Pete Boggs

I thought the "arms length" point was worth mentioning because as the extent of the Hoople fiasco becomes known there may be attempts to portray the company as some sort of out-of-control, rogue entity. This shouldn't be allowed to wash. The Council are supposed to have direct control over it,  just like one of their own departments (although I am tempted to add, like Michael Caine in Get Carter, "since when was that good enough?")

 

 

Well no wonder the Council is in the mess it is when Hoople is in the state it is.  They certainly took the not for profit basis word for word! 

Indeed. I suspect that a lot of Hoople's problems are down to its flawed genesis and a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the beast. To the highly paid interims and their consultant chums who did Chris Bull's dirty work for him it was another notch on their CV before they buggered off to another authority to make a mess there.  For the dimwit members and senior officers to whom the pup was sold it was an opportunity to make the Council more commercial which has become a local government mantra since the Localism Act. You can imagine all the Turnips at Brockington telling each other "This Teckal Co - It's like outsourcing but we keep control and can make a profit" seemingly not understanding that you can only do 20% of your work for third parties. How much profit are you going to make off that?  You want to make proper money you need a trading company,assuming you've got something people want to buy, and you can't award or your in-house contracts to a trading company like you can a Tekcal Co.

And for those ex-Buckinghamshire Council officers (Dean Taylor and his clique) who'd already failed once at this particular game it mean another bite at the cherry and maybe get it right this time. Unsurprisingly they didn't. I think it was Einstein who said insanity was repeating the same behaviour again and again in the expectation the outcome will be different this time. Old Albert could have used Hoople as a case study.

Oh, and let's not forget the genius name-the-company competition that saw it saddled with the name of a fictional workshy fop and conman. Entirely appropriate you may think but it speaks volumes that the Turnips got the joke until it was too late. Nobody's laughing now of course.

With the country's public sector resources stretched to the limit, and technicians working around the clock to check suspect tower block cladding (that's without even knowing what the bill will be for replacing suspect panels; or the costs of rehousing displaced council tenants), can anyone explain how it is possible for 'that woman' to squander £1-billion to buy the short-term Parliamentary support of a bunch of homophobic, anti-abortion, climate-change-denying bigots? I find it absolutely obscene.

It's called political expediency - all parties do it. Don't pretend you're surprised.

I spoke to a former Herefordshire Councillor today who had no idea that Hoople was an arms length company … despite it coming into existence whilst serving as a councillor.

I've said this before, but I think it bears repeating. Hoople is not an arms length company, it is a "Teckal" company - under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 the Council is supposed to exert the same control over  the company as it does over its own internal departments. Its primary function is to provide services to its shareholders (i.e the Council and whatever has replaced the PCT) on a not for profit basis.  Only 20% of its activities by turnover can be for third parties and potentially profit making.

Arms Length tends to be a term specific to housing management (as in the recent Grenfell Tower tragedy). For the ex-councillor to claim that Hoople is arms length demonstrates woeful ignorance at best,  and at worst deliberate disingenuousness.

Oh absolutely you are right but this goes back decades. For example South Herefordshire District Council Councillors were notorious at giving planning permission to family and friends and to anyone with a personal begging case. I doubt you will ever change it.

When these things are done it does nothing to solve the rural housing crisis 

Wasn't SHDC notorious for its appearances in Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs column and was well known as one of the UK's most bent Councils? One imagines much of the same mindset and/or culture was transferred to the County Council circa 1998.

Make no mistake, in the months and even years that follow, many public servants in positions of authority and power are going to be arrested, they will be prosecuted and in due course will be required to serve custodial prison sentences as punishment for the part they played in the procurement of unsuitable materials and the failure to protect the lives of their tenants.

I shall be very surprised if anyone ends up eating porridge over this tragedy, and I think the reason why is hinted at in your post. Responsibility is so diffused between the Council, its Arms Length Management Organisation, their contractors and the regulatory authorities (Council again?)  it's going to be very difficult to pin blame on anybody. Quite possibly that's the way THEY want it. I'll be amazed if there are charges, never mind convictions. Did anyone take the fall after the Lakanhall fire?

This reminds me of the "unit fines" scheme they introduced in the magistrates' court a few years back where the amount paid was calculated as a percentage of income. It proved impossible to administer and was quietly dropped not long after.

An interesting detail buried in this article about Cheshire East spaffing the council tax payers' money on "interims" (a practice not unknown in our own dear county)

http://www.crewechronicle.co.uk/news/cheshire-east-appoints-interim-council-12955720

It seems to suggest that the Council has, temporarily at least, dispensed with El Normo's services: "The appointment will be for the duration of the director of legal services’ absence from work". At the same time there's been no report of suspension in the same way as Suarez the Chief Executive. Perhaps El Normo found the committee hearing into officers' conduct a bit too stressful and has been signed off? Still, as his prior history at Wirral shows, he's no stranger to sitting around on his thumb while continuing to be handsomely remunerated at public expense.

Sounds to me like you've had enough already Bobby.

Anyway, I thought Acid was out this year?

Chief Executive has been suspended, possibly Bill Norman and A. N. Other was well?

Suarez the chief exec should have been suspended as soon as he appointed Norman.  Check out his report to members recommending the El Normo's appointment:

http://moderngov.cheshireeast.gov.uk/ecminutes/documents/s44376/Report%20to%20Council%20-%20Appt%20of%20Director%20of%20legal%20Services%205.pdf

Strangely no mention of the mess Norman left in Herefordshire or his dubious activities at Torbay and Wirral. I wonder why that was? Suarez is at worst mendacious, at best a bloody idiot. Either way, he's hardly worth £246k a year is he?

This from Elissa Swinglehurst's April report  -

 

 At present that asset is a drain on the taxpayer since the rental income is considerably less than the cost of maintenance.

Only because Herefordshire Council are too thick and useless to manage it properly. Other authorities are perfectly able to secure a decent income stream from their farm estates.

What happens when the money from flogging the family silver is gone? What are they going to sell off then? Plough Lane perhaps?

Saddened to hear about this. As others have indicated it seems like a sick joke for the Council to balk at funding respite care yet it's quite happy to blow £250k on a website that doesn't even work.

As I remember no 1 got a reprieve after it came out that the Council had failed to consult the families despite being advised to do so. Herefordshire Council has a dismal reputation for failing to follow the correct procedures and Children and Young Services' are probably the worst of the lot in this regard. They think they can what do what they like, never mind what the rules say.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lawyer specialising in public law could pull apart this latest decision in fairly short order. I appreciate they cost money though and thus might not be an option for the families.

The Council went with open source software for their website a few years back. A rare example of innovative and cost conscious thinking on their part. I don't know why they feel the need to spaff quarter of a million on something that doesn't work. I'd hazard a guess the resident thickos in upper management were talked into it by some snake oil salesman from a big software firm. Either that or they thought the CRM project was a model they should be following for all future IT acquisitions

Yet another charity doing rather well

Having been acquainted with a couple of masons, from different lodges, who fell on hard times I can confirm that in both cases their so called "brothers" didn't want to know and did the square root of sod all to help them out.  My feeling is that the whole masonic thing is  about celebrating itself doing well and doesn't have much time for those who fall by the wayside. The Trust seems to have rather a lot of capital and it would be interesting to see how much it spends in a year and on what.

 With the reputation of HC and the history of it's management they are going to need a van and some chlorophyll to get anyone decent into the post.

I'm not sure what use plant pigment and the ability to photosynthesise would be in press ganging a new s151 officer. Perhaps you'd care to enlighten us?

Are you saying a vegetable could do a better job than the previous incumbent?

And the flip side of this particular coin is that yet more cuts are in the offing:

http://www.ledburyreporter.co.uk/news/14751613.Ideas_wanted_as_Herefordshire_Council_warns_of_more_cuts/

Council Fuhrer Johnson wants your ideas on "how we can improve." I'm sure some of you will be more than happy to oblige.

Dean Hulse of Hulse Yazdi is coining it in doing work for the Council after its abject failure to recruit any new lawyers following Bill  Norman's singularly inept restructure a few yeas back. Don't know if he's replaced Claire Ward as monitoring officer though. 

Not optimistic about Robinson being investigated - brushing wrongdoing under the carpet is the Herefordshire way.

 

I think we can safely assume now that those 'outside investigators' were, and continue to be, the Police. 

Possibly the Council's external auditors? What makes you think that Robinson is still under investigation? In the past the Herefordshire cops haven't shown any great inclination to investigate crime at the Council e.g. the widespread fraud that went on as part of the ICT scandal a few years back.

 

 

So, with no Section 151 Officer or Deputy, who is running the ship?

 

I'd hazard a guess an interim has been appointed, in much the same way as for the monitoring officer role a year ago (an arrangement that was supposed to last nine months - possibly it's been extended?). However  given this Council's tradition of ignoring its legal obligations I wouldn't bet on it.

Re: Peter Robinson's alleged leadership of Hoople -  He was never actually appointed as an officer of the company, per my post in a previous thread here.

No, worse, Michael Hainge.

Ah yes, Michael Unhinged as he was known, blue sky thinker from down south. Much beloved of the Herefordshire leadership, until all of a sudden he wasn't. Still, he got a nice pay off though.

 

As for Amey, we must not forget the employee who set it up left with a payoff of £250k, leaving us with the shambolic PCT merger as well. We've been picking up the pieces and paying for it ever since, and its not done yet, with the £40m court case still pending. On his appointment Councillor Roger Phillips, then leader of Herefordshire Council trotted out the classic "We felt that if we were to be the best, we needed to recruit the best." (Hereford Times).

Would that be gurning buffoon Chris "Brain Dead" Bull you're referring to? A man utterly incapable of forming a coherent sentence, spoken or written. He thought nothing of blowing £100k of public money on redecorating his office or drafting in a platoon of "interim assistant chief executives" on £600 per day plus expenses to perform the dirty work he was too gutless to do. A lot of the Council's current problems with bullying by sociopathic management staff can be laid at his door. He let his minions loose creating a culture of fear which persists this day. If he's the best, I'd hate to see the worst.

The Council has a legal obligation to provide "'a comprehensive and efficient library service for all persons’ in the area that want to make use of it." Anyone think the current arrangements make the grade?

I voted out but I don't want Johnson as PM - the man's a clown.

Some sympathy for David Cameron. Don't really like his politics but he gave us what he said he would; a referendum. Arguably overdue after failing to grant one after Gordon Brown signed that treaty and might have been under pressure from his own backbenchers. If he'd been smart he'd have taken a neutral positon after fulfilling his committment to have the vote. Why he had to get so involved in the Remain campaign, and one so disastrously conducted at that, is a bit of a mystery.

A lot of posts being deleted, allegedly ones relating to a senior council officer (other than Robinson) being a member of the rolled up trouser brigade. Could the editor of HT be on the square one wonders?

Well it is hard to separate out of this forum now and I am quite sure the GrahamPowell/Peter Robinson thing is sheer coincidence so I don't quite know how it became so mixed.  

 

 

Because in Herefordshire everything is connected to everything else (possibly via a funny handshake)?

NPS seem to be a public authority owned company. I'd hazard a guess that they've evolved into what's referred to as a trading company although they might not have started out as one. They can make profits and  some local authorities are looking at setting them up to  create revenue as central government funding falls away.  Weren't Herefordshire going to use NPS for property management? Certainly the Council's capability in that field has become quite degraded in the last few years.