"The Leveller" Newspaper Accuses South Somerset District Council of Corruption AND SomersetLive of Plagiarism

The Leveller 15th January 2022

Mendip and South Somerset Councils - Are They Both Corrupt?

Somerset Independents have repeatedly asked whether Mendip District Council is corrupt. We have provided the information for residents to make up their own minds and you can see the evidence that we have presented on this website by clicking the tag at the top of the website, clicking this link here, or using the search facility.

Somerset newspaper "The Leveller" has gone one step further. Their 15th January 2022 edition front page headline reads "The Corrupted" and reports on a long-running investigation into South Somerset District Council (SSDC).

While they do have a website, much of The Leveller's reporting is not available online - you have to get a printed copy to see the full details. The Leveller is free and you can also subscribe for delivery.

Thankfully our friends at East Devon Watch have provided links to some Leveller online content from last month.

Leveller Accuses SomersetLive Of Plagiarism

As well as accusing SSDC of corruption, The Leveller has also accused another news organisation - SomersetLive (Reach)- of "passing the story off as their own" and that "they have syndicated the story without acknowledging the fact that the story first appeared in The Leveller." 

The Leveller on Facebook

Presumably this relates to the article with Local Democracy Reporter Daniel Mumby's name on it, here. The full statement and accusation from The Leveller is below*.

Is this plagiarism or just bad manners?

We let you decide, based on the following definition from Oxford University (link here to source):

"Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement. All published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under this definition. Plagiarism may be intentional or reckless, or unintentional. Under the regulations for examinations, intentional or reckless plagiarism is a disciplinary offence."

Perhaps Daniel Mumby and/or SomersetLive were unaware of The Leveller's work.

Daniel Mumby refuted that it was plagiarism, telling us via Twitter:

"We had access to the same source. No plagiarism of any kind was involved."

Andrew Lee, Editor of The Leveller, told us ("off the record" - we informed him that we don't do "off the record", as nothing in politics is really "off the record"):

"I just want to be clear that we hadn't accused Daniel of plagiarism."

Mr Lee also provided other words, which we have not used. But he did accuse Mr Mumby of being "dishonest" and "bad manners".

Readers can make up their own minds. This article has been updated to include the above definition of plagiarism and the responses.

Would you agree that if this is the state of investigative journalism in Somerset, then it is no wonder that Somerset's democracy is in disarray and that councils, councillors and council officers are not being held to account with enough regularity or vigour.

What Are the Allegations By The Leveller Towards SSDC?

The Leveller's investigation is mentioned by the Editor, Andrew Lee, on the Youtube video at this link here. It revolves around The Leveller's long-running investigation, although some residents have called it a vendetta, into SSDC.

The main focus is on two former senior officers of the Council:

• Clare Pestell who oversaw "commercial activity" as SSDC's former Director, Commercial & Income Generation
  
• the former Chief Executive Alex Parmley (who resigned), and 
• the Leader of the Council, Liberal Democrat Councillor Val Keitch (still in post).

Ms Pestell was dismissed from the Council after an investigation by the internal audit partnership of Somerset councils, called "SWAP". Pestell was dismissed after being found of gross misconduct. Pestell was appointed as interim Chief Executive but never took up the post. The Leveller alleges that despite knowledge of the allegations, that Pestell was appointed anyway without due process and without keeping councillors informed.

Mendip and South Somerset - Twins Of Corruption?

Not only does The Leveller accuse SSDC of corruption. They also accuse SSDC of a culture of secrecy and cover-ups. This sounds familiar, as it sounds like Mendip District Council. Our regular readers will notice this similarity and we thank The Leveller for doing the work which compliments our work on Mendip and South Somerset.

The lack of awareness of the Nolan Principles, claimed by Ms Pestell during the independent investigation by SWAP, also sounds just like Mendip. 

As we have reported before, at Mendip the Monitoring Officer David Clark and his Deputy Tonya Meers told us in writing that they are not part of the Code of Conduct for councillors, when we complained with substantial evidence about the conduct of Conservative Councillor Nigel Hewitt-Cooper in his role on Mendip's Planning Board. Ms Meers wrote:

"With regard to the Nolan Principles, they are exactly that and underpin the code of conduct but are not part of the code."

We checked that this was also the view of her senior, David Clark. Let's not forget that the level of competence of the Monitoring Officer at Mendip is questionable, as we have proved before (e.g. a chair of Mendip's Scrutiny committee presiding over their own election). 

Conspiracies or Cock-ups?

If Mendip is a corrupt council, then those who thrive under corruption would want an incompetent Monitoring Officer as well as other officers to not do their jobs properly. We have proved the lack of competence and the huge number of "mistakes" on many occasions. 

In two successive years, Mendip's External Auditor Ernst and Young has agreed with our complaints in our formal objections to Mendip's accounts and governance.

So there are many similarities between Mendip and South Somerset.

The Catalogue of Scandal and Failings at South Somerset

The Leveller's investigation is not the only dodgy shenanigans at South Somerset District Council.

Councillors Who Did Not Pay Their Own Council Tax

As Somerset Independents has investigated and reported, and with The Leveller's support, councillors at both SSDC and MDC (and Somerset West and Taunton Council too) persistently did not pay their council tax. And SSDC officers have fought our investigation all the way. Our latest update on the involvement of the Information Commissioner's Office is here, with more information on South Somerset councillors who did not pay up.

Former Leader of the Council Jailed

The former Liberal Democrat Leader of SSDC, Ric Pallister, was convicted of multiple sexual offences.

Standards Committee Rarely Meets

And as we have investigated and reported on multiple occasions, the Standards Committee of SSDC has hardly met. 

The Standards Committee Diary - It Has Rarely Met!

The Standards Committee is supposed to uphold standards at SSDC. 

How can it uphold standards, when it hardly meets? 

When we asked SSDC why these meetings were being cancelled, we were told by SSDC that they were cancelled by the Chair, who is a councillor. The Standards Committee should have had a lot to discuss and act upon, but it failed to do so.

It was not "just" a backbench councillor that had been found , but THE LEADER OF THE COUNCIL. Why weren't standards being upheld?

It is likely that a person who has been jailed, would also have had a substantial negative impact on the workings of a local authority and its culture.

ALL Councillors and Candidates MUST Have DBS Checks

This is why we have been campaigning for ALL candidates for elected office, including councillors, to have to be subjected to independent criminal records checks (DBS checks), BEFORE they are accepted as valid candidates.

Unsurprisingly, when we contacted existing Somerset councillors, including those at Mendip and South Somerset, to back our campaign, we got no action from them. 

As we have reported before - although other councils - including Sedgemoor District and Somerset County - do carry out DBS checks on all councillors, neither South Somerset nor Mendip council conduct checks on all councillors. They have had ample opportunity to do so, but councillors have chosen not to.

When there are so many failings in both Mendip and South Somerset councils, then this is not only unsurprising, it is scandalous.

Does it matter, should anybody care, if these councils are going to be abolished by the formation of the Somerset Unitary Authority?

We agree with The Leveller that it does matter. The people may well be the same. The councillors may well be the same. The Westminster political parties are the cause. And the culture of party first, residents last, will be the same if something drastic does not change.

And it is Somerset residents that will be affected, as they have already been affected. Somerset Independents was formed by volunteers to stand up for residents and with residents.

This is why we want to see a Modern Committee System in the new Unitary Authority, because the existing Leader and Cabinet model has led to this scandalous state of affairs.

 

* The Leveller's accusation towards SomersetLive reads:

"Readers may be aware that following our 7 page exclusive on South Somerset and Clare Pestell, another news organisation has been passing the story off as their own. This despite publishing 8 days after ours had been circulated.

To make matters worse they have syndicated the story without acknowledging the fact that the story first appeared in The Leveller. 

 

We have contacted a number of news organisations to point this out. Several have been very kind in recognising our work. However syndication rules mean where the story is published it cannot be altered.

 

In one case the story contained the completely untrue claim that the facts only entered the public domain after SomersetLive published (over a week after our own exclusive and a month after we introduced the story on Leveller.Live)

 

We are grateful the LGC magazine (their story is here https://www.lgcplus.com/.../director-dismissed-after.../) has included a link to the original Leveller story in the piece.

 

The East Devon Owl went one better and simply posted our original December story in its entirety.

 

We are grateful to these organisations and it is a pleasure to report that there is still some integrity alive in corners of this increasingly mucky world."