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I agree that "this is wrong". I disagree strongly that you protect the victim by paying off the bullies. You heal wounds with justice not with secrecy. Protection should have been at the time of the actions and come from the top, not claimed now after all the stress in order to justify pay-offs. Why were the perpetrators not put through a disciplinary process - that prospect could have both persuaded some to leave without a payoff and demonstrated to the victims that the council takes these things seriously. I also very much doubt that a private sector business person would use their own money to pay large sums to employees who had acted wrongly. Nor would they promise secrecy and undeserved protection of reputation. Megilleland's comment is also pertinent. You could get managers paid off from councils in the North West and South West still getting recruited because details are kept secret to "protect' the innocent.

I wish you were a real journalist Bobby. I learn more from you than the BBC and the HT Do you think the name Taurus was in honour of the deity that once graced our county in charge of both the council and the healthcare. A man with a brain so big we paid him two salaries, and a man whose name translates into Latin as 'Taurus'

Even if you can't appeal, what you have revealed and publicised (at no small personal cost) should have a positive effect. So many people have viewed this thread that they must include people at all levels in the council, possible victims etc and so a lot of running around will have been done by some very uncomfortable managers trying to limit the damage and remind people of the importance of "loyalty". You will have diminished their credibility and power. Those who may be victims currently or in the future will know that they are not alone - it is easy for the victim of bullying to blame themselves but if they know others have been in the same place, fought and won, it is of great help. Also, what you have highlighted adds to a catalogue of bad management, secrecy, failure and wasting of money that is now `on the record'. The cumulative effect makes it harder and harder for elected councillors to ignore it and plead ignorance. Although Cllr Chappell put his head above the parapet on this one (bravely because he then became the focus) - many other councillors who should have done, didn't. They will have been following this, though. However those with any integrity should now be demanding that any payments at all, outwith normal salary, are scrutinised and not delegated as `employment matters'. One of the peculiar arrangements in Herefordshire is that the Human Resources dept is now contracted out into `Hoople' - so HR managers no longer have any authority in the council - they are merely a contractor, eager to please the client. One of several flaws is that managers no longer have employment law pointed out to them when dealing with grievances or disputes - so even that relatively weak moderating influence has gone.

Cllr Chappell, You seem to be experiencing similar things to many others - a desire to do the right and honest thing by your community that is frustrated by seeming to be lone voice. I am sure flamboyant's criticism isn't at your personal efforts but at the experience of trying to draw attention to a scandal and those who should help not doing so. You are to be admired for taking part in this discussion. I do think, though, that you are too close to revealing flamboyant's identity (which I don't know). Can I ask you to be careful and please to review and edit your post? I don't know what the repercussions could be for him/her so it is best to make the allusions to identity a no go area. You could send a private message if want a more direct discussion. Thanks

Now I'm always up for a good conspiracy theory involving our beloved council managers but I think this story is over 3 years old and a 19 year old was arrested. Nothing widespread like Rotherham etc and no cover ups. Still, I suppose we can speculate on why one of Hereford's council directors spent a week working in Torquay in 2012.

I appreciate your efforts Cllr Powell. However this leaves some serious unanswered questions - questions that don't need to break confidences. - Were the "bullies" that left paid what you call `compensation' in relation to their leaving? -Were the "bullies" that left assured of confidentiality in relation to the reason they left? - This issue obviously cost the council a lot of money and caused a lot of distress. Was anyone disciplined? -Why is it the case that an elected councillor trying to find information about a serious scandal - bullying and the waste of large sums on the IT system - unable to do so without using up his reserves of goodwill? The phrase "that's all you're getting" is worrying. It reflects the culture of secrecy and the blocking of serious and genuine concerns. Is it your phrase or that of the cabinet?

And if one or both of these are implicated in the wrongdoing...........? You don't seem to have grasped that bullying, victimising "whistle blowers", covering up wrongdoing etc is part of a culture. If you allow that culture to take root, as it has in Herefordshire, on the basis that each individual situation is an unconnected "employee matter" then it is impossible for staff to provide a good service. You may consider that elected members are only responsible for overseeing service delivery, but if you allow an organisational culture of bullying and fear to grow (as you have), then you are failing in your oversight of and responsibility for, service delivery. Perhaps you could clarify, Cllr Chappell, - what is the council policy regarding whistle blowing. I don't mean leaking stuff to the press, but raising issues with senior managers or government regulators? Would a gagging clause be used to keep such a person silent? Hypothetically speaking, of course.

BBC Midlands Today has reported on a serious child neglect situation in Gloucestershire. It seems that this situation continued for many years up until 2012 and the children suffered enormous neglect. Reported here in the Gloucestershire Echo. http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/Social-services-review-carried-shocking-case/story-22783214-detail/story.html And a quote: Kathy O'Mahoney will be a familiar name in Herefordshire as she was assistant director during the decline of child protection here (having previously been in Gloucester working on `Child Protection Investigations' during some of the time concerned in this story and also the Eunice Spry situation). Her director, again first in Gloucester and then in Herefordshire was our own Jo Davidson. How many times can these people apologise, say lessons will be learned and yet continue on their merry way?

Very good, Ubique. You could also add the Libya situation. We didn't like Gaddafi, then we did like Gaddafi, then we didn't like him again and used air power to support the peaceful democratic rebels that then overthrew him before starting to fight each other. The Royal Navy has just had to rescue British citizens from the new Libya we helped to create. And we supported the Mujahadeen in their fight against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan which gave them excellent fighting skills and arms for using against UK and other troops for the last 13 years.

The job advert seems to have disappeared from the HC website (although the closing date is still not passed). I think this is a tacit acknowledgement that it shouldn't have been there. However, there is a new job on the site that looks suspiciously like the old one in disguise. A campaigning/IT office job based in Leominster but you have to phone someone in Shropshire council for details. Copied and pasted here for the record. If my suspicions are correct, someone is taking the approach - "To do this is wrong, so let's try to do it without anyone noticing".

Just came across this job advert on the council website. Surely this isn't allowed. We all know that Bill Wiggins used his council conservative connections in the past to wrongly block Jim Miller standing for a local election so you'd have thought the council would be very wary of appearing to favour him in advance of a general election. Helping to recruit his campaign team is showing political bias in my opinion. To also say that the job is to help Tory councillors in their campaigning is also using the council website inappropriately. So, there you go, IOC, Greens, Labour and Independents - an open goal for you. Or maybe we should all apply!

Did the ground have a safety certificate in May when the last games of last season were being played? If so, what has changed? Either games were held without the required certificates and insurance under the old regime, or the new regime should be given the same documentation. If the old regime were operating without safety documentation then what is the sanction against them?

A couple of HUFC supporters have put in FoI requests to the council. This is interesting because the Hereford Times only seem to be pursuing the new owners for answers, not the council. One asked for a list of meetings and attendees of meetings between HUFC (1939) and Herefordshire Council. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/219777/response/543505/attach/html/3/FOI%20IAT%207817%20LA%20Prov%2028.07.14.doc.html The other asks for minutes of meetings at which leases were discussed. The council response is that there were never any minutes taken at any of the meetings. This is a standard cover-up response but if true, in my opinion, shows gross negligence when dealing with an issue with importance on many levels. Back to the list of meetings. 17th June 2014 Richard Howard, Cllr Johnson, Jon Hale, Chris Williams, Phil Pratt, Phil Eynon, Tony Featherstone 16th June 2014 Alistair Neill, Cllr Johnson, Cllr Bramer, Andrew Lonsdale, Thomas Agombar 3rd June 2014 Andrew Lonsdale, Thomas Agombar, Mr Power, Geoff Hughes, Tony Featherstone, Ian Higgs, Andrew Ashcroft 1st May 2014 David Keyte, L Adams, T Lewis, A Lonsdale, Geoff Hughes, Thomas Agombar 23rd April 2014 Geoff Hughes, David Keyte, Ian Higgs, Anthony Featherstone, David Price and 3 associates 25th February 2014 (telephone conference) Ian Higgs, Kultar Khangura, Sonya Knight, Geoff Hughes 24th February 2014 David Keyte, S Murrall, Jed McCrory, Geoff Hughes 20th January 2014 David Keyte, Cllr Johnson, Cllr Bramer, Geoff Hughes 13th January 2014 David Keyte, John Kelly, Geoff Hughes 7th January 2014 Ian Higgs, Bob Pritchard 6th January 2014 Ian Higgs, Bob Pritchard, Fiona Thomson, Kultar Khangura 3rd January 2014 (telephone conference) Bob Pritchard, Ian Higgs, Fiona Thomson, Kultar Khangura, Geoff Hughes, David Keyte 17th December 2013 (telephone conference) David Keyte, Fiona Thomson, Kultar Khangura, Ian Higgs, Geoff Hughes 11th December 2013 (telephone conference) Ian Higgs, Fiona Thomson, Kultar Khangura, Geoff Hughes, David Keyte 2nd December 2013 (telephone conference) Ian Higgs, Fiona Thomson, Kultar Khangura, Geoff Hughes 27th November 2013 (telephone conference) David Keyte, Fiona Thomson, Kultar Khangura, Geoff Hughes 26th November 2013 Cllr Johnson, Bob Pritchard, David Keyte, Tony Featherstone, Cllr Bramer, Ian Higgs, Geoff Hughes 20th November 2013 Ian Higgs, Bob Pritchard 16th October 2013 Ian Higgs, Paul Tucker 18th September 2013 Ian Higgs, Bob Pritchard 9th September 2013 David Powell (details of other attendees not recorded) 6th September 2013 David Powell, Jonathan Bretherton, Ian Higgs, Kultar Khangura 14th August 2013 Bob Pritchard, David Powell Some of the cast: Kultar Khangura: external solicitor who worked on the ESG development for the council Ian Higgs: Council in-house solicitor Geoff Hughes, Tony Johnson, Bramer etc: you all know and love Fiona Thomson: HUFC solicitor Bob Pritchard: Non exec HUFC director Tony Featherstone: Council manager (assets etc) Some context and comments: Bretherton only attended one meeting, in September, yet was was of the signatories on behalf of the council on the lease contract The lease contract was signed on 12th or 13th Feb (the HUFC website announced it on 13th Feb). On 24th Feb, Geoff Hughes was meeting Jed McCrory - Agombar's associate. He was therefore the shadowy individual only referred to until now as a "senior council officer". No idea who Sonya Knight is - the only one I can find is a director of a possibly dissolved construction company called Trident. Please feel free to add to the explanation of the cast list. Another point - this number of meetings of highly paid people including solicitors must have cost the council (us) a fortune. And add to that Cllr Johnson's travel expenses from the edge of the county. You almost feel sorry for the new owners - it's bad enough finding out the true financial picture of the club you've just bought but to then deal with the shifty quagmire of Herefordshire Council politics and intrigues must make them wish they'd stayed in London. Excellent work from the FoI requesters. And an unusually fast response from the council.

On street cleaning. Where I live (not in Hereford itself) we have a street cleaning vehicle which drives around probably 2 or 3 times a week usually about 7am or earlier. Chap working hard but it seems an anomaly when so many other areas get nothing (and where I live isn't a particularly litter prone road). I wondered if it was like the Japanese soldiers found on remote islands many years after the war who didn't realise the war had finished. This guy is still doing his public service job and the powers that be have forgotten all about him - other than making him change the company name of the vehicle every so often. One day, someone at BBLP will say "Hang on, why are the streets in ************* so clean? are we missing some opportunity for transformation here? Can whoever is guilty of doing their job so well be restructured into a hub based locality service delivery model so I can have a payrise?"

I wonder what would happen if some High Town guerillas were to fill bin bags with all the rubbish accumulating in the old shopping areas and spread it around at midnight in the OLM shopping area - I'll bet it would be cleared away before you could say Balfour Beatty Living Places (three times).

Carillion is just the kind of cuddly, caring company that would be ideal for Herefordshire. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jan/05/nhs-clinic-closure-patient-death http://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/oct/04/carillion-accused-intimidation-swindon-hospital http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/jim-armitage-carillions-clever-way-with-tax-7565599.html I'm with Megilleland on these outsourcing companies - they are too big and too powerful. They no longer bring a bit of private business efficiency into public sector operations - they are more wealthy than the councils that employ them and can run rings round even the massive commercial and legal brains that we have in Herefordshire. Profit from the contract does not recirculate in this area. The senior executive positions funded by the contract are hot held by people living here - it is a false economy when looked at as a complete picture.

+ 1 to dippy's welcome. Isn't the Environment Agency that issue the licences and police the system. I would think that they are as short staffed and under resourced as most of the public sector - covering flood issues, pollution, discharge consents etc and up to now the fishing licences would have been regarded as a low key admin job - not a major enforcement one. As Bobby says, the situation is way beyond the local river man strolling along just checking the licence of the rare person that he hasn't seen many times before. And its a sustainability issue - the river can't sustain intensive fishing for food - its the reason we have the rules. The food processors and fruit growers that bring in their summer labour from Europe to boost their profits should have some responsibility - it seems like the river is providing the food that the meagre wages don't. Those businesses would be very upset if Bobby and his angling mates were to stroll through the polytunnels chopping down strawberry plants because it was their culture to do so. The `nuclear option' would, of course, be to have some large men from Credenhill making their way quietly down the river in a dinghy leaping out and confiscating the equipment of non-licensed fishermen.

A czech mate? Sorry.

"Operation Quest for the Holy Grail" Now I watch enough TV detective dramas to be able to solve most crimes from my armchair and I have two theories. 1. Someone knew that it was in the old lady's house and that she wasn't there - otherwise why steal a bit of wood in a bag, or 2. This fits a well known pattern of one or more gangs from Gloucester stealing from rural houses close to the main roads between Herefordshire (Here you Can) and Gloucester (a friend was a victim last year whilst at work and this is what the police told her) and driving quickly back to Gloucester. If this happened the bowl is likely to be dumped by the roadside somewhere because a handwritten sign at a car boot sale, or an ebay item offering the Holy Grail with guaranteed miracles would attract attention. A 'clever' aspect to this is it crosses the border between two police forces so an added bit of bureacracy is there to get in the way of detection. And behind the story is a seriously ill lady whose house has been burgled - dreadful for her.

Good news, but I fear the damage has been done and is irreversible for a lot of children. An obsession with `free schools' and `academies' has fragmented the whole system. Decisions and policy are based on what he reckons rather than any evidence. And as a former News International journalist he has been given a very easy ride by the press. Happy to be interviewed by Andrew Marr (a fellow ex journalist) but not by many others. According to Private Eye he is in line to be the editor of the Daily Mail.

His register of interests show his properties - not good handwriting but just about legible. Includes a house on the beautifully and recently resurfaced Wye Street in Ross - just up from the Masonic Hall.

The presence of the advert also gives a clue as to why the Hereford Times doesn't ask too many questions. I see on the HC jobs page that as well as a children's solicitor they are advertising for three lawyers. I can now see that what has been missing from the council these last few years, and the reason things have got so bad financially and performance wise is lawyers. We need more lawyers. I am reassured that this is being addressed and would be prepared to see more frontline staff removed to make way for them. Also, we need intelligence. Yes, really. The council seems to be admitting that it needs more intelligence to add to the jargon they are so skilled at. Hence the need for someone to be part of ........ So to sum up. They are recruiting someone to tell them what's going on `out there' and some lawyers to explain how to obey the law or at least to defend them when they get it wrong.

And yet an acquaintance who wanted to do supply teaching was told that the list was full - Hoople would not allow anyone else to do supply work. So if a particular school wanted to employ a particular supply teacher Hoople would say "no" (in an arms length kind of way, of course".

+1 Now, can we all get down to the serious business of reporting any teenagers we see wearing jeans and trainers to crimestoppers or the boys and girls in blue- that description, even after several weeks should enable a speedy arrest.

And even if you find it in the "archive" all the comments have been deleted. Perhaps the new editor is getting a little nervous about the amount of knowledge "out there" about the council that could find its way onto his website and the council has reminded him of his responsibility to stick to what the public needs to know - donkeys, wet cows, things happening in Dymock (Glos) etc. Before it disappeared, one of the posters had said that Bill Norman was `on some kind of leave at the moment' - does anyone know if that is just annual leave on Barry Island, or something different?