VICTORY UPDATE (30/4/21): Somerset Independents FORCES Mendip Council To Change

Leader of Somerset Independents, Andrew Pope

UPDATE (30/4/21): It has taken a long time for Mendip District Council's External Auditor Ernst and Young to take the issue to the Council's own Audit Committee.

It has been reported by Daniel Mumby for SomersetLive here, with quotes by Somerset Independents officer Denise Wyatt.

Denise Wyatt
Nominations Officer
Somerset Independents

Denise Wyatt says: 

"Somerset Independents had to take action because the councillors, council officers and the auditors did not. It is their duty but the councillors, council officers and the auditors failed.

Instead of doing their jobs and being paid a lot of public money, to do it, it was Somerset Independents and volunteers doing their jobs for them! It's just wrong.

So we had to use the law against them. And make Mendip District Council listen, even though they had their fingers in their ears. This is usual for Mendip, sadly.

Somerset Independents has also proved that Mendip broke the law of meetings in how it allowed a Chair to preside over his own election.

And their lack of openness and transparency has meant they have had to re-issue minutes of meetings. It sounds boring. But it isn't. Why?

Because those meetings considered the spending of millions of pounds of taxpayers money. And public money MUST be accounted for. It's the law.

Mendip councillors and officers HID WHAT THEY DID, and tried to get away with it! Somerset Independents stands up for residents and public money."

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UPDATE (28/12/20): We are signing off 2020 with another victory for Somerset residents, and celebrating our other recent victories.

Our Leader Andrew Pope says:

"Ever since we were formed during Lockdown 1, Somerset Independents has been telling Mendip District Council that they need to change.

We told the councillors and officers at many meetings that they had to listen, and act, on residents' concerns.

But they refused to listen.

And they refused to act. 

We carried on regardless.

Now, after months of campaigning with Somerset residents on a wide range of campaigns, we have discovered that because of the actions of our members, that they have been forced to change - on Easthill, on how they run meetings, on how they listen to the public, on how they should act for the public, and now on how the Council is run.

These are big victories, and we have done it by working with Somerset residents, and acting for Somerset residents and the environment.

We don't just SAY we do it. We actually do it. Join us to help us to make Somerset's councils listen to residents, instead of doing bad things to residents using taxpayers' money."

We will be providing more updates, as and when the Council's External Auditors Ernst and Young take action, and when the Council make material changes.

At a recent public meeting, councillors have been forced to commit to "review" the Constitution - something that we asked them to do many months ago. During the virtual meeting, the Chief Executive was forced to explain to councillors and the public what had gone wrong.

As we have previously reported, members of Somerset Independents raised a number of serious concerns, including a formal Objection to the Mendip District Council Accounts, with Ernst and Young.

Ernst and Young accepted part of our objections and is investigating further. They did not accept other parts. We still maintain that those parts of our Objection are correct.

In early December, Ernst and Young informed our lead on Governance, Denise Wyatt, that and we quote:

"Our investigation of the issues we accepted within your objection is ongoing.  As a quasi-judicial process it would not be appropriate for me to provide any detail of the status at this time.  I do not have a timescale when it will be completed, as I need to ensure that the process is properly followed."

This was in response to further concerns that Denise raised on Mendip District Council's Governance, on top of those raised in the formal Objection to the Council's accounts.

We are concerned with how long the investigation by Ernst and Young is taking, and how Mendip District Council are acting in hindsight to try to cover up the Council's failings. 

This now includes "revised" versions of minutes of meetings of the Phoenix Sponsorship Board, which were put through on the hush-hush on 23rd December 2020, in response to our formal objection. 

This Board has been making decisions on property and has met behind-closed-doors for years. Yet under the Liberal Democrat Administration that came in during May 2019, it became even more secretive than it was under the previous Conservative Administration. Like we say regularly because it is true - Lib Dem or Tory, same old story.

As well as a range of other failings in openness and transparency, Denise showed that the minutes of the meetings were unlawful. Denise raised this with Ernst and Young and directly with the Council's officers, including the new Chief Finance Officer, so-called "Section 151 Officer" Richard Bates.

Denise also showed again to them that other aspects of Mendip's governance were also unlawful, including the lack of Background Papers cited in reports to councillors. While this may seem trivial, it is like an academic paper not citing who has been quoted, or whose work has been used, in the paper. In the academic world, it would be unethical and plagiarism.

But when it is councillors making decisions that affect people's lives and spending millions of pounds of taxpayers money, including on shady and risky property deals it is vital that councillors and the public are informed. But it is also the law, under the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985.

Mendip District Council has been breaking the law on this Phoenix Sponsorship Board. And also on another property-related committee, the Asset Management Group.

And we have discovered from local residents, via the Frome Facebook Group, that our work has been picked up by Private Eye, although sadly our article on Sandys Hill Lane and Mendip District Council was not credited:

 

Cutting from Private Eye
taken from Frome Facebook Group

 

It is good that Private Eye has picked this up. But what matters most is that we are helping to shine a light on the grubby dealings of Mendip District Council, and that local residents are made aware of it.

Throughout 2020, ever since Somerset Independents was formed, the poor Governance at Mendip District Council has been raised directly with councillors and officers - on very many occasions.

We will be providing further updates. To see them, please Like our Facebook Page by looking for our username @SomerInds (Somerset Independents) and our Twitter feed @SomerInds.

If you would like to help our work, please get in touch via email at somerinds [at] gmail.com.

Standing Up For Residents