JUST WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE EDUCATION DEPT ?

We have been told that some years ago Members of the Council took the decision to support a major drive to raise standards in all schools in the borough.  This drive was led by 3 men Fairbrass, Larbalasteir and Luxton.   Any headteachers or teachers who were not up to the mark were invited to move on which they did, a major injection of new committed staff were engaged and the drive started.  Members were pleased to monitor the progress of improvement.

Now we come to today.........there does not appear to be the same commitment to young people in this administration.......just who is the Director of Education? not exactly a name or face to remember, in fact the senior management team in education is mainly made up of women which gives the impression of a knitting circle at the foot of the guillotine.

We fully appreciate that the council has a problem with lack of school places, but, some of the ideas they are coming up with in the local press are nonsense.

Why does the council not make an announcement in national and local newspapers advising anyone who is thinking of moving to the borough who has children needing school places that there are none,, that the council is doing everything it can to resolve the matter but with limited cash it could take 2/3/5 years before the new places will be available.

Then its up to the parents what they choose to do, but, they cannot say they were not warned.

Honestly, which parent wants to receive the letter stating that their son/daughter will be attending the Woolworths store in Barking Town Centre, school meals will be provided by Als Diner and Macdonalds.    Aghhhhhhhh

No we don't think so.

A FULL FOLLOW UP

As promised in the last post we bring you the truth behind the complaint made against the 3 ward councillors for Gascoigne ward, Ashraf, Aziz and Twomey, who, after reading  this you may wish to rename as the 3 Stooges.

We are told that several months ago consultation took place with residents in Movers Lane and a number of roads leading off it with regard to the imposing of a CPZ we understand that Hodge is also mixed up in this somewhere.

Now when the results of what should have been a democratic vote by residents was returned it appears that in one of the longer roads in the area the majority vote was against a CPZ in fact only 12 voted for it.

Now the resident(s) contacted the Head of Service because they were concerned that little whispers were going round that the CPZ was going to be imposed anyway.

We have now seen the reply letter sent out to the resident(s) by Head of Service, now are you sitting down? it states that "the 3 ward Councillors had decided that the CPZ would only go in the areas were the 12 houses were" are they really that thick? dumb? stupid? or what, how would it work? what happens if each of these 12 houses has more than 1 car? how do the Parking Wardens work out what is in and what is out?

No you really could not make this up, so the resident(s) contacted the 3 ward councillors and raised they issues with them, and waited for a reply, and waited, and waited.

By the time the Tenants and Residents meeting took place a couple of weeks ago resident(s) had still not heard from the 3 so attended the meeting, only 1 councillor attended Aziz, when resident(s) raised the matter with him, to be fair he did try to give an answer...........well.........here it is "he could not answer resident(s) questions because council officers do NOT answer his phone calls"  .............ok you can stop laughing now.

So getting nowhere at all the resident(s) have taken the steps to lodge a complaint, now where this will be dealt with we have not been able to find out, but the 3 Stooges should be quite safe if it goes to the Standards  Board as the council has made some major changes, it no longer has an independent chair, which we believe is probably a backward step, especially as they have put Barry Poulton in as Chair.

OK you can stop laughing now............many readers of this blog will remember that Poulton had to answer to a complaint made against him to the board, they will also remember that Poulton was instructed to follow the a number of tasks set by the Board, you will also remember that Poulton refused and did not follow the instructions given.

So there you have it, we will of course keep you updated on this as soon as we get any further news.

BREAKING NEWS

We have just been informed that letters of complaint regarding 3 ward councillors have been sent to the Leader, Chief Whip and the Chief Executive.

We hope to bring you more on this as soon as possible.

A VERY QUICK TOUR OF THE SUMMER

Well the site appears to have held up this week.......so lets start with a light over view on the summer activity.

FINANCE
 Of course we are all aware of the savings that will need to be made by the council over the next couple of years, but, is the talk of cuts needing to be made really helped by the boasts of the Executive Member for Finance on Facebook about all of the designer label gear he has purchased over the summer? We don't think so.
Is it further helped by the attitude of some officers, this conversation was overheard by many in a local court recently, a large room is set aside for tenants and  officers to go through paperwork before going into the court, but there is no privacy, an elderly lady who looked very unwell and confused asked a B & D officer if they could go somewhere quiet and private to talk, the officer snapped back "No, you will sit there and listen to what I have to say"  never mind that the whole room had to listen to what she had to say.  The officer then proceeded to go through the arrears that appeared to have mounted up against this pensioner.

Others in the room were appalled at the way the officer was speaking to the pensioner,  but worse was to come.........the officer then said"  I see you are wearing shoes, well stop buying shoes and start paying your rent, then you wont have to come here again"

We have made some enquiries and it appears that this officer is well known for her attitude, we were told that this statement was mild compared to some she has made in the past.

Barking & Dagenham Council has for many years held the legend of being the council that cared.  Seems under this new administration care has gone out of the window.

What do you think?.............

VIRUS CLEARED OUT WE HOPE

Well its taken a few weeks of hard graft to free this blog from the virus that we were attacked with.  We wanted to make sure that all of your comments etc were saved so that is why its taken a little longer.

Now perhaps the troll who did this is not aware that when you plant a virus you leave behind a finger print, we have followed the trail and we know who you are.

We will take revenge, but it will be at a time of our own choosing, so just keep looking over your shoulder.

A little stat you may be interested to know, since we set up this blog we have had over 360,000 hits, not bad going that.

Anyway, this is a test run tonight to make sure we have all of the damage out of the way, we will resume normal service at the weekend.

APOLOGY TO ALL OUR READERS

Many of you may be aware that the Government will be introducing a new Law that will cover all blogs such as this, political or not,  (just one more way to close down free speech).  The penalties if found guilty will be high.

With this in mind and also to reassure our readers and commentators we have had a legal team go through the blog with a fine tooth comb.  We understand other blogs are doing the same.

We are very pleased to be able to tell you that we are in the clear, no possible threat of legal action found at all.

We apologise for the time this has taken, but, we felt it was necessary.

Keep watching we have some interesting stories coming up, and we thank you all for your support.

BLOOD ON THE COUNCIL CHAMBER FLOOR

Its that time of year again when the annual bun fight takes place at the labour group AGM.  Many have said over the years that this was the "Night of the Long Knives" more often than not we are told it turns into the "Night of the Long Yawns".

Not this time we are told!!!!!!!! Mr (I like a bet) Twomey made his bid for power, most likely ill advised by Mother Mrs (Gloomy) Twomey.  What did he go for you might ask?????   Chief Whip  lol, boy did he get a pasting, 15 votes to S Tarrys 32, thats got to be worth more than 4 pints of blood on the floor in anyones money, but we dont gamble, so we will leave working out the odds to our readers.

We bet Gloomy Twomey is doing her Lady Macbeth scene wringing and washing her hands cos sonny boy didn't win.

Another really odd position on the night, that of Master Rodwell, NO position at all, not a thing, we couldn't believe it, when you consider he was Lead Member on what is probably the most powerful select committee in the council that of the Public Accounts.............does raise the question why? don't it? has Rodwell finally woken up to the fact that being Lead Member doesn't mean you get to touch any of the money.

Were none to happy with the appointment of Letchford to Lead Member of Children's Services Select Committee, and would like to be assured that a CRB check will take place.

Other than that no real major blood letting, so Tweedledum (Rodwell) and Tweedledee (Twomey) are relegated to the back benches, well lads that gets you closer to the door.

WANNA BET

Since the Barking Mafia very quietly let it be known that they were having to fight a by election we have been running a book on who was most likely to be selected to fight the seat.

Before we go on lets just take a look over the past 2 years in the Goresbrook ward, firstly there was Lollipop Lil who had to fight to elections to get legally elected, and then had the brazen neck not to do a thing ,but, pick up her money for the next 2 years.

Then we had the manic depressive Letchford, you know him of the flashy shirts who doesn't believe in paying his rent and keeps getting evicted, by the way have a look at his friends on facebook the majority are very young women.

And finally Jim Clee nice old man but???????

So we opened the book, the bets started to grow running outright favorite was Gloomy Twomey, everyone seemed to be of the same mind that young master Twomey would bring his mummy back on to aid in his war against the Leader.

So you can imagine our surprise when it was announced that Simon Bremner had been selected. All we can say is that we feel great pity for the residents of Goresbrook Ward, they could well end up with a drunken mummies boy to go with the other two. No representation for the residents at all........

We are just pleased that we didn't ask Corals to run the book for us, we would have lost a lot of money. lol

GLOOMY TOOMEY AND HER TOTAL LACK OF INTEGRITY

We understand that many of you will know of young families who sit for months even years waiting for a 3 bedroom house.

Well not so for Gloomy Toomeys son, not too long after the birth of his 3rd child a little girl he got the move he wanted to a 3 bedroom house. He also collected the full amount if not a little more on the decorating allowance. All thanks to Mum eh,

so much for her screaming integrity.

CATFIGHT in BARKING

As many will know Laila Butt has believed herself to be the number 1 woman in Barking party, in fact this was supported by many within the party and at London Region, she was as well we understand being groomed to take over from Hodge as MP. Well not any longer, there is a new woman on the block, Saima Ashraf.

Who is she you may ask? well we have done a very quick investigation, Saima arrived in this borough from France with her children 8 years ago and was given a flat on the Gascoigne estate, we still trying to work out why the council housed her.

She works for the translation service in the borough. Just within the last few weeks she has been given one of the brand new show houses in the town centre almost opposite Hodges office. These houses are fully carpeted, fully fitted kitchen etc, in fact all she had to do was put her pictures on the wall. But, guess what she is now complaining that the rent is to high?????????

We want some questions answered, where is Mr Ashraf? why and who gave her a brand new house? does it have anything to do with the fact that Mike Haywood can be seen wearing out the path between his office and her home morning, noon and night??????

Seems to us it is understandable why Laila Butt is so angry.

GLOOMY TOOMEY

We were contacted early this week by a former Housing officer who is now retired. He is furious in fact spitting feathers would be mild. Why? he had read the comments made in last weeks Post by former councillor Gloomy Toomey as he calls her.

He is so angry that the integrity of council officers is once being brought into question that he wants to get out this true tale, so much so we understand he has written to the Chief Exec other senior officers and members.

It appears that several years ago housing officers were instructed to audit council garages, things appeared to be going OK, you know the usual garages with junk stored in them etc which had to be cleared.

Then they came to Stour Road, one of the garages had been let some 18 months to 2 years previously BUT there was no name on the tenancy agreement and NO rent had been paid at all for that period of time.

Officers were instructed to enter the garage and if necessary clear it out, which they did. The former officer told us that there were stacks of Artists equipment, canvasses, paints etc. As the equipment appeared to be in good order rather than dump the lot in a skip the decision was made to donate the equipment to a local primary school.

A couple of weeks later the s....t hit the fan, a phone call came in from former councillor toomey demanding to know who had removed her property from her garage.

The officer states that she was very nasty and abusive on the telephone and threatened to sue the council for £100s because of her loss.

He tells us that the matter was then taken out of their hands, taken to a higher pay grade, did the council ever get the rent money......we doubt it.........did former councillor toomey get the money to replace her equipment.......probably, everyone who has spoken to us about her has stated just how nasty, poisonous and vindictive she can be, don't matter whether you are an officer or a member.

So the old saying does come true People in glass houses should not throw stones, and we know there are more stones to come Gloomy Toomeys way.

CHANGES

Welcome back, some would say.........we have been quite busy over the winter months, we now have a number of new contributors spread throughout the council, the voluntary sector and other partner agencies.

We have also had sucess in 2 of our contributors gaining qualifications for a PI License which will of course stand us in good stead legally.

So with all this in mind we are going into the investigation business with all the Legal tools and protection we can.

Our first contribution from a former Housing officer now retired reflects the kind of reports we will be bring forward, and we have a list to come.

Enjoy

CAN YOU HELP?

We have been a bit tied up the last few days.........we are on the trail of the real life story of Stinkypants and we would appreciate our readers help, any piece of info no matter how little will go to making the bigger picture.

What do we have so far you may ask........well, cast your minds back to 2009 when Stinkypants first appeared, he claimed to have sent an email to M Hodge stating that he was coming back to Britain from Korea to help her fight the BNP. What utter rubbish, the nearest Stinkypants has been to Korea was his library borrowed atlas..........

Secondly, we have absolute proof that Stinkypants has NOT seen any military service, that is unless of course he counts his 3 week membership of the Boys Brigade.

Where do we go from here? you may ask, we are looking very closely into his alleged term as a councillor in another part of the country.

Now what we ask you to bear in mind in this investigation is who it was that brought Stinkypants into the borough, yep, Darren Rodwell, just how many of Stinkypants tall stories does he know.

We will not give up on this one, we understand that Stinkypants may be feeling a little vulnerable at the moment, and he don't like being called Stinkypants, but that's how its going to be until we unmask just who or what he really is.

LET THEM EAT CAKE

Or words to that effect was the pronouncement made by Hodge this week in her speech to the press stating she would be fighting to save the £330,000 grant to the Broadway theatre.

You would think that St Hodge had the good common sense to understand the hard times people in the borough are suffering, what with the increase in food prices and utility prices and the growing cost of child care for working parents, but, no not St Hodge, she says we must have culture, well in good times we would agree, but, what do you cut out to buy the theatre tickets????????

Can you imagine, "sorry kids, sandwich only for the next 3 weeks, and don't forget no lights, no TV, we have to save for the theatre tickets".............

Give us a break Hodge and get with the real people.

The worrying thing is her Barking Mafia will do as they are told and vote to keep the grant to the theatre, so what service gets cut to the tune of £330,000?

WHAT A BLOODY WASTE OF TIME

There we were sitting with all of the other civic minded residents taking part in the Leaders Consultation on the budget. Some had even managed to read through the very badly written reports in officer speak.

Quite a few residents were asking questions looking for assurances, but finally for us the penny dropped, one resident raised his concerns over the planned reduction on community safety coordinators.

We were surprised at the answer given by the Deputy Leader, he stated that the community safety coordinators posts would stay. So the decision has already been taken then????????? so if they are staying whats going in their place?

Really we should not be surprised a Councillors wife works in this department and so does a Councillors sister in law.

Consultation you couldn't make it up.

THE BIGGEST LAUGH THIS WEEK

We are sure many of you would have read the Deputy Leaders defence of council members when it was suggested by a member of the public that they should take a pay cut.

The Deputy Leader stated "they give good value for money" hahaha

Just go on the council website and have a look at the members attendance figures, lets just stick a pin in 2 Dee Hunt expected at 19 meetings she attended 8. Tony Perry expected at 32 meetings he attended 24.

And they are not the only ones who are sitting pretty, taking the money and doing no work for it.

Come off it Deputy Leader, "value for money" you couldn't make it up.

A SIMPLE AND HONEST ANSWER WILL DO PLEASE

Why? is Margaret Hodge MP holding meetings with the councils Finance Director?????

As far as we understand the councils finances are no business of an MP, so, is she just trying to protect her own little groups or looking to poke her nose in where she shouldn't?

As far as finances are concerned Hodge is the last person to consult with, look at the mess and debt she got Islington council into while Leader.

PONDFIELD PARK CAN NOW REPAY ITS LOAN

According to todays Post Pondfield park has come into the tidy sum of £45,000 to put in additional play areas.

We have been asked by residents and supporters of Thames Eco park to remind the supporters of Pondfield park that they have an outstanding debt to the Eco park of £64,000.

Just a brief summary of why; several years ago that money was allocated to the Eco park, but, because the soil tests were taking time Damian Parker agreed with Thames residents that the money would be loaned out to Pondfield park on the full understanding that any future monies coming in for Pondfield would be repaid to the Eco park.

We have been informed that the chair of the residents association and former councillors have copies of all necessary relevant paperwork.

So come on Pondfield repay your debt.

ANOTHER PRE ELECTION BRIBE DELIVERED ON

We are very reliably informed that a very cosy meeting took place to discuss the way forward on the Hope pub in Gascoigne road. At this meeting were the Police, 3 ward Councillors and the Imman. Oddly no residents, especially as the pub is in a residential area.

Anyway the councillors see no problem at all with the pub being converted to a Mosque (NO surprise there) even though the police did raise the issues of the BNP and EDL and probable demonstrations.

Never mind just wait and see what happens when the residents find out. We can only hope for their sakes that the majority of councillors will recognise that 3 Mosques in Barking is just too many.

THE BUDGET FIGHT

We are reliably informed that things are heating up within the labour group, certain individuals are wearing out the corridor that leads to the Director of Finance office all of them going behind the backs of individual Cabinet members trying to protect either their own jobs, which rely on council funding, ie Rodwell and Twomey, or to protect his wife's job, Rodwell, or to protect the funding of their Cultural society, Saeed.

Why should they be protected? all services are under threat, more council staff may very well be made redundant, are they fighting to save these? No just their own.

What a self serving bunch of bastards.