My Responce

Mr Tony Hunter
Chief Executive
North east Lincolnshire Council
Municipal Offices
Town Hall Street
Grimsby

Dear Mr Hunter

This letter is in response to your letter Our Ref: AJH/ST 25 March 2009

I have quoted your letter fully in my response and require some clarity on the conditions involved

Dear Mr Cant,

Re: Recent Correspondence

I am writing with regard to the recent e-mail which you sent to all Councillors. It was dated the 19th March and was headed the Current Financial Fiasco.

This e-mail is inaccurate and entirely inappropriate.

Please can you detail the inaccuracy ; do you mean these statements
email of the 19th March
“am just writing to you to inform you that the current action by the unelected members of the executive is not unusual.
By that i mean that they are trying to no blame themselves for the fiasco that has lost us £ 7 million.
I

My website will be finished by the end of the month but if you see the pages. http://crazycouncil.co.uk/Money%20Mashup.html. You will see that there is a history of similar actions going back to 2000, More importantly the CPA reports from the audit commission show this we have been classed as a failing council in the past.

“The same teem responsible for the mechanics of this decision ( & million losses ) are the same teem that are refusing to answer the questions under the FIA that i have asked to to get answered.”

If I understand the mechanics of our cabinet system properly then all decisions of this nature from 2005 included Mr Walsh, Mr Madin and Mr Defratis, as the core of the executive

“More shockingly than that, one of the people responsible for this mess has just installed himself in a new post of business executive with a post of £ 120,00p pa. and he has absolutely no experience.”

This is so out of order because our council is set up as an executive, for the reason that we are able to get specialists in each executive posts, and not internal promote failure from within.”

Is the above inaccurate ?

The contents are frankly defamatory of Mr Walsh, a very senior officer of the Council. I have a duty of care to the Council’s employees and am not prepared to allow your actions to continue. The comments you have made in this e-mail cannot be seen in isolation, as you have e-mailed or telephoned many times over the last few months criticising the actions of Mr Walsh, and also Mr Madin.

Please can you explain/show what other information you suggest is defamatory, its quite a serious accusation and its being made by you the most senior officer of our council, so I think its fair to request details.

In relation to the email of the 19th March

“More shockingly than that, one of the people responsible for this mess has just installed himself in a new post of business executive with a post of £ 120,00p pa. and he has absolutely no experience.”

I have requested the information surrounding this appointment and been refused access to it. Again, my understanding is that our council Is supposed to get people who specialise in these posts, Mr walsh is a solicitor that has worked for our council since 1997 I believe, as a legal officer. This new post commands a considerable amount of wages, and responsibility, I think its entirely appropriate to question what was the considerations in putting a solicitor in the post of business executive, and if any of the other candidates considered had more appropriate experience

My direct concerns relate to the treatment of the public in relation to previous decisions that Mr Walsh, Mr Madin and Mr Defratise has been party to.

See http://www.crazycouncil.co.uk/Mental%20Arithmatic.html
then

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/questions_for_council_tax_and_bu#incoming-18426

I am one of those 8000+ people, and I was motivated to understand what a high collection rate means to the core executive of our council, indeed, it was the district auditor that suggested I formally re-ask under an fia request after Mr Walsh, Mr Madin and Mr Defratis refused to answer them in 2007

In relation to my requests to Mr Walsh in relation to his role as the monitoring officer of our council and the duties and responsibility that our constitution impose.

These requests are to ascertain information accurately before I make any suggestions. My questions relate to the role of the monitoring officer and my attempted understanding of when and were monitoring officer reports into maladministration should have been presented. Also I am trying to understand what implications delegated powers to officers have in relation to the rules that the role of monitoring officer has to abide by, and the implications that arise. This is why I have been asking if there is an outside body appropriate for raising issues with about the about the interface between information provided by a monitoring officer of a council to an outside body and the implications of delegating them powers to staff involved. I am trying to understand if a monitoring officer is still responsible for the accuracy of data presented if they delegate the task to another member of staff. I am also trying to ascertain a technical issue about information presented to the auditor, about when relevant facts in relation to changes in presented data should have been noted, and what responsibility both the monitoring officer and the section 151 officer have in presenting data.

In relation to my FIA request about who made decisions like this and who blocked my emails to councillors a few weeks ago.
I am guessing that these are what your considering obsessive. Please consider the following.

I have been trying to ascertain if a small number of council staff that have been with our council for a long time have made decisions in relation to refusing FIA requests that, may or may not, show inappropriate actions in relation to actions against the public and figures presented to the audit commission.

See http://www.crazycouncil.co.uk/Mental%20Arithmatic.html

Your criticism of these officers does, I suspect, stem from the fact that the Council applied to the County Court for a bankruptcy order with regard to unpaid Council Tax/NNDR,

No, that was my motivation to take a look at the system that had taken action against me. My actions stem from the fact that I am one of the 8000+ mentioned on http://www.crazycouncil.co.uk/Mental%20Arithmatic.html and the dealings that have stemmed from that. The costs I have endured just trying to pay my council tax are horrendous, and I am, same as most on that list, considered working poor ( under the level of benefit )

entirely legitimate action on our part.

So by this statement you understand that I was bankrupted for the current years council tax after the council refused my payment for 6 months, and you understand the history of false accounts charged against me from 2000-2007 and the transfair of payments between accounts relative to the action taken against me at court. *( the information the council refused to send to the ombudsman ).

The County Court made such an order. Following this you complained to the Local Government Ombudsman who made no finding of fault against the Council after a thorough investigation.

And I am in the process of sorting this out through the courts, I had to go through the ombudsman process before court. Personal circumstances have delayed this for the first two months of this year

Let me just add at this point as well, there is nothing on my website or in my correspondence with the council this year about my bankruptcy or surrounding action or ombudsman..

My questions are in relation to this, and I am one of those 8000+ http://www.crazycouncil.co.uk/Mental%20Arithmatic.html

I accept this may be disappointing for you, but it does not justify your behaviour.

I would estimate that it would be considerably disappointing to the public to understand the financial implications borne by them in these FIA requests that the inner council executive have refused to answer.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/user/george_cant

In the circumstances I have instructed the Council’s legal services department to consider commencing defamation proceedings and with this in mind would strongly advise that you immediately cease sending any letters or e-mails which are defamatory of council officers or members.

Ok, please consider this before you spend any money commencing proceedings against me.

1.A simple explanation of any items you consider inappropriate would result in there immediate retraction. Cost free
2.Explaining why I am incorrect is, I consider, a much more appropriate way to deal with my suggested irregularities for a council, and I would consider democratically appropriate in the circumstances

I have decided that as an Authority it is appropriate to control the manner in which you have access to Council staff by telephone and e-mail. The number of requests for information is excessive. Accordingly we have set up a dedicated telephone number for you to ring 01472 324113 and you may leave a message. The messages will be checked twice weekly. Furthermore we have set up an email address you must use to contact us and this is gcantmailbox@nelincs.gov.uk, again e-mails you send will be checked twice weekly. If you telephone or e-mail individual members of staff your calls or e-mails will be directed to these telephone or email accounts. Clearly there may be instances when you need to access council services eg housing benefit in which case you will need to make this clear when calling the switchboard or visiting a customer access point.

Some points

1.If you would just ask me to only send to one inbox in relation to questions posed to unelected members of the council, I would agree. This would save any complications of me dealing with day to day functions of the council. The information I considered appropriate for FIA requests I asked through the whatdotheyknow.com site and the information I felt that as a member of the public I have a right to ask direct, about the running of the council, I directed to the appropriate departments/people within our council.
2.I consider this action inappropriate and overreaching in the circumstances and I should have been asked first to comply before information regarding my dealings with the council be given to front line staff answering the phones, this may give an unfair assumption to staff that I am dealing with.
3.I feel that implementing this action, contact wide, will pose unreasonable delays in my day to day dealings with the council.
4.I also have great concerns that the application of the above will mean that if I raise legitimate issues surrounding the financial and or democratic actions of the council, and these issues/actions involve the people who consider if my correspondence are appropriate or not, that possible significant issues will go undealt with.
5.If your actions also involve blocking my emails/correspondence with the Elected officials I would consider this totally undemocratic action. The basic interface of the public that a council serves is there elected officials, If any of the elected officials wish me to stop corresponding with them, it should be there decision, and I have had indication to the contrary from the elected members. I would agree to send a copy of all correspondence I send to the elected officials to the legal dept for the council a day or so before I send them to the elected officials, as long as they agree to send me a copy of any response they send to the elected officials.

If you do not keep to these arrangements I will ask the legal services department to consider obtaining an injunction to ensure that you do so.

I request you send me immediately a detailed list of conditions so I do not breach any

It is with regret that I have to write to you in these terms, but the manner and frequency of your contact with the Council staff cannot continue.

I have tried to direct my questions in an appropriate and democratic manor within the councils systems. I have attempted to make sure that I do not ask unreasonable questions. I hope that by responding personally in this way you have sat down at your desk and looked through the paperwork independently.

Let me add as one final point that my FIA request regarding the use of SOLACE in relation to employment within our council is about decisions made before your employment and, if you do a search on the whatdotheyknow.com site for FIA relating top solace you will see that our council was the only one to refuse to answer. As I personally understand some of these figures I feel that public disclosure is appropriate. I was asked to request this by a supporter of the taxpayeralliance.

In fact, this is probably the appropriate point to ask you our Chief Executive to independently look at the FIA requests that have been refused. Not for me, because none of them relate to me personally, but for the public that you represent.

Yours sincerely

george cant