Tuesday 20 January 2015

Sandwell's "Socialist" Landlords - Part 2

Margaret Thatcher's "dream" of a property-owning democracy seems to be shared with some of Sandwell's "hard-left" Councillors. Yesterday, I wrote about "firebrand" John "No DSS" Edwards and his interest in not one but two local properties. He is not alone among the comrades.

The man dubbed Simon "Two Homes" Hackett is the bookies' favourite to become the Leader of Sandwell Council when The Turdmeister is finally defenestrated and to be fair to him he is widely credited with overseeing SOME improvement in Sandwell Labour's catastrophic Children's Services.

Hackett, who is employed by a homelessness charity (!) owns two local properties in his sole name.

He bought a two-bedroomed new-build flat on Brookside, Wednesbury in or around August, 2010 and then in or around August, 2012 purchased a "deceptively spacious" semi on Crankhall Lane which is where it would appear he is actually living. It would appear that the Brookside address has been let out. Mr Hackett may like to contact The Skidder to confirm.

Good on ya, comrade! We salute your rising fortunes and your own contribution to solving homelessness in Wednesbury.

Now here's a funny thing. "Two Homes" may be in receipt of rental income as a private landlord (or "greedy private landlord" - copyright 12/05/13 Darren Cooper) but he makes no mention on his Register of Members' Interests of any income from a "lodger" although we do know that Sandwell is pioneering a new category of resident [sic] "the non-paying tenant" (eg The Liar Cashmore).

I mention this since the Peopletracer website state that in 2010/11 one Thomas A. Watson was on the Electoral Register (and therefore resident for significant periods) at the two-bedroom flat on Brookside. The same site has Thomas A. Watson as resident and on the Electoral register in 2012 at the Crankhall Lane address. I wonder whether that was Thomas Anthony Watson aka Tom "Wealthy" Watson MP? Let's home any money Watters left in the tea-bag jar didn't come via the taxpayer eh readers?

ADDENDUM 22/01/15: I ventured into the heart of darkness itself yesterday - The Oldbury Kremlin - to take a further look at the Electoral Register and can confirm that the brand-new Register of December, 2014 does indeed show "Two Homes" and his partner at the Crankhall Lane address. There is now individual voter registration and, once again, Thomas A. Watson is shown on the Register with them. This means that he claims to be living there for a reasonable proportion of time each year.....

Back to original text:

And finally, just a couple of small points relating to "Two Homes" and his Register entries. He declares that his wife works for Unite the Union. One of their Regional Officers is going to extraordinary lengths to get this blog closed down. So much for freedom of speech.....

In the sick world of Sandwell Labour I have pointed out that there is hardly any body or organisation in the Borough that the comrades have not tried to infiltrate and influence to their will. Many people are of the view that the local wealthy Premier League football club should be the ones who are funding their own charity but I have shown in other posts that this is the case to only a very limited degree. (Private Eye recently reported that the contribution of WBA FC to The Albion Foundation in 2012 and 2013 was just £20,000 per annum against club revenue of approximately £70m - ie  a donation of just under 0.03% of the club's annual turnover each year.). Happily, "cash-strapped" Sandwell Labour have decided to fund the charity instead of the Club with colossal injections of taxpayers' money rather than spend it on what they are supposed to spend it on. But there is always a quid pro quo with the sleazy socialists. They demand that organisations who they give OUR money to, toe their party line. Thus, for example, there is no legal duty for Labour to finance the College (central government do that) but they are pumping millions in. And in return the College has been obliged to take the Council's chief executive onto their board. Thus an organisation like Sandwell SCVO get huge grants from Labour but then reciprocate with a bit of UKIP-bashing (eg 21/11/14). And in return for the taxpayers' huge donations to The Albion Foundation they have been obliged to take "Two Homes" onto their board. Fortunately for him - in his capacity as a trustee of the massively-taxpayer-funded Albion Foundation - he has been able to enjoy two "match and dinner" packages at The Hawthorns valued by him at in excess of £100 each. Trebles all round I should say!

Confidential number to contact Regional Fraud Team currently investigating Sandwell Council - 0121 251 2175.

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!

E-Mail:   thesandwellskidder@gmail.com         Twitter: @SandwellBorough (Sandwell Today)

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Monday 19 January 2015

Sandwell's "Socialist Firebrand" Landlord?

Labour Councillor John Edwards is always parading his "left-wing" credentials. He has no truck with private landlords being a great supporter of rent controls as these Tweets show:

# PMQ's 'No Private Sector Rent Controls' says call-me-Dave. So tenants with rent-benefit cuts thrown to the wolves again by the Tories.

Yes, private sector rent controls are the answer to rip-off private landlords (who own 30% of RTB homes). I'm sure you agree?

Happily, John Edwards owns his own house in Wednesbury outright but also co-owns 31 The Hub, Oldbury with a Delia Edwards of Worcester (presumably a relative) which they bought in November, 2011 as a new-build. I am not sure if it was rented out straight away but the Zoopla website shows that the two-bedroom flat was last up for rent via Redstones in November, 2012 at a mere £550 pcm. The current rent is estimated as far more on the website but Cllr Edwards has, no-doubt, applied self-imposed "rent control".

Not only did the estate agents demand an admin fee for the tenancy but also specifically specified:

"No DSS". (Taken from the actual document).

Right on, comrade!

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!

E-mail: thesandwellskidder@gmail.com Twitter: @SandwellBorough (Sandwell Today)

Confidential phone no: 07599 983737

DS Haynes at the Regional Fraud Team is currently on leave but you can speak to other members of the team on 0121 251 2175.




Saturday 17 January 2015

That Sino-Sandwell Summit in Full!

Sandwell Labour have been bragging about having a meeting with a group of Chinese business folk. The Skidder is delighted to have acquired exclusive rights to the official translation of the meeting between Mr Hu Ji Bung's delegation and Sandwell's very own "Great Helmsman":

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or brain-dead, is purely coincidental!

Hu Ji Bung - Nin Hao Shuishou!

Moron - Up the Baggies!

Bung - I have just trodden in some dog excrement!

Moron - No Shit, Sherlock! Welcome to Sandwell!

Bung - May I present you with this ancient Ming brush rest as a token of my esteem for you!

Moron - Honoured your reverence I'm sure. May I recip..., er, reprobate, er, present you with this on behalf of the Borough (hands over tin of Mandarin oranges - Aldi 49p).

Bung - We would like to discuss doing business here, creating wealth and jobs.

Moron - Boing, boing. Boing boing!

Bung - Aaaah so! You want bung....

Moron - Arsehole! No "lol". I meant boing, boing! Boing, boing!

Bung (perplexed) - We want to do some property deals.

Moron - I'm sorry but Mr Hafeez is off sick at the moment.

Bung - Maybe we can do something for YOU, Dear Leader?

Moron - Oh great! I'll have a number 25 and a 74 please.

(Delegation depart in despair)

Moron - Stop! Wait! Get after them, Jan! Can I interest anyone in a postal vote......

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!

E-mail: thesandwellskidder@gmail.com        Twitter:   @SandwellBorough (Sandwell Today)

Confidential phone no: 07599 983737

Skidder Shorts No. 25: Gagging For It?

I have pointed out in this blog before that in the Cooper-era there has been a tendency by Sandwell Labour to use our money to buy the silence of high-ranking departees (eg Steve Gregory) by paying them to sign "confidentiality agreements". (Incidentally, these clauses may be lawful in the civil law but have no effect in relation to the criminal law. Thus anyone who has signed such an agreement is free to speak to DS Wayne Haynes and the Regional Fraud Team currently investigating Sandwell Council - 0121 251 2175).

Whilst on the subject of the Police can you please contact them if you have any information relating to the identity of the person or persons behind the massive trolling attack on this blog and on Mrs Skidder. Please use the same number - 0121 251 2175 - and in respect of this particular matter ONLY please quote crime reference number - 20BW/219129J/14. Of course, you can also contact me.

A while ago Sandwell Labour decided to reduce 4 top posts to three and the word on the street was that this was all a ploy to get rid of John Garrett. Cooper and Eling conducted the "interviews" but something went disastrously wrong and whilst Garrett was fired so was the chief "finance" man - Stuart Kellas. Labour are refusing to say what happened.

I understand from a highly-placed source within The Kremlin that SMBC now have a new statutory finance officer but, mysteriously, they are declining to say who he or she is!

Following a Freedom of Information Request I am now able to disclose that one of the two HAS signed a confidentiality agreement but the cunning comrades are refusing to say whether they have "paid" for this with taxpayers money! Something you might like to ask the Labour candidates about when they come a'knockin.

Please note that the trolls trying to stifle free speech and to prevent scrutiny of Sandwell Labour have managed to persuade Twitter to take MY twitter account down!!!! Please use the Twitter account shown below until further notice. That account will be dealing with matters relating to the May elections. Please follow to show the bullies that their behaviour is unacceptable.

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!

E-mail:   thesandwellskidder@gmail.com                 Twitter: @SandwellBorough

Confidential phone no: 07599 983737


Thursday 15 January 2015

Just Some of My "Lies" - IN PICTURES!

I am receiving a stream of phone calls concerning the ongoing investigations at Sandwell Council. The police fraud team investigation IS continuing. That is all I can tell you about that and, once, again, the direct contact number is set out below for people with information to be able to speak with the police direct and, more importantly, in confidence.

(Please note that by prior arrangement ONLY The Skidder is now able to offer a reward for information leading to the identity of the anonymous persons trying to silence this blog and destroy the reputation of Mrs Skidder (who is not connected to it). Terms and conditions apply as they say... Alternatively, you can also speak to the Police using the number below).

Of course, the other "investigation" set up by Cooper and Labour is a sham. Just have a look at this from the brilliant Private Eye magazine about Tower Hamlets and see if anything seems familiar.......

Please buy Private Eye & read "Rotten Boroughs" - always excellent!


Of course, Kim Jong-Cooper alleged that he was going to set up an "independent" enquiry into certain events at Sandwell but did no such thing. He appointed the Council's own auditors who have already received substantial fees for doing the books and telling us that everything is actually hunky dory. How much more of our money they will be paid for "the independent investigation" remains to be seen. Great value for the taxpayer, I am sure.
Whatever the investigations JUST OPEN YOUR EYES! And your mouths - there is an election coming and so ask the sleazy Labour candidates about the matters raised in this post and my other blogs!

Of course, The Turdmeister keeps parroting that my blog is all LIES (though he never actually attempts to back this smear up). Well let's take a look at just a few matters shall we Cooper? Didn't ALL these things happen whilst you were the so-called "leader"?

This is information from Cooper's own Council proving Eling lied to the press about the legal costs in the Casino cock-up. So are the staff lying then Cooper? Maybe they are - see below.....

The truth WILL out.....

What about this Turdmeister?

The Rouf mansion nears completion.... SMBC determined to complete transaction asap!

Or this? The sale of large building plot to a "property developer" Sandwell Council employee (!) who is also the Labour Deputy Leader's son. Is the Land Registry telling lies then Turdy? And who did the conveyancing - was it Sharma's legal department? Did they not ask any questions or do they routinely convey publicly-owned land to Council employees? Which members of staff authorised and handled this? Were Jan Britton and Sharma aware of these transactions before they were completed?

This is only a small part of the property empire an employee finds time to run.
On the same subject, are Her Majesty's Land Registry lying again?

One busy chap.....


But apparently unknown at The Kremlin as this deal WAS done in-house:






And what about the father? Are Companies House also telling "lies" Cooper?

Five Star Taxis Annual Return 09/10/13
Hussain says "everyone" knew about 5 Star so did Cooper, Eling, Moore, Ian Jones, Hackett, Crompton, Y. Davies, Britton, Dudley, Kellas, Garratt and Sharma etc etc know about this? Bit strange if they did since Hussain himself had, er, "forgotten"! Why do SMBC documents again LIE saying 5 Star is based in Sandwell when it is not?

Lest we forget..... isn't it odd that you wait ages for one disused shitter to come on the market and then three come along together? (Except they didn't "come on the market" did they Turdy because Sandwell Labour sold them secretly!) Oh dear, it looks like that naughty Land Registry are lying again....

Not one.....

Not two (or even number two)....


But Three! It's a bloody Shambles!

I can't really start about the bent Public deal or we will be here all day but here's another two damning documents eh Cooper?

"Fundamental Review [sic]


6.9 In September 2012 Sandwell College approached the Council and
initiated discussions concerning the conversion of The Public to a 6th
form centre. These discussions have continued. In May 2013 a risk led
options analysis of the college proposal was carried out looking at the
following options"

The above statement is a LIE in official SMBC documents.

Labour say specifically that Melanie Dudley was kept away from all negotiations on The Public as she was a Director of the Company that got the multi-million pound contract without it going out to tender. At least one member of her staff was, however, at the very first meeting - actually in August 2012 - and, in fact, initiated by Cllr Mahboob Hussain, not by the College.

These people signed the so-called "Fundamental Review" - including Melanie Dudley who was supposed to have "no knowledge of the deal". Either these people had been lied to about the above document or else they signed the document knowing it to be false and inaccurate. Does "the Trolling Turd" want to clear that one up for us:

Were these people lied to or not?

And finally.... The above-mentioned "options analysis" took place AFTER Labour had ALREADY announced closure of The Public and The College bent deal but just have a look at who attended this charade and took part in the actual making of the decision according to the document (see also my blog of 04/06/14 "Ashfords Solicitors - Part 1 - The Public, West Bromwich):


Liz Gibson, Ashfords

Ashfords, if you do not already know, are the "local" firm in, er, Exeter who handle a lot of Labour SMBC work for huge fees and even though Labour retain a massive legal department in Oldbury. Happily la Gibson from Exeter was able to agree that the decision about a building in West Bromwich that had already been made was the correct one and her firm were duly authorised to complete the transaction - for which they received just £43,230.40p excluding VAT!

Of course, we wonder whether KPMG will be so "robust" in their "impartial investigations" although there is at least one person delighted that taxpayers' property has been flogged to Hussain's son. Step forward The Turdmeister who tweeted about the weird "deals":

"Yes very happy that sales were legitimate - due process was followed".

So that's all right then. Vote Sandwell Labour!

Fraud team investigating Sandwell Council can be contacted direct on  0121 251 2175 - DS Wayne Haynes and Team.

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!

E-mail:   thesandwellskidder@gmail.com                   Twitter:   @bcrover (Vernon Grant)

Confidential phone no: 07599 983737

Saturday 10 January 2015

Sharma and the Labour Liar Cashmore.

£124,000 per annum Neeraj Sharma had a, er, glittering career at Walsall Council (see my blog, "Lessons From History" - 29/06/14) before joining Sandwell Council where she was Head of the Legal Department AND the Monitoring Officer. I say "was" because she recently had to re-apply for her job in Darren Cooper's recent reorganisation fiasco which saw high-powered Finance Officer Stuart Kellas leave the circus in mysterious and still secret circumstances. (Labour have now said, at last, that only Cllrs Cooper and Eling were at the disastrous interviews with Hussain sending his apologies!)

As Monitoring Officer, Sharma has presided over the joke "Register of Members' Interests" wherein the following Labour councillors have all been exposed by this blog as giving false declarations - potentially a criminal offence: The Liar Cashmore; Tony "Fudgy" Meehan; Steven Frear; Mohammad Rouf and, of course, the real "leader" himself, Mahboob Hussain. In the case of the latter it seems that Sharma was on notice that there was a problem with Hussain's declaration in respect of Five Star Taxis when that company was "tendering" for SMBC contracts but nothing was done about it (see my blog of 14/10/14 "Hussain's Register - What Did Sharma Know?)

Happily Ms Sharma survived the firing squad and on 3rd December, 2014 was appointed as "Director - Governance" (stifles laugh). Whether this will also mean a pay increase remains to be seen.....

In the meantime the Standards Committee has recently reported that the Labour Councillors are apparently too stupid to understand the Code of Conduct and the Register of Interests and have asked for them to be "simplified". Perhaps Ms Sharma could commission a "cartoon" version that the comrades can colour-in!

Quite what the cunning comrades find difficult with questions that the likes of Cashmore lied about eg "are you employed" is a mystery but it can't give the local populace much confidence that they can cope with making multi-million decisions on behalf of the Borough.

It seems that Ms Sharma has been providing training sessions for the dummies but it seems that even now they can't all get things right - especially proven liar Cashmore (now employed by the Express and Star Group!)

Ex-Councillor Jayne Wilkinson has long been pointing out the incongruity of Cashmore's lie that she has been a "non-paying tenant" of her parents, Roger and Linda Horton - both Labour Councillors themselves, of course. There is no such status as that type of "tenancy" in English Law. I have banged on about this too but am indebted to The Skidder's quondam legal adviser for pointing out that Cashers can't even get the lie right (a lie that she has continued within her latest register entry).

Cashmore and her husband (a Sandwell Council employee no less) have lived in South Birmingham with their two kids for years. But the local Labour Party decided to piss over the people of Bristnall and gift her a safe seat notwithstanding her real address. Here is HER original application for a seat with the local address shown:

Complete contempt for Bristnall folk.
(By the way, Sandwell Council have destroyed her nomination papers and so if anyone still has a copy please let me know).

Cashers - who has received thousands on pounds of taxpayers' money as a councillor in allowances and "special responsibility payments" (on top of the pay from the jobs which she failed to disclose) -then stated in two separate Register entries that she was the infamous "non-paying tenant" of Linda and Rog in section 4 of the Register, which relates to property ownership. My "legal eagle" has pointed out that as she does not have exclusive possession of 47 Hall Road and nor does she pay rent then even if it was true that she was/is living there she would be a mere licensee and not a tenant. Therefore, even if her story was true (!) she should have filled in Section 5 relating to "Any licence (alone or jointly with others) to occupy land in the area of the Borough of Sandwell for a month or longer".

ADDENDUM 11/01/15 - My attention has been brought to the Labour Liar's very first Register entry dated 10th May, 2011 ie just after she was elected. Here are the two relevant questions and you will see that when she was elected Cashmore was NOT claiming the mythical "non-paying tenancy":

9. Any land in your authority's area in which you have a beneficial interest? "None".

11. Any land in the authority's area for which you have a licence (alone or jointly with others) to occupy for 28 days or longer? "None".

Return to original text:

Accordingly it seems that the highly-paid "Monitoring Officer" has permitted yet another incorrect entry to remain unamended and, indeed, allowed it to be perpetuated. The so-called training sessions also seem to have not been as successful as the sleazy "socialists" suggest. Given the circumstances, however, this is all rather academic.....

Of course, the people of Bristnall also must be delighted that Cashmore has missed some recent Council meetings......

Incidentally, the last Standards Committee meeting [sic] discussed and noted a case involving a councillor in another local authority (ie not Sandwell):

"The member had misused the mobile phone provided to him by the authority to .......... He was also found to have sent inappropriate messages from the phone. The authority’s standards panel 
concluded that the member was in breach of the ICT policy and the Code of Conduct for improper use of the council’s resources and had brought the council into disrepute."

I can't think why but this brings someone else to mind..... "Lol" as that person so often says!

The Police fraud team are still collecting evidence in respect of possible wrongdoing at Sandwell Council - if you have information please phone 0121 251 2175 - DS Wayne Haynes.

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!

E-mail:   thesandwellskidder@gmail.com            Twitter:  @bcrover (Vernon Grant)

Confidential phone no:  07599 983737




Tuesday 6 January 2015

Kitchener Street/Black Patch Park - A Bent Deal?

It is becoming a recurring theme of this blog that Labour Sandwell Council are attempting to do land sales without offering property on the open market. And here we go again....

On 29th October, 2014 Mahboob Hussain was due to chair a meeting of the Asset Management and Land Disposal (AMLD) Committee but, unfortunately, had to stand down (!) The agenda included an item for the sale of land off Kitchener Street, Smethwick. As ever, most of the documentation was hidden from public view and what little information there was available was subject to redactions. I duly made a Freedom of Information Request on your behalf. Now a strange picture is emerging and it looks like the comrades are trying to force through another dodgy deal using the usual excuse that it will create jobs.

Let me just set the scene a little if I may. Councils have a legal duty to secure the best value for land that they sell or lease. The law (foolishly in my opinion) gives them a bit of discretion to sell at an undervalue if there are good social or economic reasons so long as the sale price (or lease) is not more than two million pounds (a lot of money) under the "proper" price. (This is why I have another FoI request in to Eric Pickles for the reasons why he allowed SMBC to give the College a "free" lease for The Public - more on that anon).

For present purposes I am NOT suggesting any fraud but it goes without saying that the purpose of the law is to protect the public being ripped off by bent councillors. The best way to dispose of the land is my openly marketing (or auctioning) it. Of course, Sandwell Labour have a bit of form for "one-party" deals and are still at it eg the bent ice rink deal. They have become a bit anxious of late however (I can't imagine why...) and seem to have stopped the practice of having their own employees decide "fair value" - a POTENTIAL recipe for corruption. Having said that, the new modus operandi is to have a single valuer provide a valuation which is then kept secret from us taxpayers. I stress again that I am specifically not alleging fraud in this article but on general principles there are also grave dangers with this so-called "system". Let us imagine that a bent councillor wanted to influence the valuer's decision by bribery or other means. What if the sole valuer simply gets it wrong - this could be a multi-million pound mistake. OK the Council could sue for negligence but that could be a very unsatisfactory process.

Different laws apply preventing the council from supplying funds to a private company that is not available to others - this being unlawful state aid.

Now the crafty comrades want to sell a large area of land (2.95 hectares) off Kitchener Street, Smethwick but seem to have already stitched-up a potential deal with a party who intends to build a recycling plant on it. There are various problems which include (a) that SMBC may have cocked-up an earlier compulsory purchase order and may not actually OWN part of the land which they want to sell; (b) various other permissions are required eg because it was partly an old school site; (c) a highway will have to be stopped-up and, perhaps most significantly, (d) part of the land - Black Patch Park - is allocated as Community Open Space and cannot simply be built on (plus there appear to be restrictive covenants stating that the land must remain as open space).

Our old favourites Nick Bubalo and Stuart Kellas were the officers behind the scheme (Kellas has, of course, "disappeared" in mysterious circumstances which the sleazy socialists will still not reveal). The whole deal is being bounced through on the basis that the company behind the project was securing a Black Country Regional Development Grant (BCRDG) and would - allegedly - create 59 "jobs". Curiously the documents disclosed specifically state that SMBC itself administers the BCRDG scheme! Thus the Council is in on the grant application AND the land sale at an undervalue to the hitherto secret "purchaser". Even the incompetents at the Kremlin acknowledge that there may be "state aid implications"!!!! The would-be purchaser has allegedly stated they will build their plant elsewhere if Sandwell Labour won't sell them the land and so Hussain and his sidekick, Cooper, are apparently bending over backwards to help them!

The Council has neglected the park so that it is in a poor state but are now twisting this round and saying it would be better to develop the land because it is in, er, a poor state! Of course, the comrades themselves will decide any planning application relating to all this...... I wonder what they will decide!

Let us assume (!) that there has been no fraud or corruption here. It is still incumbent on the loony lefties to do everything "by the book". But the FoI reply gives cause for concern.

The reply is from another old friend, Dave Willetts, who mislead me in his FoI reply in the Bog-gate scandal. The first point of concern is immediate - SMBC categorically state that the land has NOT been offered for sale on the open market. Excuse my French but why the f*ck not! They are still refusing to disclose the potential value nor the proposed undervaluation price and so they are trying to slide this through without anyone else in the whole wide world being able to consider putting in a bid for it.

I asked for a copy of the valuation report. This has been obtained from a company called Aspinal Verdi and, no doubt, cost us taxpayers a lot of money. But then Willetts says, "The independent valuation report was NOT presented to the AMLD Committee although the valuation was referred to in the....committee report". Once again this smacks of everything being agreed beforehand (and, as ever, the actual meeting was very short). Nevertheless, three senior councillors (Crompton, Eling (!) and Ian Jones) were prepared to authorise a big land sale at a considerable loss to the taxpayer without even seeing the taxpayer-funded valuation report! How good is that?

And now it gets really weird. Willetts has disclosed the lucky purchaser to be "Smart Waste Limited" and this is what the legal Council documents say:

"It is proposed to dispose of the site to Smart Waste Limited. Smart Waste Limited is a new company formed in [redacted] by [redacted]"

Quite why the North Korean-style regime should still want to try and keep information about the highly-favoured purchaser secret is a mystery. (There was an old company called Smart Waste Limited which was dissolved in 2013 and there is no replacement company registered with that name although there was a company (based in Edgbaston) registered on 19th December, 2013 called Smart Waste Company Limited which may or may not be connected.)

Of course, Labour are saying they cannot give any further information as negotiations are continuing and claim "commercial sensitivity" but as they have, yet again, shut out all other bidders the information is not commercially sensitive but just SECRET!

Come on Comrades. Tell us the truth about all this. Now!

Police Fraud Team Hotline - 0121 251 2175 - DS Wayne Haynes and Team for any information on wrongdoing by Sandwell Council.

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!

E-mail:   thesandwellskidder@gmail.com          Twitter:   bcrover (Vernon Grant)

Confidential phone number: 07599 983737


Monday 5 January 2015

Skidder Shorts N0. 24 - It's that "Sadim" - Effect Again!

Darren "The Turdmeister" Cooper has another nickname locally - "Sadim". This is "Midas" in reverse since everything he touches turns to shit rather than gold.

In a particularly spectacular example of the "Sadim"- effect Cooper took to Twitter yesterday to big-up the New Square Shopping Centre even though the High Street and other areas of central West Brom are a disaster-zone. He picked up a story from the untrustworthy Express and Star that surprise, surprise there had been quite a lot of shoppers about at, er, Christmas (which, in turn, ignored the fact that Tesco are also about to put out another very grim trading statement). The inane Cooper hailed "more good news for Sandwell in a difficult trading environment".

The curse of "Sadim" has immediately struck today with the announcement that Bank, the occupants of, er, Unit SU3, New Square, West Bromwich has collapsed and called in the administrators!

The man with the "Sadim" touch....
Oh, and by the way, a caller this morning informed me that a prominent figure in the Sandwell Muslim community has been putting it about that the police fraud investigation into Sandwell Council is over. I can quite categorically tell you that it is NOT. The police are also anxious to hear from anyone who has information about possible wrongdoing at SMBC via 0121 251 2175 - DS Wayne Haynes and his Team.

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!

E-mail:   thesandwellskidder@gmail.com           Twitter:   @bcrover (Vernon Grant)

Confidential phone no:  07599 983737

Sandwell "Leader" Tries to Cover His Tracks!

Darren "The Turdmeister" Cooper seems to have been having a busy weekend. Ask yourself, Dear Reader, why?

This blog has repeatedly pointed out that the Sandwell Labour joke leader [sic] has aligned himself with various troll accounts attempting to discredit The Skidder and in my last blog, "Britain's Thickest Council Leader? A National Competition", that he was now specifically following a troll account that had been set up by the troll(s) using my wife's name. Quite what this says about his judgement I will leave you to decide (at present) but he is not only following an account which he clearly KNOWS to be a troll but is actually now also retweeting it! (He is too much of a coward to retweet the defamatory stuff noting that I have written to him personally about his recent conduct and made it quite plain that I will take any appropriate legal action to protect my interests and those of my wife. (For the record - and I don't need to say this to anyone who knows us - my wife is nothing whatsoever to do with The Skidder apart from being an avid reader! They also know that she rarely stops working and so where Cooper imagines she gets the time to "campaign" against him is another mystery although he himself is, of course, unemployed and with time on his hands and a whole taxpayer-funded communications department of 11 to 13 people at HIS beck and call!)

There are at least THREE troll accounts currently "live" harassing us and more obvious ones waiting in the wings. This is all in the hands of West Midlands Police. This action seems to be endorsed by the vast majority of Sandwell Labour Councillors. The trolls have changed tack and are trying to appear to be legitimate accounts eg copying in stories from the Express and Star (!) etc and commenting on political issues in an effort to fool Twitter that are not acting illegally but every now and then the guard comes down and we get this sort of thing:

"Why talk about Sandwell and why come to Sandwell you clown. F off and stay in Birmingham even better go back to Derby".

Unfortunately, Twitter are too stupid to figure out what they are up to and subjecting us to hundreds of e-mails constantly asking for more information and so the accounts run on as the trolls desire. (By the way, I have never lived in Derby....)

Now yet another curious thing (apart from the main one that Turdy was following a troll account BEFORE it became active) is that whilst the trolls accounts have been running in the last two or three weeks Cooper's own account has become vaguely respectable. Is he trying to go legit whilst "supporting" the troll(s) in their dirty work? Has he received a warning from within the Labour Party that he is damaging its reputation (if that is even possible....)  It would certainly seem so as he has been busy this weekend removing some of his ill-judged "favourites" etc from his timeline and, more particularly, all the photos of me on his Twitter account! Now why would be doing that? What does that say about his conduct to date?

Labour's Cooper has even taken down the photo he arranged to have taken of me covertly in Wetherspoons Oldbury and which he then put on HIS Twitter account that very same night!

Did Sandwell Council pay the photographer?
As yet, Turdy's Unite the Union operator, West Midlands Regional Officer Brian Rickers, has kept no less than FOUR different photographs of me on HIS own Twitter account and not deleted them. I have never met him but perhaps he fancies me.... "Lol" as the moronic would-be leader of Greater Birmingham so often says!

Addendum 05/01/15 - Dudley's favourite "travel-writer" Rickers has now removed my photos. In the meantime there are now at least FOUR troll accounts up and running. One of the accounts is being followed by Sandwell Labour Councillors Moore and Sandars!

The Regional Fraud Team investigating Sandwell Council can be contacted direct on 0121 251 2175 - DS Wayne Haynes & Team.

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!

E-mail:   thesandwellskidder@gmail.com             Twitter:   @bcrover (Vernon Grant)

Confidential phone number: 07599 983737

Friday 2 January 2015

Britain's Thickest Council Leader? A National Competition.

Is this man the thickest council leader [sic] in Britain?

Recently, on Twitter, someone speculated that as Sandwell's Labour Council is currently mired in scandal and lurching from one crisis to another, the days are numbered for its moronic "leader", Darren Cooper, and commented, "The King is Dead....". The thin-skinned Cooper, unaware of that well-known expression, responded by saying (and this is true) that he was going to report this "death threat" to the police!
I suppose we should expect nothing else from a man who used to BOAST that he had never read a book in his life although we are also told (by the Council's top lawyer no less) that many of his utterances are supposed to be "of comedic value". Perhaps this was just another of his little jokes.....

Cooper is infamous for the "barely literate stream of invective" that is "his" Twitter account* and his twin obsessions with (a) West Bromwich Albion Football Club aka "The Baggies" and (b) canine excrement (this latter earning him the sobriquet, "The Turdmeister").

Dopey Darren first came to national prominence in respect of Twitter in 2012 retweeting the cute sentiment "rot in hell" Margaret Thatcher when she was still alive. But then, as this old-style Labour-bruiser also tweeted, "I like to be kind to people no matter who they r. That's what makes me who I am".

Cooper has trouble with spelling eg manned = "mannered"; poll = "pole"; paid = "payed"; personal = "personnel" (see further below); right = "write"; quite = "quiet" etc etc etc...... He is proud to display his ignorance, however, and when challenged once replied, "Thanks buts it's tweeter so"! As he also put it, "Your right I can't spell"!

In another classic, Disastrous Daz (a keen angler) tweeted complete "pollocks" during an exchange of puns about fish which he attempted to gatecrash:

Me: "So are squid fish then Cooper?

D. Daz: "Yeah they just lack a backbone bit like you...."

(Squid are NOT fish).

Cooper regularly uses his Council-owned iPhone to attack private individuals and for what he calls his "anti-UKIP agenda". Thus a long-standing trade unionist and Labour Party member who had the temerity to question his antics was lambasted as "a nasty piece of work" and the onslaught on UKIP is relentless. He calls them a "Thatch-Rite" party and, conjuring up an image of John Motson on a snowbound soccer pitch, "tories in sheepskin clothing" (no offence John!). He regularly sneers at the public school education of Nigel Farage seemingly forgetting that local Labour MP John Spellar went to the same private school! (Rumour has it though that he likes to claim to be big "mates" with ex-public schoolboy and one-man economic disaster zone, Ed Balls! He also once saluted Mrs Bollocks, "Welcome to tweeter Yvette")

Whilst he incessantly spits bile at UKIP, the other politician he probably hates most is Michael Gove - mostly due to the cancellation of the ruinously-expensive Building Schools for the Future programme. It is a shame that Gove has moved from Education since he may have benefited from Dimwit Darren's insight if this (unaltered) tweet is anything to go by:

"Not easily for some to understand how Schools get funding taken me a while. Easy to create conspicuous theory and carp about things".

The Turdmeister hates art and the arts (Birmingham - and LoB in particular - you have been warned) and formed a close "friendship" with a mythical troll called "Ian Crow" who opined that art is "shit". Strangely, Cooper and Crow both spelt "personal" as "personnel" and, for example, used the derogatory expression "wifey" about my, er, wife.** Cooper and a friend in the Unite trade union have also recently been openly trolling a Birmingham arts charity. When he and his colleagues recently shafted a local arts centre in an area of extremely high cultural deprivation he claimed in this unaltered tweet:

"We have Gallery's in other parts of Sandwell".

You couldn't make it up.....

As above, however, Pooper S-Cooper "likes to be kind to people" and so when the Council was shutting down some local public conveniences he advised local shoppers, "Make sure they go before they come out". When three male protesters against closure were photographed outside the lavatories he made the homophobic quip, "O dear you could get arrested hanging around what was public toilets!"

Sometimes his utterances are positively gnomic: "Fed up with these as Beens giving it the big one". (Answers on a postcard please....) He accused a former councillor of "still bitching" which doesn't seem very "PC". In a rare moment of insight, however, he did ask the rhetorical question, "Why does everyone hate councillors?"

Cooper has openly trolled in his own name and as this blog has shown, has teamed up with the likes of  Mr Paul Kerton to attack me and my wife. Recently the trolling has been particularly vicious - notably via the now-closed account @Bhamskidder. The curious thing about that account was that Clairvoyant Councillor Cooper was the ONLY follower of it BEFORE it became active! Whilst the police are involved in all this the trolling has continued via other accounts - usually followed by Cooper and one Brian Rickers of Unite. Readers of this blog will know that the GMB Union also tried to smear me recently and their employee, one Sarah James of the local Smethwick Branch, immediately tweeted Cooper and Rickers to tell them what she had done. And who both immediately "favourited" her message? Yes, I think you can guess.

A couple of days ago a troll starting using my wife's name and then stole her twitter profile photo to put on it as well. Who started following this obviously fake account? Desperate Darren (although he has not had the cojones to retweet any of the grossly defamatory material).

Addendum 02/01/15 - the main current troll account has morphed again. You will see from the photo below that Cooper is the ONLY follower of the troll I know. He started following when this account was in my wife's name but it has now been morphed to "L Smith" (which happens to be my wife's maiden name as put on twitter by the previous troll). The profile also specifically mentions me as "Jules" and the area where I live (which is known to The Turdmeister). Once again Cooper is aligning himself with a trolling account!



(There are currently at least two troll accounts attacking me and my wife and clear evidence of others waiting "in the wings").

Addendum 05/01/14: Readers of this addendum which includes another thicko Cooper classic may also like to read my blog of today's date, "Sandwell "Leader" Tries to Cover His Tracks". He has actually not only been following the above troll account but actually retweeting from it. The account has now been suspended by Twitter. At the same time Dopey Daz has been trying to "clean-up" his own timeline with various deletions. At LEAST four other troll accounts are now up and running. The Turdmeister (who, unbelievably, is also Chair of the West Midlands Police and Crime Panel) is continuing to rubbish claims that the current fraud investigations at Sandwell Council will come to anything and to claim that his Twitter account is purely personal even though it is clearly shown on his official Council business card. And so we have this mocking, but "stiff", gem in reply to a Labour Party member tonight:

"Bob any news on the Business card you e-mailed about or arrest yet? & all I've done [ie in trying to clean-up his timeline] is got rigid of the idiots off my timeline".

Clearly Cooper is throwing down the gauntlet to would-be challengers and seems determined to seize the "Thickest Leader" trophy!

Return to original text:

This character has long-harboured the ambition of placing his buttocks on the green benches of the House of Commons but it seems that even the Labour Party are not stupid enough to allow him near the place. Thus he has turned his attention to extending his power base within the proposed "Greater Birmingham" combined authority - something those in the West Midlands outside Sandwell should truly fear. Of course, his commitment to self-aggrandisement is total and he is not going to let his personal beliefs get in the way of career progression. Other local politicians should heed his notorious tweet of 21/12/13, "I really don't care what's happening in Brum my focus is on #sandwell & the people who live here". Vive le Roi!

If YOUR council "leader" is even thicker than Councillor Cooper please let me know! Contact details below. 

BY OVERWHELMING POPULAR REQUEST THE CLOSING DATE HAS BEEN BROUGHT FORWARD FROM 30TH TO 1ST APRIL, 2015!

* See my posts - "Unsuccesful Complaint to Sandwell Council - Tweets of Council "Leader" of 08/05/14 and "Tweets of The Turdmesiter - Part One" of 19/05/14.

** See my post "The Curious Case of Ian Crow" of 25/02/14

Direct Line to Police Regional Fraud Team investigating Sandwell Council - 0121 251 2175 -
DS Wayne Haynes.

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!

E-mail:   thesandwellskidder@gmail.com                  Twitter:   @bcrover (Vernon Grant)

Confidential phone no: 07599 983737

Thursday 1 January 2015

It's Official - Councillor Meehan WAS Lying!

Tony "Fudgy" Meehan HAS joined the ranks of Sandwell's Labour liars! I have been catching up with research over the holiday and regret to say that I had missed Anthony William Meehan's change of information on his Register of Members' Interests on 21st November, 2014 to correct his earlier lie.

Regular readers will know that Postman Prat was elected in May, 2014 as prime Hussain and Cooper voting fodder but lied on his original Register entry (a criminal offence if done without reasonable excuse) when he claimed not to own any property within the Borough of Sandwell. As long ago as 22nd July I pointed out that if "Tony Meehan" was one and the same person as "Anthony William Meehan" - the registered owner of the freehold property at 8 Vicarage Road, Wednesbury - then our Tone was telling porkies (see my blog "Another Sandwell Labour Liar? - Tony 'Fudgy' Meehan" dated 22/07/14). I wrote to Neeraj Sharma, the Monitoring Officer of Sandwell Council, at the time but she refused to say whether Anthony William was, indeed, "Fudgy". Seemingly she also did not speak to him about the query (or else he simply ignored her) as the Register was not changed until late November.

Sandwell Police (and, later, senior officers within West Midlands Police) have been fully aware of problems with the Register entries of a number of Labour's lying Councillors since July and this subject will be blogged about again shortly. Compare and contrast their lack of activity with the charges the Dorset Police have brought against a Tory at the local council who has been specifically charged under the Localism Act for failure to disclose a material interest (as reported in a recent Private Eye article)!

"Fudgy" has owned 8 Vicarage Road since 2000 and so it is strange that he should have forgotten this particularly as it is the address he has used both a Labour election agent and as a candidate - not to mention as the base for the mythical "charity" - the "Friends of Fudgestock" - which received at least one grant of £1,500 from the comrades at SMBC! Finally on 22nd November, 2014 he has admitted the truth!

To make sure Meehan does Hussain and his sidekick's bidding this new kid on the block has been placed on 11th June, 2014 on both the Wednesbury Town Services Improvement Board [sic] and, unbelievably, on the crucial audit committee! Still, at least that will mean he is entitled to "special responsibility" payments from us taxpayers on top of his normal allowances! Trebles all round!

Report SMBC dodgy deals please to Regional Fraud Team - 0121 251 2175 - DS Wayne Haynes.

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!

E-mail:   thesandwellskidder@gmail.com                      Twitter:   @bcrover (Vernon Grant)

Confidential phone no: 07599 983737