The Clark's Strike and March - We Support Workers Not The Labour Party

The Picket Line at Clark's in Street

We wish to highlight our position, following the allegations by Clark's of "threats and intimidation" to its workers at the picket line organised by the Labour Party-affiliated union "Community".

Leader of Somerset Independents, Andrew Pope responds:

 

Leader of Somerset Independents
Andrew Pope

"Somerset Independents states again its support for residents and workers of Somerset. Indeed, it is in our Constitution that we protect Somerset residents and Somerset workers at Clark's - all of them.

Somerset Independents wishes to state that we support Clark's workers, but not the Labour Party. And from their responses to our questions to them, the local Somerset Tory MPs seem to support Clark's managements actions, to their shame. Neither Labour nor Tory are helping. They are out-of-date and out-of-touch.

Somerset Independents has taken action to protect residents and workers at Clark's - whether they are in the Community Union mentioned by Clark's - or not in the union. We've taken action to support workers at Norseland in Ilchester too. Where is Labour? Where are the Tories?

Somerset Independents has tried to work with the unions. We've offered the hand of help. But we have been met with a brick wall on Clark's and also at Norseland, where the GMB Union has let workers down. Their pay and working conditions have suffered.

These unions fail because of their connections to Labour, which put workers off. The Community Union and the GMB Union both affiliate to the Labour Party. Both unions donate large sums of money to the Labour Party. At a time when MPs are being examined for paid advocacy following Tory MP Owen Paterson's corruption, this needs to be looked at.

Labour's unions have also donated to Barry Gardiner, Brent North MP from London, who is due to speak at Saturday's march. He has received tens of thousands of pounds from these unions, as shown in his Register of Interests at Parliament, seemingly for his deeply flawed Fire and Rehire Bill, but for a company that he is the sole director of, according to Companies House records.

Barry Gardiner MP controls the money and the unions give it to him. There is no other Director, despite claims to the contrary that a Labour Lord is also a Director (Labour Lord Hendy).

Sadly it's another case of Labour or Tory, same old story. Gardiner is paid by the unions, but where the union money goes is not transparent enough.

So now we know why these unions don't want to work with Somerset Independents, although we have offered to pressure Clark's management and to work with the unions in the spirit of partnership.

These Labour Party-dominated unions are more interested in dialogue with the Labour Party and Labour MPs who do not live in Somerset such as Barry Gardiner, than working with Somerset Independents to pressure Clark's management and to resolve this dispute.

The Labour Party's methods are outdated. Their attitudes are outdated. Members money is mis-spent. Labour is totally split from top to bottom between Corbyn supporters and Starmer supporters.

That's why Labour is going nowhere in Somerset.

Meanwhile, Somerset Independents is winning its campaigns:

- exposing councillors who don't pay council tax,

- exposing councils who spend public money wrongly, and

- on holding companies like Norseland and Clark's to account.

Somerset Independents is standing up for workers and residents, whereas Labour-supporting unions have failed to win for workers.

And our success in campaigns shows why Somerset Independents is gaining support for its work in Somerset, working with residents and workers.

Somerset is our County."

 

UPDATED (9/6/22): Latest Attacks on Glastonbury Government and Council Crony "Slush Fund"

 

Is Mendip District Council Corrupt?

UPDATED (9/6/22): The normally Labour-friendly Mirror is reporting the latest attacks on the Conservative Government's "Levelling Up" by the (Labour) Chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee:

"Ministers were today accused of "gambling taxpayers' money on policies" which are "little more than a slogan" over Boris Johnson ’s flagship levelling-up plan.

The Commons Public Accounts Committee blasted the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities for using "unsatisfactory" methods to hand out billions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash.

In a report published today, the cross-party group of MPs highlighted how the first round of the £1.7bn Levelling-Up Fund was only awarded after the ministry knew the identities of shortlisted bidders."

This adds to the revelations that we have reported below in Somerset about Glastonbury money and how it has been handled by Lib Dem-run Mendip District Council, with Internal Audit intervening as we have previously reported. We have also received worrying allegations regarding Glastonbury Town Council, relating to how the money is being handled.

The Mirror goes on (Commons) Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier "fumed": 

"Without clear parameters, plans or measures of success it's hard to avoid the appearance that government is just gambling taxpayers’ money on policies and programmes that are little more than a slogan, retrofitting the criteria for success and not even bothering to evaluate if it worked."

Leader of Somerset Independents, Andrew Pope, responds:

Andrew Pope

"We reported it, but local media have not given this scandal and this slush fund the attention that the public deserve.

The Tories nationally have opaquely allocated public money that has then been channelled and promoted very loudly by Lib Dems and Greens on Mendip District Council and Glastonbury Town Council.

Lib Dems, Greens or Tory, same old story - these Westminster parties want to look like "Lady Bountiful" in handing out the money. But as we've pointed out previously and many times over, it is public money that must be accounted for properly and distributed with due process and criteria.

At every level, national or local, this Levelling Up money is grubby dirty money, because of the way it has been dished out.

Residents would have hoped that these Lib Dem and Green councillors would be ashamed to have accepted this money when it has been repeatedly slammed by auditors and those accounting for it - at national level and at local level, as we have reported (see below). Lib Dems and Greens have no shame though...

One Glastonbury councillor, Chair of Mendip District Council, Nick Cottle attacked Somerset Independents for pointing out the national and local criticisms. He needs to listen to the public's valid concern.

Today's criticisms from the Public Accounts Committee are legitimate, despite them coming from a Labour-friendly newspaper quoting a Labour MP attacking the Tories.

And it's the latest criticism that makes "Levelling Up" look nothing more than a slush fund to corruptly build networks of cronies for the Lib Dems, Greens or Tories and to be used for what these Westminster parties hope - to influence voting patterns in constituencies or local council wards.

It's a scandal and the local media must give this due reporting now.

Too many local news outlets are asleep at the wheel, letting councillors and MPs get away with it."

---

UPDATED (19/2/22): Mendip District Council (MDC)'s internal audit function (a.k.a. SWAP) has now reported again to Mendip's Audit Committee of councillors. 

Minutes of the 2nd February 2022 meeting contained a report by SWAP. This had previously been mentioned as a "Fraud Risk Assessment" in a previous meeting of the Audit Committee in December 2021. 

Financial anomalies including weaknesses in how these millions were handled, were reported in Daniel Mumby's report that we linked to in the original article (see quotes below).

At the February 2022 meeting, councillors were asked to consider this report on the millions without the public being able to see it, or hear their deliberations.

This is public money, millions of pounds of public money. It is being handed out without public scrutiny.

WHAT DO THESE COUNCILLORS HAVE TO HIDE?

Somerset Independents has received information from a whistleblower about the Glastonbury Town Deal.

We will be looking into how MDC has conducted itself, and what conflicts of interest there have been in relation to how MDC, its councillors and officers have managed the money allocated by Boris Johnson's Conservative Government.

*At the August 2021 meeting, the minutes stated:

"Payments were issued without the required cashflow documentation to ensure funding was only distributed to verified project need. 

 Limited invoice and cashflow information from the grantees resulted in low level monitoring being undertaken to ensure that funds would be appropriately used during the projects’ lifecycles. 

 

The expenditure reports for Building C contain anomalies and questionable items that have not been queried by the Council. 

 

There is no distinct Code of Conduct for the Town Deal Board, nor is a formal process documented for members of the Town Deal Board to register gifts / hospitality and declarations of interest.

A follow up audit will be scheduled into the 2021-22 plan to confirm that recommendations are implemented to address the control weaknesses identified."

---

Ever since Somerset Independents was formed, we've been challenging Mendip District Council (MDC) for how it spends YOUR money and how it makes decisions.

We have not said that Mendip District Council is corrupt.

But we have provided the evidence so that Mendip residents can make up their own minds and have their own ideas about corruption.

We define corruption as the abuse of power, so we present the evidence again.

Here are just five examples of what is wrong with Mendip District Council, but there is more on this website and more to come:

1. For two years running, we have got agreement from MDC's External Auditor Ernst and Young (EY) that how MDC operates is wrong. We are helping EY with their enquiries, following our second complaint into MDC, its accounts and governance.
2. We have shown that conflicts of interest are not managed, including on Licensing and Planning decisions that affect Mendip residents' lives, and we have shown that MDC are mostly deaf to the public's concerns and objections but allow grave contraventions of good practice to go ahead, unchecked.
   
3. We have shown that Mendip Council officers have suppressed information relating to councillors who have not paid their council tax, and taken this to local and national media, plus the Information Commissioner's Office.
   
4. We have shown that Mendip Council officers allowed a Chair of Scrutiny to preside over his own election as Chair, and after the Head of Legal (Monitoring Officer) ruled it was OK to do this, then through our action we forced Mendip into a u-turn and a proper vote of the Chair, months later.
5. After a bitter fight over 2020 and 2021, we have forced MDC to change their Constitution on Planning. Despite this, a senior planning officer described the changes to councillors as "tidying up" when presenting the changes to them. And bad governance and practises continue in MDC Planning.
   

But there is more.

This brings us to The Glastonbury Town Deal, part of the corrupt Prime Minster Boris Johnson's (BoJo's) Government "levelling up" agenda.

Nobody seems to know what "levelling up" means. Spitting Image have derided it in their latest episodes. Things have got so bad that Michael Gove has been sent in to explain what it is. That is desperate.

So what is The Glastonbury Town Deal? It is part of the £3.6 billion Towns Fund for England that has awarded public money to 101 towns. Some of this appears to have been done in the correct way, but most (around 60%) of the allocations were not done correctly. Tory Ministers interfered.

Glastonbury needs investment, but the way this has been done is wrong.

In short, the Towns Fund is a multi-billion pot of public money handed out by Boris to help the Conservative Party win elections. 

The Towns Fund is dirty money used for corrupt purposes. And therefore the Glastonbury Town Deal money, which Mendip District Council applied for, is also dirty. 

Why do we say this? 

Because the evidence is clear that the money was allocated with political interference by Conservative Party ministers, instead of according to clear criteria and methodology by public servants.

It isn't just Somerset Independents that says this. Multiple other credible sources also say this, including MPs, the National Audit Office and independent journalism.

According to Byline Times, it is "61 Pork Barrels", with "weak and unconvincing arguments" used by Government Ministers in defending how money was allocated, according to MPs on the Commons Public Accounts Committee.

According to the National Audit Office (NAO), "the UK's independent public-spending watchdog", in their review of the Towns Fund:

"On 27 July 2019, the government announced the £3.6 billion Towns Fund for England (The Towns Fund). The Towns Fund is expected to support towns that currently do not have the right conditions to develop and sustain strong local economies"

The NAO said:

"This review describes the process followed by the Department to select the 101 towns. First, this involved an assessment – scoring, ranking, filtering and prioritising – of all 1,082 towns across England by the Department’s officials against a range of criteria. Second, ministers selected the towns to be invited to bid for Town Deals using the officials’ assessments to guide them.¹ The Department published the list of selected towns in September 2019 but did not publish the basis on which they selected the towns."

Like we have said when we have challenged local councils in how they operate, politicians should not be involved in any interference in the allocation of public money via grants. There should be clear criteria and a methodology, and civil servants or local government officers should be allowed to make the decisions in an open and transparent way.

Leader of Somerset Independents, Andrew Pope says: 

Andrew Pope

"Glastonbury Town Deal money was allocated in a corrupt way by  Conservative Government Ministers. This is not the fault of civil servants, but of Boris Johnson's corrupt MPs, most of whom recently voted to protect corrupt Tory MP Owen Paterson. This included local Somerset MPs.

We say again that Glastonbury and a whole host of other towns in Somerset including Yeovil, Shepton Mallet and Frome - desperately need investment and a plan for investment and jobs.

But not like this with dirty Tory money being laundered by Liberal Democrat and Green councillors, who like the Tories are desperate to spend millions of pounds of OUR money for THEIR political gain.

The Liberal Democrat Leader of Mendip, Councillor Ros Wyke, is doing the Conservative Party's dirty work for them, when she is crowing about the money. And so is any other Lib Dem, Green or Tory councillor or MP that is crowing about this dirty money.

Already Mendip have claimed transparency, but provided anything but transparency (see here and * below). Even the normally pathetic Internal Mendip Audit (SWAP) has found "questionable items" within the accounts!

It is no surprise as Ros Wyke has form for this, which we know from our campaigning on the governance failings at Mendip on how our money is spent in the Asset Management Group and Phoenix Sponsorship Board.

The Tories have used public cash on a spending spree to enhance their election chances in a marginal seat. That's why Tory MP for Glastonbury James Heappey is so involved on this "Board" for spending the money.

Other parts of Somerset are being taken for granted, because of the broken First Post The Post voting system which provides "safe seats" for Tories.

We want to see investment in Somerset and a plan for jobs, but done in a way that Somerset can be proud of, not in a way that is shameful and grubby."

 

Standing Up For Somerset
Not Westminster

From the Mendip District Council "Frequently Asked Questions" page (emphasis added):

Where can we, the citizens of Glastonbury, see the detailed accounts of the money spent thus far?
All funds will eventually flow through Mendip District Council, which is the Accountable Body for any eventual grant allocation.  An accountable body generally takes responsibility for the legal and financial management of a grant given to a particular project or projects.  MDC's Section 151 Officer oversees the accountable body function.  As such, MDC works to government guidance and will eventually be reporting to government and the Glastonbury Town Fund Board.

Some limited prefunding of matters such as architects and project managers is taking place at the moment through MDC to enable the 12 projects to deliver their HM Treasury Green Book Business Cases.  The actual grant allocation of £23.6m will not be approved until each project completes this process.  Thus, the full grant allocations will not be available until a few months after MDC has received permission for the projects to proceed.  We anticipate that the first 'major' funds will arrive in mid 2022.

As well as MDC's role as the Accountable Body, the operation of the Glastonbury Town Deal, including financial, is overseen by the Glastonbury Town Deal Board which will receive detailed financial reporting once the grant allocations start to be received.  This reporting will be recorded in the Board minutes which are posted regularly on the MDC website.  Please note that some confidential information may necessarily be excluded if it is 'commercial in confidence'.  Both MDC and the Glastonbury Town Deal Board are committed to working in an open and transparent manner.  Currently, there is simply no information to share.

 

 

UPDATED (20/3/22): South Somerset District Council Lets Councillors Off The Hook and Lets Them Make Unsubstantiated Allegations

UPDATE (20/3/22): Lib Dem Leader of South Somerset District Council, Councillor Val Keitch, survived the vote of no confidence at the recent Full Council meeting.

But at the same meeting, councillors made allegations about a former Conservative councillor Linda Vijeh. Ms Vijeh was unable to defend herself. She was also the Leader of the Conservative Group until she resigned.

Former Conservative Councillor
Linda Vijeh

So we have offered her an opportunity to defend herself, as we believe that this is fair. 

Yes, we even apply this principle to former Conservative councillors:

• despite her being a Conservative, 
• despite Ms Vijeh accusing us previously of "political games" (see below) - or was she talking about the Lib Dems when they supported a unitary authority? - and  
• despite her bringing SSDC into disrepute by swearing audibly during a Council meeting.
  

Tweet by Linda Vijeh July 2020
when we spoke at South Somerset Council

Following the SSDC Full Council meeting where councillors were allowed to attack her, Ms Vijeh published a Statement on her website and on her Facebook page.

We believe that this Statement led to a range of unanswered questions. Ms Vijeh agreed to answer our questions.

The questions were as follows:

Q1. What were these South Somerset District Council Street Scene people doing in France?

Q2. How did these people get there?

Q3. Why did no money change hands?

Q4. Were other benefits offered and if so, what were they?

Q5. Did they just happen to be there or were they flown across by you, a sitting councillor, or by a paid official of SSDC?

Q6. Why did you get these Street Scene staff to do the work, and not hire someone local instead?

Q7. If money didn't change hands, why did they do the work and were other benefits provided? If there were, what were they?

Q8. Who advised you not to declare an interest during the investigation, when you offered to do so?

Q9. Did you consult the Monitoring Officer?

Q10. Did you consult the Chief Executive?

We had sent these to Ms Vijeh in an email.

Ms Vijeh did respond to these questions. But sadly that was in a recorded audio message, and not in writing.

So as it stands, we are unable to publish her response. We've asked for a response in writing. But Ms Vijeh does not have the answers in writing. 

There are technical and legal reasons why we won't publish the recording.

Ms Vijeh did confirm in writing that:

"I can confirm that my solicitor has been in contact with the perpetrators, am waiting for their response."

We will not be repeating any of the allegations uttered by these perpetrators, and await the progress of Ms Vijeh's legal action.

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UPDATE (7/3/22): Following our showing the Standards Committee up for the charade that it is, The Leveller Confidential has done a more detailed analysis of South Somerset's Standards Committee. 

They have also written an explanation of what Standards Committee are supposed to be for, and asked some very pertinents questions.

They have also looked at the Standards Committees other Somerset councils.

We hope that Somerset residents will share our concern, and The Leveller's concern, that these committees don't seem to be achieving what they are supposed to achieve.

And this is especially concerning when the current Leader of the Council and the former Leader of the Council have failed to uphold the standards that Somerset residents expect - see our original article below and elsewhere on the Somerset Independents website.

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Original article from November 2021 follows...

South Somerset District Council (SSDC) has upset local residents again. The Public Inquiry into the Wyke Farms and Hopkins proposed development near Castle Cary Railway Station, which was refused TWICE by planning committees of the Council, has been adjourned today (10/11/21), as reported here by Somerset Independents.

Apparently it was due to "IT issues" at the venue, but residents are very upset at the decision to hold it "virtually" instead of in public with public attendance. The virtual public inquiry will now be re-convening, starting on 24th November. Many residents attended, and now they feel excluded from the reconvened virtual meeting. One resident told Andrew Pope, Leader of Somerset Independents:

"well they obviously misjudged the number of people who don't want this and the only way they can think of dealing with it is to exclude the people who it will affect."

We say that SSDC has upset local residents again because SSDC has been dogged by controversy.

SSDC Covers Up Names of Councillors Not Paying Council Tax

An investigation by Somerset Independents shows that multiple SSDC councillors have been found to have persistently failed to pay their council tax. Our investigations were blocked by SSDC, who tried to cover up the names of the councillors. 

Eventually, we forced SSDC to name the councillors, but only after a fight involving the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), who enforce Freedom of Information (FoI) law, and with the help of local and national media Private Eye and The Leveller. Recent issues of both newspapers reported on our investigation.

Private Eye "Rotten Boroughs"

The Leveller

SSDC Fails To Answer FoI Requests In a Timely and Accurate Manner

We have taken SSDC to the ICO and we are pursuing a Formal Complaint, because SSDC have still not answered the FoI requests about councillors in arrears.

They have refused to give details of the correspondence between councillors and officers on the arrears. Other councils gave us those details, with the exception of Mendip District Council (MDC - also run by the Liberal Democrats with the help of the Greens). As reported here, MDC are also subject to a separate complaint for withholding public information about councillors in arrears.

We are aware of many other local residents, and The Levellers, being blocked on FoI requests by SSDC.

Former SSDC Council Leader Guilty of Multiple Criminal Offences

The former Liberal Democrat Leader of SSDC, Ric Pallister, has been recently convicted of multiple criminal offences. He has been jailed as reported by the Crown Prosecution Service.

So what state are standards in, at the Council that Pallister ran for years?

In a sorry state, is the answer. They don't even check up on councillors. In fact, worse than this, they even cover up for councillors, as shown in their shameful behaviour regarding our council tax investigation. 

SSDC Standards Committee Hardly Ever Meets in YEARS

SSDC's Standards Committee has hardly ever met
over YEARS

The SSDC Standards Committee, which is supposed to uphold standards by councillors, has hardly ever met over YEARS, including the period when Pallister was Leader of the Council.

The above meeting schedule shows that between June 2015 and December 2018, the Standards Committee only met twice. 

As you can see, NINE out of ELEVEN SSDC Standards Committee Meetings were cancelled over THREE YEARS. Meeting after meeting was cancelled.

Only two Standards Committee meetings were held in 2019.

Only one was held in 2020.

And according to the above schedule, taken on 29th October 2021, there have been no Standards Committee meetings held since July 2020.

We challenged this, and SSDC told us that cancellations were the responsibility of the Chair of the Committee.

We will continue our investigations into SSDC, including the behaviour of its councillors, former councillors and council officers.

Somerset Independents stands up for residents, because we are Somerset residents.