Chequers Community Centre closure

[Deleted]

It was in Private Eye a few months ago, under the title Wain's World. I'll scan it and send it to you tomorrow if I have time. How interesting that the information never appeared in the Citizen.

[Deleted]

I've now found the Private Eye article about the sackings, and it was actually 7th January, not 24th February as I had thought: "...Carole Chapple and Dannette Scarlette, administrators in the legal services department [of Gloucester City Council] who subsequently won handsomely when they brought unfair dismissal cases to an employment tribunal - and won again when the council appealed, filling the boots of m'learned friends." I'll scan both articles anyway, as they both refer to dodgy appointments at the city council.

[Joe K]

Fascinating from almost every perspective, as the lawyers would say...

I'm catching up after almost no access to the computer yesterday. I wonder, is that the same 'Pete Gillett' (from 'EAGER BEAVER') Wilkinson refers to? Nice to see our democratic process in such safe hands. I recall that my appeal against the deplorable behavour of the partnership, funded by the city council, went all the way from Ross Cook to Phil Staddon and finally Peter Gillett before I gave up (going all the way to Wain would obviously have been pointless), yet still our local paper ignores their corrupt practices:

WAIN'S WORLD

GLOUCESTER city council's chief executive Julian Wain has been busy masterminding a "realigning a management resource" exercis (aka "sacking people") in recent months.

One of the jobs "deleted" was the £35,000-a-year post of "business planning and peformance service manager", held by one Sadie Neal. An entirely new post of "business improvement manager" was then created, at £51,000 a year.

There were only two contenders for the job, which was not advertised - Ms Neal and Caroline Troughton, previously the council's "business support manager". After what the council calls "a thorough and rigorous appointment process", Neal got the job and Troughton was made redundant. Ms Neal was the only council manager to have had her pay handsomely "realigned" upwards during the restructuring. She also happened to be the only council manager to have been shagging the chief executive at the time. "Thorough and rigorous" indeed!

The Eye emailed Mr Wain to ask whether he felt there might not have been the teensiest conflict of interest in this. A council spokesman replied on his behalf: "The successful officer was appointed on merit. The chief executive played no part in any stage of that process." So that, as they say in Kampala, is all right, then.

Ms Neal's £16,000 rise comes at an eventful time in her life. Her former long-term partner, local gangster Patrick "P.J." Maguire, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years last May for organising a £200,000 cocaine ring in the city. Every little helps!



EAGER BEAVER

AFTER the Eye's story last issue about how Sadie Neal, a Gloucester city council "business improvement" officer, had won promotion and a £16,000 rise after sleeping with chief executive Julian Wain, the council's Tory leader Paul James ordered an "independent review".

About the same time all staff received an email assuring them that "everything was done above board".No pre-judging the outcome, then!

That was on Monday last week. On Thursday the council predictably announced that "no wrongdoing" had been found: th investigation "showed conclusively that "proper process" was followed in accordance with the council's human resources practices".

That last bit was certainly true.The review was carried out by the council's "audit and assurance" manager, Terry Rodway. His boss is director of resources Peter Gillett - the man who appointed Wain's squeeze, Sadie, to her new job, and a close friend of the chief exec.

It has indeed been Rodway's "practise" to find no wrongdoing at the council. He found nothing wrong with the sackings of Carole Chapple and Danette Scarlett, administrators in the legal services department who subsequently won handsomely when they brought unfair dismissal cases to an employment tribunal - and won again when the council appealed, filling the boots of m'learned friends.

Rodway and monitoring officer Sue Mullins also saw nothing amiss in "Beavergate" - another example of Gloucester's all-above-board recruitment processes. A Wain and Gillett crony, Noel Beaver, is paid £800 a day as the council's "retained human resources consultant". After one Tracey Kendrick was mysteriously appointed to a well-paid post in the HR department without any competition or scrutiny, staff discovered that she was... Mrs Beaver!

A couple of days after the last Eye appeared, Julian Wain was interviewed for the £170,000 a year job of chief executive of Worcestershire county council. Demoralised staff in Gloucester fervently hope he gets it.

[Deleted]

Oh yes, there's only one Peter Gillett, and he's jumping ship in mid-July to take up an even juicier job with Bristol City Council. Isn't it wonderful how all the scumbags, who have cost the council dear, have left (or are leaving) the council without any penalties?

[Joe K]

I wonder if he got a good reference from our lot? What's a little more decpetion on top of everything else, after all?

I recall now that I misremembered, though. It was Martin Shields at the top of the complaints process I tried to scale. The confusion probably comes from the fact that I knew a Gillett and a Shields (and I'm pretty sure it was a Martin) at my old high school, St. Peters, so they both stick in my minds as people I might know.

[Deleted]

The city council must be in a real mess now. They did have a CEO and three directors. By mid-July, they will be left with one director, unless they appoint someone else. It used to be too many chiefs and not enough Indians, but now there are also not enough chiefs!

[Joe K]

The partnerships, if truth be told (except for the GCCCP) were the last desperate measure to save money and take pressure off staff, and instead of giving the people power, the council only offered responsibility, passing the buck to (we'd like to think) well-meaning bumblers like Barrington, Ward, Lowery...

That exercise where residents were invited to think about where they would spend the budget was the height of cynicism. We didn't get the option of saying, "Let's just borrow a few hundred thou more", so it was hardly realistic. Now that they've made a deal (subject to approval by tenants who have everything to gain) whereby the completely separate outfit Gloucester City Homes can borrow a whole bunch more cash, the sound of doors being closed by council staff on residential problems like ASB is going to be quite deafening for a few weeks/months.

Just follow the money...

[Joe K]

BTW, slightly off topic (again, my site , but at the Parry tidy up (where there was nothing to tidy because GCH had done it all beforehand), I met David Harber again, and he said that before the TETRA AGM ended, a decision was made to have a noticeboard set up outside Sainsbury's in the ward (not sure which one, but I guess the one in Tredworth, furthest from my house would be the top choice). This, after GCH telling me that it wasn't a priority and was therefore put on the back burner.

If it ever does happen, it'll be interesting to see who is in charge of what information is posted up, and if TETRA provide a full list of meetings.

Speaking of which, I just checked the TETRA newsletter again, and I was right, apart from the AGM, there are no dates for meetings, as there were in the previous letter. Pat Scannell uttered angrily at the inquorate AGM that there had been a meeting every month since January, but he said nothing about committee meetings that residents (of the supposed 'residents' group) could not attend. Now we still know nothing of future meetings, and I guess they won't be appearing in the 'What's On?' guide which GCH's Anita Pope gets a veto on as to who receives it via email, at no cost to the GCH.

Especially ridiculous when it's available to us online. It would just be nice if Jasminder Gill, the City Farm and others who receive the email would print it and display it for the community:

www.gloscityhomes.co.uk/Tenants/GetInvolved/EventsCalendar.aspx

[Deleted]

There's no Sainsbury's in Tredworth - do you mean Co-op? I do vaguely recall something about a new noticeboard, because I remember thinking: "TETRA never effing well uses the last one that was paid for by GCH!" Will this new one be used any more than the one outside Parry Hall?

I didn't realise that the events calendar was available online. I see that it's labelled as being for tenants, despite the constant claims that GCH also serve residents.

[Joe K]

That's it! I kept wanting to say 'Spar', which didn't seem right, but neither did the idea of two Sainsbury's. It must have been the Co-op David Harber mentioned.

Please note, various lurkers, that I don't have any difficulty acknowledging my mistakes, slight as they are. If other were a little more honest about their shortcomings, democracy wouldn't be in the shitter around the ward.

Wonder if they are going to need to seek planning permission for the noticeboard first, as Lisa Howarth suggested? I'll bet that pushes the whole process back a few months, even as far back as the General Election...

And yes, that should be 'others'

[Deleted]

I see from the tenants' guide that GCH are 'celebrating successful communities' at Parry Hall on Tuesday evening. What a heap of shit. I will look to see if this event is actually advertised on the underused noticeboard, but it wasn't there last time that I looked.

In the meantime, there is something called The Big Lunch happening tomorrow in Furlong Road and Howard Street, and these roads will be closed to traffic. I only know this because I saw an official notice on a lamp-post on the corner of Furlong Road and Tredworth Road last night as I was walking Diesel.

[Joe K]

I remember when Phil Lowery asked for money from the partnership for a street party, during the Jubilee years as I recall. I guess it's possible he's asked for it every year since, but they just don't promote it at all. I was just saying on Twitter this morning that there was no Big Lunch in Barton & Tredworth. How wrong I was, thanks to the shitty attitude to communications. The noticeboard can't come too soon...

[Deleted]

I looked at Parry Hall noticeboard and, sure enough, there's nothing about the 3rd June event. The old notice about Community Pride is still there, together with notices relating to Increase the Peace - funny how Increase the Peace can use the board, but GCH and TETRA usually can't be bothered. There's plenty of room, so that's not the issue.

[Joe K]

I thought I posted last night about the possibility of TETRA holding a meeting today, on the first Monday of the month. Maybe I didn't click 'Post' hard enough...

It would be a bit of a clash, as GCH Customer Forum runs from 4 till 7, so who knows? I'll pop by the Big Vic (if that's where it would be held) later to see if there's a poster.

[Deleted]

The GCH do this afternoon was more of a fun day, as far as I could see. They had a bouncy castle and an icecream van on Parry Field. There didn't seem to be many attendees, though. The Increase the Peace fun day last bank holiday was heaving with people, despite the fact that five minutes on the bouncy castle cost £1.50 (which I thought was a bit steep).