Background
In mid April 2021 I copied the Interim Head of Legal Services, John Rumney, the post that I had sent to Cllr Francis about the methods being used by South Tyneside Council hide the truth about developments made to properties throughout the borough and received the response from Paula Abbott, Information and Feedback Officer, Performance and Information Team at the end of April under the reference: CX/PA where CX means the Chief Executive and PA is herself and she saying :- “you have emailed again attempting to resurrect the complaint despite having been advised that we will not look at these historic issues”
They do not wish to look at the issues regarding the height of UK Docks’ shed since it would have revealed the part played by many in South Tyneside Council in corrupting their own Complaints Procedure so that a Senior Planning Officer was easily able to give misinformation in the form of fraudulent misrepresentation to the Local Government Ombudsman.
Part 3 of Shed and Corruption, which mainly concerns the use of UK Docks’ Shed on a Sunday, was being checked before publication when notice was received that the Council were to extend the misuse of of their Complaints Policy to hide the truth about the shed’s height.
Parts 1 and 2 had already been published on-line and following a rather belated review of the Shed and Corruption Series Part 3 has now been published in full. It was first sent to those assumed to be in control of the Council after the Chief Executive had retired in 2020 and before the vacancy was filled in August 2021.
John Rumney, the (Interim) Head of Legal Services was a decade ago linked to the disgraced Councillor Iain Malcolm – Cllr Malcolm resigned from the Labour Party at the same time he resigned his post as Leader of South Tyneside Council:-
LGC reported in August how South Tyneside leader Iain Malcolm (Lab) was under external investigation after bullying accusations were made by Section 151 officer Stuart Reid and monitoring officer Nicola Robason.
Martin Swales, council chief executive and president of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives & Senior Managers, went on leave from his duties around the same time and has since stepped down from the council. His term as Solace president ends in January.
In a letter raising their concerns Mr Reid and Ms Robason described being “fearful, bullied and controlled”.
The Fifth Condition specifically applies to the use of the shed on a Sunday. There is no restriction to the use of offices etc. outside standard hours and that still stands. UK Docks never put in a request for it to be reconsidered retrospectively. The issue was referred to the Interim Head of Legal Services because it is obvious and the article of July 2020 was deliberately selected because of the use of the term vexatious. It was first used to describe the activities of a former constituent of the South Shields’ MP by her former husband and his ‘friend’ Mr Palmer in February that year.