHAT THE PAPERS SAY)

The following is a comment made by one of our loyal readers.

We think it deserves a higher profile.

"Well, having read the accounts in the papers, not only is it a sad and sorry account of Liverpool politics it is a sad and sorry account of the slanted reporting of the Liverpool/Oldham Echo.

The Post Article covers mainly the facts of the case and the reaction of other local politicians.

It states that Hurst has instructed his legal team to launch an appeal against the conviction etc.

Whereas our Lib Dem a*se licking Echo, passes quickly over the guilty verdict and reprehensible actions and then gives over half of their coverage to presenting Hurst as the victim.

They even put up a photgraph captioned “STRAIN Cllr Hurst says he will appeal”.

They cite the “horrendous strain” he has endured (since getting caught methinks).

But incredibly, well not for the Echo, I suppose, we then have almost half of the article quoting Bradley, his local party leader, personal friend and fellow firefighter.

Bradley tells us, “anyone who knows Steve (Hurst) from work, life or politics knows he is a really decent guy who does not deserve this.”

I would assume the Walton’s know him, given that the real victims of this will know him from work life and politics also.

I don’t think they will share that view.

Then they further quote Bradley: “There is a concerted smear campaign against him which has been a waste of public money.”

(Well he knows all about wasting public money.)

What the hell is the fool talking about?

Is he accusing the Walton’s of launching a smear campaign against Hurst?

Who has used public money to carry this out?

The only public money involved is related to the court prosecution in which he was found guilty.

Is it the police or the courts and the judge that have carried out the campaign?

Perhaps so, since Bradley continues: “You have to start questioning the judicial system, considering he was found guilty on circumstantial evidence.”

Very serious accusations Mr Bradley.

I hope you have more than circumstantial evidence to back them up.

So what was the evidence against Hurst that left the sentencing Judge in believing, beyond all doubt, in his guilt?

He had copies of the smear leaflet, he admitted this, claimed he was collecting them to take back to Lib Dem HQ.

He was identified by one of the people in whose letterbox he posted it, wearing his baseball cap and dark glasses, (in the evening).

It spoke of being a scab firefighter, he is also a firefighter.

It mentioned the Lee Park golf club, of which he is a member.

It spoke of leaving council meetings early, he is a councillor.

His constituency is Wavertree, what was he doing out leafleting alone miles away in BelleVale in the evening?

How many other constituencies did he go out alone in order to leaflet?

Well let’s look at the character witnesses...

Storey, already disgraced and forced to resign following the standards board investigation over the Henshaw affair, but brought straight back in by Bradley to a senior position to the disgust of many.

And Bradley himself.

The man awaiting findings from the standards board also as to whether he is fit for public office or has broken the code of standards of behaviour for Councillors.

A man who was exposed as a liar in the Daily Post claiming he never had a secret meeting with the person he allowed to be the fall-guy over Mathew Street.

Claimed he had not had communications nor sent texts trying to set up the meeting he never had, until presented with copies of the emails/texts.

And finally admitting that he did send them and that a meeting took place.

In his, not a dry eye in the house, speech to council he informed them that he had lodged a grievance with the Press Complaints Commission.

Another lie - it appears since it was later confirmed that no such complaint had been received. Well,you only need go back through these pages for any more.

So this is the man who is standing up in court asking us all to believe in the honesty, integrity and decency of Cllr Hurst.

Not worth a carrot!!

One other interesting point.

Going back to the waste of public money issue.

I suspect the real strain for Hurst is losing the additional £13,300 he got for serving on the Executive Board and the worry that if he had to resign his seat as a councillor that he would also lose the additional £9,900 for that.

All of which is of course on top of his fire fighter salary.

In court his wife tearfully spoke about their plans to emigrate to Australia on his retirement.

Well for one thing, what the hell is he doing running Liverpool and making decisions about it’s future when the first chance he gets he is off to live on the other side of the world.

It is bad timing really.

If this had been a good while ago, he could have been sent there for free courtesy of her Majesty.

So let’s keep an eye out for Bradley’s campaign to change the Justice system.

He may need to do this pretty soon.

They have got away with so much that they are now shocked that they are not actually above the law and just cannot accept being exposed and found out.

Despicable."

ETHICS WATCHDOGS HATCH 'SECRET DEAL' OVER BRADLEY AND STOREY

A 'SECRET DEAL' has been agreed between The Standards Board for England and Fireman Bradley and the Storeyteller over its investigation into the pair.

The 'ethics watchdog' has privately agreed with them that it would 'not be in Liverpool's best interests' if they found against the pair during Liverpool's Capital of Culture year.

So the Standards Board have agreed to delay publication of their findings for as long as possible during 2008.

That's why since May, the Standards (sic) Board has been telling anyone who asked that the result of its investigation would be known "in a few weeks" to try and put off damaging publicity for as long as possible.

A few weeks has now dragged on for a few months, and a few months and, er, a few months.

But this week, we can exclusively reveal that the Standards (sic) Board's findings will be made public "in a few weeks".

Or maybe not.

They will try and put off any decision for as long as they can get away with it - because it is "not in the city of Liverpool's best interests" to have its current political leader and its former political leader officially exposed in 2008 when the eyes of the world (ok, Oldham) are on us.

Meanwhile the Fireman is lording it around Liverpool One in front of gullible fools, while the Storeyteller pulls on the Deputy Mayoral chain of office and ermine in readyness for becoming 'Liverpool's First Citizen' next year.

(You really couldn't make this up could you?)

The charge sheet against both the Fireman and Storeyteller is long and varied, of course.

Aside from being weak, dishonourable, incompetent and wasting council taxpayer's money and Liverpool's best opportunity for a generation, the dozy Lib Dem pair have scaled new heights of unethical behaviour.

This includes cocking up Mathew Street and blaming everyone else but themselves, secretly plotting against The Harbarrowboy, sending dodgy emails to CoverUp, trying to lure Lee Forde into their conspiracy after publicly trying to 'do him in', drinking Peroni, lying repeatedly to the Daily Post, leaking Harbarrows' health to the Oldham Echo, etc, etc.

No doubt, when it eventually makes a public ruling on the Fireman and Storeyteller on November 24th, in the year 2047, the Standards Board will find that both have acted in accordance with the highest standards of public office.

QUESTION: Why did Colin CoverUp write this email to standards watchogs - but never send it...?

ABOVE is an email that Colin Hilton, the chief executive of Liverpool city council, wrote to the Standards Board to officially complain about the conduct of former council leader, Mike Storey.

Amazingly, and for reasons best known to himself, CoverUp NEVER SENT this email to the Standards Board.

It was written after a council investigation into the Storeyteller leaking details of The Harbarrowboy's heart condition to Joe Riley at the Oldham Echo.

The email outlines nine potential breaches of codes of conduct by the Storeyteller.

CoverUp told Jason Harbarrowboy that he had sent the letter and had made an official complaint to the Standards Board about the Storeyteller's conduct.

This was a lie. He did nothing of the kind.

The Harbarrowboy was astonished months later when he discovered that Hilton had never sent the email! He had kept it.

After a complaint by Jase, the Standards Board are now finally investigating the circumstances outlined by CoverUp's email - and how Storeyteller leaked details of the Harbarrowboy's health to the Oldham Echo.

If the Standards Board eventually find against the Storeyteller on this charge - one of several - it would also be curtains for Hilton.

It would mean that he had been complicit in a grave breach of the city council's Code of Conduct.

Yet he failed to draw it to the attention of the proper authorities.

We might also conclude that CoverUp has 'gone native' and thrown in his lot with the Lib Dims, forever compromising the last tatty remnants of his professional integrity.


The plot thickens.

Now read on...


16 July 2007




CH/KD/1607




Confidential




The Standards Board for England,
Fourth Floor,
Griffin House,
Lever Street,
Manchester.
M1 1BB

Dear Sirs,




I write to refer to you details of what I consider to be a breach of the Council’s Code of Conduct by Councillor Mike Storey CBE. I enclose a copy of my recent letter to Councillor Storey in which I set out the grounds for this referral.

As you will be aware Councillor Storey is a senior councillor and a member of the Council’s Executive Board. My Investigations have led me to conclude that he has supplied a story to the media consisting of confidential information about the health of a senior employee without any attempt to either check the particular facts or to discuss internally whether or not such information needed to be released and, if it did, what would be the best way to present such information so as to exercise care towards the employee and protect the reputation of the council.


Whilst the councillor is also a Director of the Council’s Capital of Culture Company (to whom the senior employee concerned reports directly) neither the service nor the employee comes directly within the councillor’s portfolio and the matter was not, therefore, within the responsibility of the councillor. I can think of no proper motive for the councillor having directly approached the media to disclose the information but, in any event, the councillor denies so doing. I set out below extracts from the Council’s Constitution which I believe to be relevant.
Member Officer Protocol (copy enclosed):-

Para 6.1 – must keep confidential information confidential


Para 6.3 – information about someone’s private or business affairs – will normally be confidential (in my view this must include the health of an employee and even if it were necessary to make a public announcement about the health of a senior employee that should have been done properly through the Council by the appropriate people).
Para 7.1 – personal relationships must be based on mutual respect

Para 7.3 - must strive to avoid developing antagonistic competitive relationships with each other.


Para 10.2 – members should not become personally involved in staffing matters

Employees Code of Conduct (also in Council’s Constitution)


Page 5/26 of the Constitution reproduces Paragraph 74 of the National Conditions of Service for APT&C staff:-
“Information concerning officers’ private affairs shall not be supplied to any person outside the service of the employing authority unless the consent of such officer is first obtained.”

Members Code of Conduct


Paragraph 2(b) - treat others with respect

Paragraph 2(c) – not do anything which compromises or which is likely to compromise the impartiality of those who work for or on behalf of the City Council.


Paragraph 3(c) - a Member must not disclose information which he believes is of a confidential nature without consent.

Please note that in view of the importance of this matter the Council’s Monitoring Officer has been involved in advising me and, therefore, in the expectation that you will decided to investigate this matter I would request that the investigation be carried out by one of your own Ethical Standards Officers.


Yours sincerely


Colin Hilton
Chief Executive

Our Lord Redmond cancels closing ceremony so 2008 will end....

OUR Lord Redmond has cancelled plans for a closing ceremony for 2008 - because there is no money left in the kitty.

Redmond, a multi-millionaire who lives in Cheshire, pulled the plug at a meeting in the Millenium House Fun Palace this afternoon.

He had appointed himself as the producer of the show and was due to take all the credit for single-handedly designing a showpiece event.

Liverpool subCulture understands that these were some of Redmond's planned highlights:

• The March of the Superlambananas - a parade of all the Japanese-made statues which were erected around the city.


• Karaoke Kop - a massed choir in the Oldham Echo Arena singing their favourite Beatles songs.


• 'I'm a Scouser, get me out of here!' - a new series broadcast on closed circuit TV all around the city where celebrity scousers try to out-do each other with their quaint Scouse mannerisms. This was Our Lord's own, totally original, idea.


• Build your own bench, sponsored by Rapid. A mass creative cultural experience for local people to show how fully engaged they are in Liverpool 2008. In a new innovation, benches can be made from wastepaper made in Oldham. Redmond said: “I said at the beginning, it’s not simply a bench. It’s also a cultural resting place." (He did actually say this, eds)


• Build Your Own Pub, sponsored by Cains.


• A great after-show party for Phil and his mates, including Pete Price (welcome back Pete, eds), Clare Sweeney, Sinbad and various other extras from Brookside.


• The Phil Factor - Our Lord judges the world class local talent who come on, trip up over some tatty 08 branding and then start singing old Frank Sinatra songs. Into the wrong microphone.


• 'Standards are Slipping' - a look back at the city's rich political history, culminating in a pyrotechnic re-enactment of the Fireman's famous 'Walk of Death' to judgement day by the Standards Board for England.


• Carry On Cover Up - a light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek romp through the farcical goings-on at Liverpool Town Hall.


• Double Your Money - a live casino on the waterfront where council taxpayers give up all their money to incompetent council bureaucrats who then disappear to retirement homes in Formby, Spain and Wales.

Unfortunately we are now going to miss all these treats. Because all the money has been spent. Gone, Vanished. Disappeared. The cupboard is bare. There is no more dosh. It doesn't grow on trees yer know. We are brassic. Aint got a cent, lah. On our uppers, Phil mate.

Redmond had originally wanted £1million for the end of the year show when he began planning his great moment six months ago. Then the budget was halved to half a million - the amount being paid to Hasitall as a reward for his incompetence. Then the budget was going to be dependent on what could be raised in ticket sales for seats for the show at the Oldham Arena. Then at today's meeting, Redmond was finally told there were no more spondulicks.

What's more, since the long-suffering Culture Company staff are all out on their ears on December 31st, not many were going to be daft enough to rally around to make multi-millionaire Redmond look good.

No doubt he will now try to cobble something together with a few of his 'mates' to try and save his face. But it won't be anything like what he had planned - or the people of Liverpool had expected.

Perhaps the Oldham Echo can organise a 'Save the Show' campaign?

FAMOUS FIVE DISAPPEAR FROM TREASURE ISLAND by Enid Blyton

WHATEVER has Colin CoverUp done to the Famous Five?

His 5-man Executive Management Team (EMT) has now all but disappeared from the law-breaking city council.

The only two left are CoverUp's mate and chief 'yes' man Stuart Smith, who was last spotted hiding under a desk with his hands over his ears and regeneration boss John Kelly (who has had such an impact on the city that we had quite forgotten him, until reminded by one of our commentators below).

Its the end of an era and no more lashings of Cains ginger beer and ham-fisted sandwiches for the super-directors.

The smiling assassin Hasitall has been booted out of the Municipal Buildings with a half a million pay-off after making the council the worst in the country.

Social Services Executive Director Tony Hunter, last seen looking like death warmed up after years of bullying by the rottweiller McElhinney, has legged it to become chief exec of Cleethorpes or somewhere equally obscure.

The 'Cultural' Exec Director, otherwise known as the Harbarrowboy, has been given a £250,000 pay-off, a season ticket to Tans R Us and a hammock on the Costa del Cock Up.

As one blog contributor has aptly noted, that leaves only Cover Up and nonentities in charge of the lawbreaking city council - the worst in the country.

Difficult to get a quorum for EMT meetings then.

Good to know that the city's biggest employer is in such safe hands, if you will forgive the pun.

Never mind though.

We are sure it won't be too long before Cover Up again appoints a costly firm of headhunters (breaking all the city council's procurement rules) to scour the country looking for 'top talent'.

"We are determined to appoint the best possible leaders," said a grim-faced council spokesman "to take Liverpool forward to a bright new dawn where children play happily in sun-kissed meadows, couples skip hand in hand through the latest shopping mall and literally millions of journalists from the Washington Post visit the city to witness a huge £1.8million thing lumbering through the streets (obviously Lord Redmond's ego, eds)"explained a council spokesman.

With the post of City Solicitor now being advertised for the third time (still no takers) perhaps word has got about?

Maybe we can stand-by for a whole new team of overpaid, lacklustre bureaucrats appointed on £225,000 a year, plus Performance Related Pay, to transform the worst council in the country into a new Jerusalem.

Yeah, right.

Historical note: You will recall that it was the evil Henshaw who first appointed four yes men (and one woman) as £150,00-a-year Executive Directors soon after being named chief executive by The Storeyteller.

The Famous Five then were:

• Colin CoverUp (Education)
  
• Hasitall (Resources)
  
• The rottweiller McEhinney (specially brought by Henshaw from Knowsley to mastermind dirty tricks)
  
• Annie Shepperd (daft as a brush)
  
• Charlie Parker (cockney wide boy).

Gordon steps in to spare Halsall's blushes...

PRIME Minister Gordon Brown has stepped in to spare the blushes of the smiling assassin Hasitall as he fights to save his failing reputation.

Some impish person, with a mischievous sense of humour (who could that possibly be? eds), appended Halsall's signature to the excellent petition currently on the No 10 Downing Street web site, calling for an independent investigation into the city council's finances.

Readers will recall that the Lib Dim city council was branded by the Audit Commission as the worst council in the country for its lack of financial stewardship, ably masterminded for the last nine years by the smiling assassin.

No sooner had Phil Halsall's name appeared on the petition than it was spotted by panic-stricken minions in the City Treasurer's department.

They urgently tracked down the £230,000-a-year (plus Performance Related Pay) smiling assassin on the golf course where he was swinging the lead, (shouldn't he be slinging his hook? eds).

Hasitall went ballistic, seeing the jape as all part of the civil war with Colin CoverUp and a further attempt to discredit him (are any MORE attempts needed? eds).

Hasitall immediately contacted the bald legal eagle Ken Unworthy, a close ally in his fight with Cover Up, to demand immediate action.

Emails were soon winging their way to the hard-pressed web master at No 10, demanding that Downing Street immediately remove Halsall's name from the petition.

There followed lengthy legal exchanges between the worst council in the country and No 10 - including threats of a High Court injunction - all carried out at an unknown cost to the taxpayer.

Halsall, renowned for his Daily Torygraph reading habits, also had the cheek to consult Unison, to intercede on his behalf.

Hasitall even went to see his mate Chas to see if he could help out by offering to throw a fund-raising gig for Gordon.

Finally, Colin Cover Up was reluctantly forced to intervene and write to No 10 vouching for the hated Halsall's bona fides.

(Oh, the ignomy, the ignomy, eds)

Eventually, No 10 relented and agreed to remove Halsall's name from the petition, allowing him to return to the golf course with his reputation, er, intact.

Any suggestion that Gordon is now considering bringing in Hasitall to aid his besieged Chancellor, is, of course, entirely without foundation.

Our Lord Redmond wants Superlambananas back again next year....

COVER-UP'S SECRET PHONE SURVEILLANCE (CONT) - LETTER FROM JOE ANDERSON TO LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCILLORS.....

From: Anderson, Joe (Councillors /Municipal Buildings)

Sent: 06 July 2008 17:08

To: /*The Liberal Democrat Group Councillors; /*The Labour Group Councillors; /*The Liberal Group Councillors; /*The Green Group Councillors

Cc: Kenworthy, Michael

Subject: Monitoring of phone calls

Importance: High

Dear Councillor

Re: Secret searching of Councillors phone records.

I feel I have no other option but to write to every Councillor of the City and set out what I consider to be a grave breach of the Council’s policy and procedures and probably actions which have broken the law. I believe this is an issue that affects us all and I am asking for your support.

Some weeks ago I, along with others, was asked to co-operate with an inquiry being run by the Council and I was also asked that, if required, would I agree to my Council e-mail traffic being looked at. Like all Councillors, my email traffic contains information and correspondence of a highly confidential nature, particurlarly involving casework issues and politically sensitive material. However after some consideration I agreed to this and was interviewed by Internal Audit.

I asked for a copy of the findings of the investigation and received a copy of the report in June. I was totally shocked and disgusted to see the Council had not only inspected my Council email facilities, but had also monitored my telephone calls (which included both Council and private) and reported on them within the report itself . The details included who I had phoned and how many times, the information also included the telephone numbers of who I had phoned. The Council commented on the number of times I had called a particular member of the press. I have of course demanded to know who gave the permission for this to take place and I have also demanded to know who else has had there phone records checked in the past.
Whoever gave the instruction for my private telephone records to be checked has, at least:

I. Exceeded the powers of their office
II. Acted outside of the Council’s own policy and procedures
III. Invaded my privacy as Leader of the main opposition (possibly others)
IV. Probably broken the Data Protection Act
V. Almost certainly breached the Officer/Member protocol
VI. In all probability infringed my civil liberties (and possibly others)
VII. Clearly abused their power as an Officer of the Council

I have sent as a number of FOI questions about whether others have in the past had there e-mails or phones secretly monitored. I have also sent of a complaint to the Information Commissioner and asked whether the law has been broken. The City Solicitor has also referred the Council to the Commissioner and apologised (some comfort to me and you).

There has been much public concern about Council's apparently misusing surveillance powers which do exist against members of the public. In this instance it seems that a Councillor has been targeted for an inproper intrusion into private records, by the Council. If the Council behaves like this against the Leader of the Opposition, goodness only knows how it would behave in relation to a backbench Councillor or a member of the public. We as Councillors rely upon our Officers to behave in a proper manner. If they do not, the bond of trust is destroyed and elected members are unable to carry out their duties properly - the end result is that the public are not well served.

I hope you will agree with me that firm action needs to be taken. To this end, I am going to move an amendment to the Motion before Council on the 9th that demands a full and independent investigation into this matter the investigation should look at the following:

Ø What other members have had their records checked?
Ø What Policy has been used to undertake these outrageous secret searches?
Ø What other occasions have e-mail, telephone records been checked since 2005?
Ø What reports have Councillors seen on secret searches?
Ø Who authorised the search of my phone calls?

I believe this is as serious incident as I have ever witnessed in public life. Democracy is precious to all of us and we must defend our rights as elected Councillors including our civil liberties, right to privacy and respect. We can not accept any Officer viewing themselves as above the law and acting in such an unacceptable manner.

This is not a political issue. I am calling on Councillors from each Party to support my actions and demand an independent inquiry as only this can restore trust. We must then take decisive action against those who have behaved in such a way.

Yours sincerely

Councillor Joe Anderson

To readers of the Liverpool Daily Post......

WELCOME - to the Liverpool subCulture blog.

• Legal




• Decent




• Honest




• Truthful

(Unlike the city council)....

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The rottweiller and LDL - theft on a grand scale......

HENSHAW'S rottweiller Dr David McElhinney has been accused of ripping off the people of Liverpool - by a local government watchdog.

McElhinney's Liverpool Direct Limited is now revealed as charging the city council an extra £15million a year - but no-one knows what for!

"It is not clear what these charges are for," says the local government improvement agency, the IDeA in stark and unequivocal terms.

The report reveals that McElhinney's LDL partner, British Telecom has pocketed a staggering £57million in management fees from LDL in the last two years alone.

While McElhinney's LDL empire has alone trousered an astonishing £123million from the city council for 'operating costs' in the same two years.

(Not all of this has been spent on a private shower for McElhinney, of course, eds)


“The basis of billing is opaque and management information does not include any cost information. The lack of transparency on billing and the value for money in the core contract have raised doubts about the value for money overall, ” says the IDeA, with breathtaking understatement.

It adds: "The spirit of the partnership is not working to the advantage of Liverpool City Council”.

You can say that again.

Full marks to the Liverpool Daily Post for lifting the lid on the LDL scandal by publishing details of the leaked IDeA report.

The IDeA have been brought in to run the rule over the worst council in the country - and come up with solutions for improvement.

They have now demanded an urgent review of the LDL operation.

McElhinney's transfer from the city council to become chief executive of LDL - secretly mastermined by Henshaw before he was forced to quit - is also questioned by the IDeA.

“The arrangement for seconding a Liverpool director to run this contract further blurs lines and loyalties - and should be addressed.”

The rottweiller's reaction to this devastating indictment of his personal empire was typical - he lied.

He immediately tried to publicly deny that the IDeA had called for an urgent review of the LDL contract with the city council.

Then he tried to bully council staff into issuing a statement refuting the independent and impartial findings of the IDeA.

This time, however, the rottweiller could find no allies who were prepared to cover-up and justify the systemic corruption at the heart of LDL.

What is utterly remarkable about this grand scale rip-off and larceny, of course, is that it comes 18 months after Colin 'Cover Up' Hilton promised to sort out the LDL joint venture with BT, after admitting that it had cost the city council millions of pounds.

A secret report by KPMG - which Hilton steadfastly refused to make public - had made 37 separate recommendations to tighten up the deal with LDL.

Hilton, who is being paid £250,000 a year as chief executive of the worst council in the country(plus Performance Related Pay at 15 per cent every year), promised to implement all the recommendations in full by March of this year.

Hilton, who is on the LDL board, has clearly failed to do so - at least according to the IDeA report.

The other Lib Dim member of the board, Councillor Peter Millea, also appears to have been completely incapable of getting a grip on things in the interests of council taxpayers.

Any suggestion that McElhinney, a Liverpool FC season ticket holder, has exerted any improper influence on Millea, also a Liverpool FC season ticket holder, is completely without foundation.

It would be unthinkable that McElhinney could have 'bought off' Millea with any favours or inducements.

But the explanation for Millea's apparent silence is still a complete and baffling mystery. What has he been doing to safeguard the interests of the people of Liverpool?

Meanwhile it is worth reminding ourselves of Henshaw's role in this daylight robbery of council taxpayers's money.

You will remember that he was the architect of the LDL joint venture with BT and that he brought McElhinney with him from Knowsley to force it through in Liverpool.

This is what Henshaw, now in charge of the North West's National Health Service, had to say about LDL and the joint venture with BT:

"Liverpool was in a fairly desperate state of circumstances in ’99. We had the third from worst record in terms of quality of service and delivery, and we charged the highest council tax in the country.
And here we had to really look at the future and transform ourselves radically into a whole new wayof delivering public service.
A number of local authorities are making use of BT’s ability
in business transformation. What we are using, are technology platforms as a core part of that transformation agenda. And so with BT you are getting that expertise and depth on telecoms’ game, but also a huge growing support in terms of what you need to do in business transformation. For me they have been a massive addition to our
weaponry here in the recovery of Liverpool and the transformation of the city council. I think it’s a pretty compelling offer.
HR was in a muddle like the rest of the business, and what we needed
to do was do that full scale transformation, moving it from a very high cost intensive transactional business with HR people around the organisation in separate pockets, into a basically web enabled system self serve intranet based operation, and BT were hugely supportive of using the platforms that we were building with them, as well as offering expertise and help in just moving the business away from the old model tothe new construct. They’ve gone through a lot this themselves they are still in journey and transformation so we did a lot of listening to them about the problems they’d faced.
BT have been a very powerful partner with us, the technecological platforms they’ve got, the skills, the depth and all that is I think is well spoken about and well researched and well evidenced. But what’s been most important with this joint venture we have with BT has been the collaborative nature of that relationship. We each work to our strengths, we bring strengths to that relationship.
And it’s very much founded on the outcomes rather than process of the engagement.
We’re basically doing over a million transactions a month both in revenue, benefits and other associated areas. This is one of the essential bits you’re judged by as a local authority. If you aren’t getting this right, you aren’t doing the basics right. So this has been an absolutely central part of the recovery agenda, and it was a mess. Now that was actually quite challenging, major risk management challenges there about stopping the systems for well over 6 weeks we thought at one stage and actually keeping services levels at least going whilst we fixed everything and built the new platforms.
BT have bought a huge expertise in technology, a huge understanding of big mass transactions systems, but equally we’ve bought something to the party and I think it was a very good illustration of both a contractor BT and a client working together seamlessly.
Here we were sitting down facing what was quite an attractable
problem in terms of quality of business and cost space.
But by working together and bringing expertise from both sides of the equation, we’ve found a solution which was tailored to Liverpool and which we were now rolling out elsewhere. BT is very supportive here, we had a very very carefully planned project, very very carefully evaluated, very good risk management analysis on it and we did a very good job of this. We turned around far quicker than we thought, anticipations
were at the high end of our expectations in terms of the timescale, most
importantly the business didn’t collapse. We actually kept on, not at the higher levels, but the business carried on and confidence wasn’t shaken amongst our customers. And within a matter of weeks, we were back up again and recovering to really high performing top quartile type performance was being achieved.
We’ve moved the performance of the authority up dramatically from a
very poor rating to a good rating, knocking on the door of excellent. And we’ve also massively reduced the cost space of the business taking £120 million out over five years. Head counts down from 23,500 to 19,000, but overall this is now a high performing quality business that’s delivering the quality of service to our customers that wasn’t the case in the
past." Sir David Henshaw

What utter, self-serving bollocks this little man talks.

Other interesting stuff here: More bollocks from Henshaw about LDL

LDL "save millions for Liverpool" - you couldn't make this stuff up. But they do!

Cover Up monitors Anderson's mobile - and breaks the law for a second time....

Colin Cover Up has broken the law for the second time - by monitoring Labour leader Joe Anderson's private phone calls and publishing their details.

Mr Hilton, CBE, the city council's £250,000-a-year chief executive (plus Performance Related Pay at 15 per cent, eds) has fallen foul of Labour Leader Joe Anderson just days after it emerged that he was routinely breaking the council's own rules.

Now it transpires that he has routinely broken the law of the land too.

Astonishingly, Cover Up has broken the Data Protection Act by authorising the monitoring of Anderson's phone calls as part of an internal inquiry into the leaking of details about the Paul McCartney 'Liverpool Sound' concert at Anfield.

Anderson was amazed to find that investigators had covertly monitored the calls he had made on his council mobile phone (which he pays for) without seeking either his permission or authority, as part of their report.

The city council has now admitted it has broken the law - and Acting City Solicitor Ken Unworthy has been forced to issue a grovelling apology to Anderson for breaching Human Rights legislation, as well as the Data Protection Act.

Anderson meanwhile has already complained to the Information Commissioner who, readers may recall, found the council guilty of breaking the law over publishing details of mobile phone records exactly a year ago.

Legendary Liverpool Solicitor Rex Makin is also now chipping into the fray on behalf of Anderson, scenting blood.

The Information Commissioner ruled last June that the city council had broken the first principle of the Data Protection Act by publishing details of former Communications Director Matt Finnigan's phone calls (as well as his emails) in the Storey/Henshaw battle over Sir Diddy's pension demands.

Well, the slow-to-learn-its-lesson city council under Cover Up and 'new broom' Bradley has now done exactly the same thing again!

Regular readers will recall that back in April, Sir Paul Macca gave the incompetents at the Culture Company an ultimatum to hand over the organisation of his gig to his events company.

Macca demanded that the Lib Dems hand over £1.9million for the gig or he would pull out - and they meekly complied, despite the city council being £62million in the red.

The Daily Post and Radio Murkeyside followed up the Liverpool SubCulture report. The Furious Fireman then angrily denounced the leak on Roger Phillips, fearing that making public his cock-up's would cost him more votes in the May local elections.

Anyroadup, the Furious Fireman then forced Cowardly Colin Cover Up to authorise an internal investigation into who had leaked all the confidential details.

(Hey, the blog could potentially earn a distinction in this year's Academy Alliteration Awards! eds)

Councillor Anderson, who has of course, a fine, noble and upstanding record of ensuring the Liverpool public know exactly what the Lib Dims have been up to, was interviewed by the council's po-faced internal audit team during their leak inquiry.

And their official leak report has now been officially leaked, unofficially.

(You really couldn't make this stuff up, could you? How funny is that? eds)

The leak report is unable to come to any definite conclusions at all about who leaked the details of the Macca ultimatum (of course not, eds)

But, with an amazing burst of political insight, it points a trembling finger at Councillor Anderson on the basis that Labour might just have had something to gain from embarrassing and exposing the Lib Dims in the run-up to the May local elections.

(Blimey. Shades of Inspector Clueless here. Impressive investigatory skills and fantastic powers of deduction being demonstrated. Might have had something to gain eh? - do you really think so? eds)

However, the council report reveals that it secretly monitored Anderson's mobile phone calls and publishes how he phoned certain numbers.

And that's not the slightest bit funny.

Indeed it infringes the Human Rights Act and the Data Protection Act.

We think the Information Commissioner may well take a very dim view of the city council's repeated law-breaking.

Doing anything remotely interesting the week beginning July 14th??????

SADLY, Pete Price is going on his jollies in July, so we won't be treated to his truly amazing radio show on City Talk-but-no-one-listens.

However, all is not lost.

As Pete informs us on his rather excellent blog, his place as "dj" is going to be taken by The Harbarrowboy, fresh from the hacienda.

This could be fun....

Just when you thought it had all gone quiet....another leaked report on Colin Cover Up

Chief executive Colin Cover Up has repeatedly broken the city council's own rules to appoint squads of headhunters - at a staggering cost to council taxpayers of more than £500,000.

That's the damning conclusion of an internal audit report into the appointment of Executive recruitment agencies, which has been leaked from a meeting of Cover Up's own Executive Management Team.

And it also warns that the city council may have acted illegally in their appointment procedure for a new City Solicitor, because it broke the council's own rules.

(Illegally appointing the top legal eagle, eh? You couldn't make this stuff up! eds)

The report accuses Cover Up, aka the £250,000-a-year Mr Hilton, CBE, and his team of highly paid Executive Directors, of breaking the council's own rules in engaging agencies to fill top positions.

It tells how the city council has engaged two recruitment agencies Veredus and Gatenby Sanderson since April 2006 at a mind-boggling cost of £445,000.

Veredus were originally taken on to handle the appointment of two senior positions in the Regeneration portfolio.

The leaked report says:

"But it appears that another portfolio has used their services without following the quotation procedures. In 2006/7 a total of £208K was paid to Veredus with £39K being paid to them in 2007/8."

(What? The worst council in the country forked out a quarter of a million quid to headhunters to fill just three posts? Are they certifiably insane? eds)

The leaked report says that Gatenby Sanderson were also taken on to recruit four 'executive positions', but:

"they have been used to fill at least one additional position for which quotation procedures were not followed. Having spent £53K on Gatenby Sanderson in 2006/7, a futher £145K was spent in 2007/8."

(This is mind-blowing. Are they totally out of control and above their own law? eds)

Hilton again failed to obey proper procedures when he appointed yet another recruitment agency, Rockpools to handle the appointment of a new City Solicitor (in a failed attempt to replace Ken Unworthy - but that's another story, eds)

The cost of that has yet to emerge but easily takes the total bill past half a million smackeroos....

The picture painted by the report is of Cover Up lolloping around the Municipal Buildings doling out public money here there and everywhere, without so much as a by-your-leave.

And breaking every council rule in the book into the bargain.

Presumably the Fireman was on a freebie in Las Vegas at the time, or making a speech about how things have got so much better in the last ten years?

The council's Standing Orders say that for expenditure below £100,000, three separate quotes need to be obtained.

Hilton routinely ignored this and gave away contracts to recruitment agencies without following established rules and procedures.

We wonder how many other contracts he has given away and to whom?

The internal report says that the 'three quotes' rule must be obeyed except in emergencies, or where competitive prices cannot be obtained.

It adds:

"In such circumstances it is the Head of Corporate Procurement who decides whether the procurement can be made, not the the Chief Officer (Cover Up)."

In other words, Cover Up old fruit, you exceeded your authority well and truly - do not overstep the mark again. Shades of the evil Sir Diddy, aka Sir David Henshaw.

(Editor's Note: What should happen now, of course, is that Hilton should summon himself to his own office in the Municipal Buildings and read himself a letter, from himself, suspending himself from duty, pending an investigation into these 'procurement irregularities.'

Then, in the time honoured tradition, he should strip himself of his mobile phone, blackberry and council pass; force himself to empty all the council paper clips from the pocket of his smoking jacket and then escort himself off the premises past his open-mouthed colleagues.

He should only pause on the way out, as he passes the rottweiller McElhinney's Jaguar, to quietly advise himself "not to let this drag out, in your own interests."

Then he should ban himself from talking to any of his colleagues, speaking to the media, or visiting any council premises.

He should send himself threatening letters hand-delivered by taxi-courier to his own home late at night, summon himself for medical examinations on a whim and carry out an extraordinary campaign of harassment and attempted intimidation against himself.

If Cover Up thought any of these corporate bully-boy tactics were part of an incredible abuse of power and morally indefensible, he could always start his own blog, or something, to expose those responsible - ie, himself.

But of course, none of that could possibly happen in Liverpool. It would be utterly unthinkable.

Although it would make a suitably surreal plot for our colleague, Prof Chucklebutty.)

Meanwhile, the internal leaked report concludes:

"EMT are reminded that the Contract Standing Orders apply to all officers and must not be circumvented under any circumstances."

Interesting choice of word.

The Executive Management Team are then advised to "consider their position" (some cheeky auditor's invitation for them to resign, eds) "in relation to the City Solicitor Post given that the Contract Standing Orders have not been followed in procuring the services of Rockpools."

What all this means is that Cover Up has been astonishingly reckless with public money, wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds of council taxpayers dosh and flagrantly breaking all council rules into the bargain.

And he will brazen the whole thing out with no action being taken against him by the weak and cowardly Lib Dims. Perhaps Cover Up will, however, order a leak inquiry? He has it all to do now.

So an everyday story for the city council, then.

Memo to the city council leak machine: Thanks very much for leaking this report - it confirms our worst suspicions - and we know there is more still to come. If you would care to provide further detail about the other sensational matters mentioned in previous missives, we will be happy to reproduce them here in full for our adoring public. However, can we make a special request? The latest leak passed to us was on a single A4 sheet of paper - that's the ideal length, because we are extremely busy with other matters at the moment and we can't be arsed ploughing through the usual council report gobbledegook of 97 pages of tedium. Keep the next few leaks similarly short and snappy and to the point. You can email further leaks to tonysparrishioners@hotmail.co.uk, or liverpoolsdandypat@hotmail.com, or liverpoolevilcabal@hotmail.com Any of those will get to the right people one way or another. Ta very much.

WE NAME THE GUILTY MEN FOR HER MADGE: NO 1 - THE SMILING ASSASSIN HASITALL..

LIB DIM 'DIRTY TRICKS' - MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS....

TODAY'S excellent story in the Daily Post about the Lib Dim 'dirty tricks' campaign for Leader, tells only half the story.
Post readers will now know that the Boot estate report, which roundly condemned Councillor Kemp's previous activities on the estate, was anonymously posted to every member of the Lib Dem group on the eve of Monday's Leadership election.
The report contained enough damaging material on Kemp to successfully do him in, before a single vote had even been cast by Lib Dim councillors.
"Cllr Kemp said he was in no doubt the mailshot had come from within the Lib-Dems to undermine his challenge, as the labels used were virtually identical to those usually used by the party," the Post recounts.
Tsk, tsk.
Whatever next...

• But who could have been behind such a disgraceful tactic?

• Who could have descended to such gutter tactics against a member of their own Lib Dim Party?

• And who stood to gain most from Councillor Kemp's challenge being torpedoed?

These are all interesting questions....
But there can obviously be no truth whatsoever in the astonishing reports that Council Leader Warren Bradley had, by complete co-incidence, asked chief executive Colin Hilton for a copy of the report just a few days before the Leadership ballot.
Nor can there be any truth whatsoever in the extraordinary report that Colin CoverUp dutifully supplied the Fireman with a copy of the Boot Estate report in double quick time.
For that would mean that:

• a) CoverUp had knowingly conspired with Bradley against Kemp.

• b) And that Bradley's description of the mystery mailing as 'crass' in today's Post was an example of gross hypocrisy from the city's Leader.

And there remain more questions about the incident of the Boot Estate report.
1) Since it would obviously be absolutely unthinkable for the upstanding Bradley (soon to appear before the Standards Board) to be the mystery mailer - what other purpose could he have had for the report? Bed-time reading?
2) How long will it now take Uncle Joe to get his hands on a copy?
3) Will CoverUp still refuse to give him a copy?
4) And if Bradley did not mail out the report, who on earth within the Lib Dims did?
Any suggestion that the city's first citizen, Councillor Paul Clark, Lord Mayor and a practising barrister, was a willing accomplice, would, of course, be so far-fetched and ludicrous as to be absolutely unthinkable.

LIB DEM LEADERSHIP RESULT: "Infamy, infamy - they've all got it in for me!" Ooooooooh, what a Carry On!

So here's the result:
Bungling Fireman - 26 votes
Hypocrite Kemp - 13 votes
Paul Clein - 7 votes

Almost half the Lib Dem group of 46 councillors refused to vote for the bloke who has been their Leader for the last two miserable years.
Hardly a vote of confidence in Bradley's Carry On leadership then.

(Maybe it will end up being one of them there Pilchard victories? ed)
No wonder Labour were rubbing their hands with glee at the apparent blind stupidity (you promised never ever to use that phrase ever, ever again, so help you God, eds) of the Lib Dim group.
As sure as eggs is eggs, Bradley is for the high jump from the Standards Board when it finally gets its act together and starts moving a bit quicker than a snail in quick-setting concrete.
What a Carry On this will all be in Capital of Culture year.
Bradley is banking, however, on the opening of Liverpool One and the McCartney concert bringing him some much needed summer joy and respite.
We suspect that Grovenor will be moving heaven and earth to keep a distance from the discredited regime.
And Macca will continue to marginalise the city council and Culture Company from any involvement at Anfield (won by Labour on May 1st, eds).

This won't stop gullible journalists from the craven Echo and CityTalks-but-no-one-listens giving Bradley the opportunity to stand in front of something stupid and say: "What a fantastic day this is for Liverpool! Ten years ago we were...etc, etc."
More discerning scribes - such as those now working on a Radio 4 investigation into the missing milions and especially the role played by the Rottweiller's Liverpool Direct Limited, Chas Cole and the smiling assassin - may take a slightly more rigorous perpective.
We live in hope.
But then there is the trial of Counclllor Hurst in late July, which should also be worth a seat in the public gallery.
And so on and so forth.
Meanwhile the old nag Clucas, who refused at the last minute in the paddock, has reserved the right to stand in any future Lib Dem leadership contest.
(She's a wily old filly, isn't she? eds)
And the Leader-in-waiting, the Arch Hypocrite Kemp will be busily working behind the scenes in the next few months to try and win friends and influence people and shore up more support amongst the Lib Dims.
By which stage Uncle Joe should have his hands on the Boot Estate report.
Meanwhile God knows what Paul Clein will do - he's capable of anything.
And a substantial rump of Lib Dims, led by the ga-ga Sir Trevor will be wringing their hands in despair as the Fireman tries to bluff his way out of the Standards Board.

• Bradley's first test will come this week when he announces his new Cabinet and reveals whether he has kept a place for the Storeyteller.He was promising anyone who would listen in the last week that he would be sacking the Storeyteller. We shall see.
  

No wonder Labour were grinning like cats that got the cream after tonight's result.

What a Carry On!