UPDATE (2/6/22): Dangerous Lib Dem-Run South Somerset District Council In Spending Spree with Public Millions

 

Spending YOUR Money
Behind Closed Doors

UPDATE (2/6/22): Updated to include link to new article on Yeovil Town FC and the purchase of land by South Somerset District Council at taxpayer's expense, with quotes by fans and residents.

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Somerset Independents Leader Andrew Pope has been asking questions about the spending spree by South Somerset District Council. It is the spending of public money, much of it done in secret with confidential reports, despite it being public money that councillors are paid an allowance to account for on behalf of residents.

The Council will be scrapped in less than a year. But the Liberal Democrat councillors that are running the Council are spending millions of pounds of public money.

Yet they cannot be voted out, because there will not be any elections.

As we have already warned residents, the new unitary authority ("New Somerset Council") that replaces all four district councils and the county council will inherit the bad debts, bad decisions, bad officers and bad councillors.

Some of these councillors have already been elected to the new authority, before the New Somerset Council has even come into existence.

And some of them have already been given elevated positions of responsibility, despite their failures on the district councils.

Andrew says:

Andrew Pope

"This is the fix that Conservative councillors and the Conservative Government forced through against the wishes of the residents of Somerset. No residents asked for this!

And the Lib Dems did not resist sufficiently to stand up for residents. Why?

Because they wanted to take over the New Somerset Council.

And after the elections, the Lib Dems will control the County Council until it is replaced by the New council.

I have obtained more details of the Lib Dem spending spree.

And we will be publishing them and asking local media to publish them too.

The Liberal Democrats cannot be trusted any more than their predecessors, the Conservatives.

Like we have said since we were created - Lib Dem or Tory, same old story.

These are dangerous times for the county of Somerset and its residents.

They are spending our money but will not be accountable for it.

Somerset Independents was formed to stand up for Somerset residents.

We have been true to our word and the objectives of our Constitution.

We have continued our investigations despite our lack of money and people to do the work.

We have done it as volunteers and as a public service. Because it is the right thing to do."

Somerset Independents - standing up for you

EXPOSED: More South Somerset District (and North Somerset) councillors ... who persistently failed to pay council tax!

 

Somerset Independents is continuing its investigations into councillors who persistently failed to pay their own council tax but continued to be elected officials, without resigning.

Shamefully (as one Crewkerne resident told us), some have continued to remain councillors and to make important decisions affecting thousands of Somerset resident's lives whilst being in persistent arrears on their council tax.

And two have been shown by our investigations to have voted on budget items at the Budget Full Council of Somerset County Council and Mendip District Council, despite their persistent council tax arrears. These councillors also failed to declare their arrears properly, despite being required to do so and being told by council officers to do so.

We have continued to repeatedly offer the Right of Reply to all of them. But they don't want to answer the questions that the public want answered.

We have more information on councillors at South Somerset District Council and now new information on North Somerset Council.

South Somerset District Council have provided the following information:

Fake "Independent" Councillor for Martock and
Former Tory Neil Bloomfield

"Cllr Neil Bloomfield – four months in arrears which amounts to £407.23. Cllr Bloomfield did not attend the budget setting meeting of the 28^th February."

and

"Cllr Robin Pailthorpe – arrears of £878.64 for 2018 and 2019 council tax years and an outstanding balance of £450.02 for 2020.  Cllr Pailthorpe did not attend the budget setting meeting of the 28^th February."

Lib Dem Councillor for Crewkerne Robin Pailthorpe

So there are persistent failures from these two councillors.

We have also received other information from residents of Crewkerne in relation to Councillor Pailthorpe and the other councillor for Crewkerne Ben Hodgson, who was also in arrears on his council tax, as we exclusively revealed from the investigations.

Bloomfield, Pailthorpe and Hodgson are councillors on a district council that will be scrapped in a year's time and replaced with a unitary authority for "all of" (more accurately most of) the traditional County of Somerset.

All district councils and the County Council will be scrapped in favour of the New Somerset Council. This is something that the Conservative Government has forced through, against the wishes of the majority of Somerset residents - as we have documented and campaigned for a Referendum.

Neither Cllr Pailthorpe nor Bloomfield have been elected to the New Somerset Council. Residents of Martock and Crewkerne will be relieved.

But they are also worried that this district council continues and the continuing involvement of these councillors, plus other SSDC councillors like Conservative Sue Osborne and Lib Dem Louise Clarke.

Lib Dem Cllr for Crewkerne Ben Hodgson

Lib Dem Cllr for Martock Louise Clarke

Conservative Councillor for Windwhistle Sue Osborne

Cllr Sue Osborne HAS been elected to the New Somerset Council.

To our knowledge, none other of the non-council-tax-paying councillors that Somerset Independents has exposed in our investigations have been elected to the new council. 

They either resigned before the elections, did not stand in the elections or lost to other candidates.

Residents will be relieved.

But Osborne has been elected.

We are concerned because residents will be.

So we've asked Conservative councillors on SSDC what they think of this, and Cllr Osbourne's arrears too.

We've given Cllr Osborne and other councillors the opportunity of the Right of Reply - again.

But there has still been no response from Cllr Osborne or from Cllr Pailthorpe, Cllr Clarke or Cllr Hodgson.

The Leader of the Conservative Group, Councillor Martin Wale, told us:

"I had correspondence from Cllr Osborne and I am satisfied that this matter has been resolved with SSDC."

That is not the way that residents see things.

Residents have told us again this week that they think it is shameful and that they are concerned about these councillors.

Only one of the recalcitrant councillors has responded to our questions - Cllr Neil Bloomfield - but he has not answered our questions properly. He also used a private email instead of his councillor email and made a set of unsubstantiated allegations. We have given him another chance.

North Somerset Council 

Meanwhile, in another part of the traditional County of Somerset, now we know that councillors at North Somerset Council have been subject to liability orders, reminders and summons.

This follows further investigations led by Leader of Somerset Independents, Andrew Pope.

There are two independent councillors and one Conservative councillor.

We will be providing the names plus more details and asking media outlets to report.

How Do Councillors Get Away With It? Asks An Independent Councillor

Independent Councillor
Tony Capozzoli

Supporters of Somerset Independents will be aware of our long-running campaign on councillors not paying their council tax, led by Leader of Somerset Independents Andrew Pope.

The campaign is to expose councillors who persistently failed to pay their council tax - not for one or two months but for many months and in some cases over years.

As we have made clear before, councillors are not just private individuals while they hold elected office. 

Private individuals are entitled to their council tax being a private matter. We do not pursue private individuals - in fact, we help residents when they are having difficulties.

But when they are councillors, they are no longer just private individuals. They are public officials that have been elected. This is not just our opinion, this is the legal state of affairs. How do we know? Because we have checked key cases such as the Bolton Council case that we have reported on before.

Somerset Independents is a group of volunteers. But we are professional in our approach. So we check.

We were contacted recently by Independent Councillor Tony Capozzoli. Councillor Capozzoli represents the Northstone, Ivelchester and St Michael's ward on South Somerset District Council (SSDC).

The discussion ranged over a number of topics, as we have been in touch with Tony since the beginning of Somerset Independents in 2020.

Those topics included the ongoing controversy, as broken by "The Leveller" which is continuing its investigation, regarding the departed senior council officer Clare Pestell from SSDC, and the threats of legal action by former Conservative Councillor Linda Vijeh.

During a vote of no confidence in the Leader of SSDC, Lib Dem Val Keitch, Ms Vijeh received public spoken attacks from councillors during the recent Full Council meeting, with Ms Vijeh not being given the opportunity to respond in public. So we offered Ms Vijeh the right of reply.

We understand that Ms Vijeh has requested that those councillors apologise in public during a future council meeting.

We await those apologies.

Another topic discussed with Cllr Capozzoli was our council tax campaign. When Andrew Pope explained the detail, Councillor Capozzoli was astonished. Tony said:

"How can a councillor get around not paying council tax? If there is a loophole, the public would like to know about it."

Quite.

But it seems that councillors get special treatment by council officers. Despite being elected officials, their names were protected from being exposed to the public by SSDC. And this was for months, until we took the issue to the Information Commissioner's Office.

As we've reported already, Somerset County Council did not bother to check. They just passed the buck to the district councils and relied on councillors being honest to declare any arrears.

This can allow councillors to get away with wrongdoing. Not just wrongdoing, but criminal offences.

And locally only The Leveller reported on these councillors' wrongdoing and Private Eye nationally reported on our investigation. 

Every other local news outlet did not report on it, although we contacted them with the evidence, more than once. This includes:

• West Country Bylines (a.k.a. Voices)
• SomersetLive and Local Democracy Reporter attached to SomersetLive Daniel Mumby
• Somerset County Gazette
• BBC Radio Somerset
• BBC West
• ITV West Country
  

We cannot tell them what to report. We do not try to tell them what to report. 

But this issue is definitely in the public interest, about public officials paid by public funds to account for public funds. 

These "news outlets" do report on plenty of trivial matters and many that are not in the public interest. But it seems they do not report on councillors who persistently fail to pay their council tax in their own councils.

So this is how councillors get away with it... The local media do not report on councillors' persistent and serious wrongdoing, and council officers are in the wrong too.

In the cases of Neil Bloomfield and Green Mendip Councillor Francis Hayden, we believe that criminal offences were committed, and we have given the evidence to the councils. This was evidence that we had to extract from those councils in the first place! 

We asked Somerset County Council and Mendip District Council to report these councillors to the Police. As far as we are aware, they have not reported Cllr Bloomfield or Cllr Hayden to the Police.

None of the councillors caught by our campaign have been elected to the New Somerset Council, apart from Conservative Sue Osborne. She got elected despite her council tax arrears - perhaps the media blackout allowed her to get away with it? 

We have taken this back to her Group Leader at SSDC, Martin Wale, who in January 2022 told us he was satisfied the matter was closed.

But what is more important than his opinion? Are the public satisfied?

No, they are not. Residents from several parts of Somerset have told us that this is a resigning matter.

We have asked Cllr Capozzoli to take the matter to the SSDC Standards Committee.

So in answer to Cllr Capozzoli's question "How Do Councillors Get Away With It?"... 

This is how councillors get away with it:

• council officers don't respond to questions from the public for months, despite law requiring a response in 20 days
  
• council officers cover up the names of councillors for months until forced by contact with the Regulator, 
• council officers fail to report to Police and 
• local media do not report wrongdoing that is in the public interest over public matters, despite being given the evidence.

Somerset needs better local media, better local councillors and better council officers.

Instead, we have a New Somerset Council with some of the bad officers, bad councillors and bad debts created by the same bad people in a corrupt network of cronyism and incompetence.

 

VICTORY in Bristol, Victory in Sheffield: Now We Need Victory in Somerset for The Modern Committee System

 

Scrapped Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees (right)
Photo: BBC

 

The people of Bristol have voted to scrap the Mayor of Bristol, in a victory for democracy over tyranny.

Despite a loud and dishonest campaign by Bristol Labour, spearheaded by Darren Jones MP (left), the count overnight showed that a clear majority of Bristol people wanted to scrap the post held by Labour's Marvin Rees.

The "It's Our City" campaign in Bristol followed the successful campaign by our friends and colleagues in Sheffield, also called "It's Our City".

Why is this relevant to Somerset?

Because Somerset Independents has been campaigning for Somerset's councils to change to a Modern Committee System too.

Last June, when the district councils conducted their flawed poll to force Somerset residents to choose between two buckets of manure - proven failure versus potential disaster - one failed system versus another failed system - we denounced their poll and suggested that Somerset should have a Modern Committee System in the current and any future councils.

The district councils' poll was not the YES/NO Referendum that residents deserved to have and which Somerset Independents campaigned for.

Instead, the Conservative Government led by Boris Johnson were aided and abetted by Conservative Councillors in Somerset, especially Conservative County Council Leader David Fothergill. There was weak opposition by the Liberal Democrats, Greens and Labour.

We know why the opposition was weak - because these Westminster parties put the interests of themselves and their parties first. They calculate that they will gain from the New Somerset Council. The Lib Dems even feel that they can control it - today, we will know.

The Conservatives imposed their unitary authority on Somerset, against the wishes of residents who voted in 2007 82% against any such changes.

Andrew Pope, Leader of Somerset Independents, says:

Andrew Pope, Leader of Somerset Independents

"Congratulations to It's Our City Bristol and It's Our City Sheffield. They have led remarkable campaigns. 

Today, the results of the elections to this New Somerset Council will be announced.

So Somerset Independents wants to see this New Somerset Council to be a Modern Committee System.

There is a danger that there will be moves for it to have an Elected Mayor.

There is a danger that it will have a "Strong Leader" and Cabinet, which has failed Somerset already.

The people of Bristol and Sheffield have rejected the Mayor and the failed "Strong Leader" model that has failed Somerset for too long.

Somerset must have a Modern Committee System.

Residents will say No to an Elected Mayor.

Residents will say No to the "Strong Leader" and Cabinet.

Residents will say Yes to a democratic system where all councillors can represent the voice of the people that they are there to represent.

We know that councillors at Somerset West and Taunton Council  resolved to support a Modern Committee System in April 2021. 

We will be holding them and the elected New Somerset Council councillors to account, to ensure that they deliver it for the people of Somerset.

The work must start immediately, and according to answers we have obtained from SWT Council, the New Council is supposed to be considering the matter in May 2022."

EXPOSED: We Reveal How Former Tory Councillor Neil Bloomfield Broke The Law and Voted on Your Council Spending Despite Being Banned

 

Martock "Independent" Councillor Neil Bloomfield

UPDATE (6/5/22): Neil Bloomfield LOST his attempt to be elected to the New Somerset Council.

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In March, Leader of Somerset Independents Andrew Pope followed up on our previous investigations into councillors who persistently failed to pay their council tax. 

Neil Bloomfield is a Martock councillor and represents the area on South Somerset District Council AND Somerset County Council. He claims to be "independent" but is actually a former Conservative. 

To this day (2 days before the elections in which he is standing), including on his election literature and social media, Bloomfield promotes himself as "independent" but usually votes with the Tories on the councils.

So we believe that Neil Bloomfield is a Tory sheep in independent clothing. It would be interesting to know how many voters are aware of this.

Our investigations showed that Neil Bloomfield had persistently and knowingly failed to pay his council tax over months and years.

Councillor Bloomfield has not answered our questions.

He has not resigned either.

So, in March, we challenged Somerset County Council officers as to why they did not bother to check whether councillors had paid their council tax.

As we have previously shown, councillors who persistently fail to pay are DISBARRED (LEGALLY BANNED) from voting on council tax-related matters.

This is the legal opinion that we have showed to all four district councils and Somerset County Council.

Yet Somerset County Council failed to check.

And Cllr Bloomfield voted to spend YOUR money at the County Council.

He also failed to declare his arrears at the required time at the Budget Meeting of the County Council, despite clearly being told by Somerset County Council officers that he must declare his arrears.

So according to the legal advice that we have, Cllr Neil Bloomfield broke the law repeatedly.

We asked Somerset County Council to report Cllr Bloomfield to Avon and Somerset Police.

To our knowledge, Somerset County Council have failed to do so.

Voters go to the polls this Thursday.

If Councillor Neil Bloomfield is elected, he will be elected as a councillor who has committed offences and who has broken the law. 

And Somerset County Council will have failed to act, despite being made aware by us and being asked by us to review its decisions and despite the evidence being in the minutes of Somerset County Council meetings - here is the link to the Minutes - it is also copied below*.

It is not easy to see on the County Council website's version of the Minutes that Bloomfield voted - whether this is a deliberate attempt to cover it up or not we leave you to decide.

Here it is though, we've recovered it:

Somerset County Council officers have also tried to equivocate instead of answering our questions. The facts are shown in their own Minutes, and we copy them here. We are considering whether to take the matter further.

We repeat our call for all candidates for elected office to be subject to criminal records checks before becoming a candidate and also when in service to residents as a councillor or MP or Police and Crime Commissioner.

Trust is at historic lows in elected politicians.

People like Neil Bloomfield are doing little to enhance trust.

* From the official Minutes of the Somerset County Council meeting in February 2021 (emphasis added)

"Agenda item

Declarations of Interest

• Meeting of ANNUAL BUDGET MEETING, County Council, Wednesday 17th February 2021 10.00 am (Item 245.)

Details of all Members’ interests in District, Town and Parish Councils can be viewed on the Council Website at

County Councillors membership of Town, City, Parish or District Councils and this will be displayed in the meeting room (Where relevant).

The Statutory Register of Member’s Interests can be inspected via request to the Democratic Service Team.

 

Minutes:

The Chair reminded the meeting that details of all Members’ interests in District, Town and Parish Councils could be viewed on the Council’s Website and there is no need for members to individually declare these personal interests in those other councils at the meeting.

 

Members were reminded that the Monitoring Officer had granted a dispensation to enable all elected members to participate and vote on setting the Revenue Budget, Council Tax levels and the Members Allowance Scheme.  Any member who had an amount of Council Tax due to be paid which had been unpaid for at least two months needed to declare that as they could not take part in the vote relating to the Budget."