Category Archives: Shitty Hall

Our fine local authority – all about Bristol City Council and the Mayor

DROOPER PLAYS THE FERRET SHIT GAMBIT

FERRET SHIT GAMBIT web

While homelessness in the city has increased by 40 PER CENT in a year and the housing crisis grips tighter, the council’s useless Tory boy housing boss, NICK “DROOPER” HOOPER seems to have found himself far more important things to do than deal with these … Such as setting up a, er, SPY NETWORK to catch council tenants he dislikes!

Over at Antona Court in Shire, residence of local firebrand and friend of the Bristolian Steve “The Avon Mouth” Norman, Drooper seems to have set up an INTELLIGENCE NETWORK with the sole aim of skewering Steve for er, something or other.

Last year Drooper THREATENED Steve, registered disabled, with EVICTION for parking his car too near a door at Antona Court soon after he had had threatened Steve with an ASBO for delivering a letter to his councillor in Avonmouth Library.

The eviction threat was hastily dropped, however, when Steve instructed Drooper to cease his “FUTILE BULLYING EXERCISE” and take him to court and evict him if he had a case. A course of action Drooper appears to not want to pursue. Wonder why?

Since then, Drooper’s brilliant spy network has uncovered lots of wrongdoing at Antona Court such as an ENTIRELY FICTITIOUS car repair business working from the car park; an ENTIRELY FICTITIOUS drug dealer in the block and an ENTIRELY FICTITIOUS sub letting resident!

However, not one to get deterred by having poor quality fabricated evidence exposed, Drooper simply widened his net across Antona Court to unearth all kinds of entirely NON-CRIMINAL ACTIVITY among the tenants such as a resident who hoards stuff; dog shit on the grass outside the flats and even a woman who keeps ferrets!

Unfortunately we’re unable to confirm, at this stage, whether those ferrets are shitting on the lawn too. Or whether Drooper has launched an expensive HIGH LEVEL INVESTIGATION with a view to issuing the world’s first ferret shit-related eviction threat in the history of social housing? If that doesn’t earn Drooper his £15k a year “uplift band” then what will? (solving the city’s homeless problem? ed.)

But how is Drooper obtaining all this top quality intelligence? Well, a brief saunter around the perimeter of Antona Court reveals that ONE RESIDENT – and one resident only – has taken delivery of a brand new garden box courtesy of Drooper’s housing department. Why would that be?

Is Drooper running a garden furniture for DAFT INFORMATION ring out of Antona Court? And will the council give us all a couple of deckchairs and some pot plants if we phone in our ferret shit-related concerns direct to Drooper? (Call 0117 922 4681 quoting ‘ferret shit emergency’).

We also understand that this lucky Antona Court resident has now been instructed by Drooper’s SHADOWY AGENTS (or Estate Management, Housing Services,North, Temple Street, ed.) to keep a diary of events at Antona Court, which we’re really looking forward to reading. Our own spies tell us that it might feature sensational revelations about residents’ friends visiting during daylight hours and people using the communal laundry after 8.00pm.

Clearly this entirely normal behaviour by council tenants must be stamped out and order restored at Antona Court.

MORE COUNCIL CUTS COMING?

MORE CUTS COMING? web

Sneaked in to the last Cabinet Meeting before the mayoral election was a paper harmlessly entitled ‘Change Board 6 Monthly Monitoring Report’, which just happened to drop in the fact that the council needs to make another £12.9m of CUTS by next April.

The paper meanders over twelve pages, explaining that £33m ‘savings’ have been made and another £18m are in the pipeline before dropping in that “the majority of THE REMAINING £12.9M SAVINGS ARE YET TO BE FORMALLY IDENTIFIED”! It then drifts on to explain that further cuts of £75.3m will be required 2017 – 2020.

But how exactly are these ‘savings’ of £12.9m over the next year going to be made? The main report itself forgets to say. However, on the very last page of the report under the final heading ‘HUMAN RESOURCES IMPLICATIONS’, it says:

“The progress set out in this paper is in line with the Section 188 notice issued in November 2013 … At that time it was estimated that there would be a potential reduction of 971 employees during the three financial years covered bythe MTFS … The organisation restructure that took place during the 2014/15 financial year resulted in workforce reductions of 523 FTE.

“Where further workforce reductions are required we will seek to reach agreement with the recognised Trade Unions on how to mitigate the need to make any further compulsory redundancies.”

No doubt, ENTIRELY COINCIDENTALLY, if you multiply the remaining redundancies available under this three year old notice (448) by an average wage cost at the council (£30,000) you come up with a figure not unadjacent to £12.9m!

With the mayoral election now really taking off, it will be interesting to see how many of the candidates will be committing to these LUDICROUS REDUNDANCIES and how many won’t. It’ll also be interesting to find out how any candidate rejecting these redundancies intends to make these cuts.

Staff at the council, meanwhile, are FLABBERGASTED that their bosses are proposing more redundancies. “The whole place is already overworked, understaffed and in meltdown, “ a worker told The BRISTOLIAN.

“If you want evidence just try phoning us up or accessing any service. It’s an ABSOLUTE FARCE, the public are simply ignored these days as a distraction.

“There’s no staff left to do anything already. Workloads are huge and unmanageable. More staffing cuts are impossible to make. Any incoming mayor who tries more cuts risks CRITICAL DAMAGE to already overstretched services.”

Over to you then mayoral candidates …

 

GAGA’S CONFLICT

Gaga: money grabbing scrote unfit for office?

The revelation that council Chief Exec, Nicola “LADY GAGA” Yates earned £18k in wages from the Bristol 2015 Ltd company at the rate of £60 an hour may prove to be very bad news for this beleaguered money-grabbing council boss.

There’s already widespread OUTRAGE that Gaga scooped herself an extra £18k of public money from Bristol 2015 while cheekily trousering £193k from the public purse this year for a job paid at £160k. Now we’ve discovered that her contract of employment specifically PREVENTS her from doing another job or retaining earnings without the “EXPRESS CONSENT” of the council.

Gaga’s contractual obligations are contained in the Joint Negotiating Committee for Local Authority Chief Executives Conditions of Service Handbook. And here’s the first thing it says:

3. WHOLE-TIME SERVICE

The chief executive shall devote his or her whole-time service to the work of the council and shall not engage in any other business or take up any other additional appointment without the express consent of the council. He or she shall not subordinate his or her duty as chief executive to his or her private interests or put himself or herself in a position where his or her duty and private interests conflict.

In other words, Gaga should not be taking further employment without the “express consent” of councillors. Where is that consent for her role at Bristol 2015 Ltd? It also says if she does take on any other employment it should not CONFLICT with her role as Chief Exec of the council.

For example, she should not be putting herself in a position where she’s WITHHOLDING accounts and ignoring the Local Government Transparency Code on behalf of Bristol 2015 Ltd, who privately employ her. Because this openly CONFLICTS with her duty as the chief executive of the council where she needs to be robustly upholding this code on our behalf and ensuring all public expenditure is properly accounted for.

The explanation currently emerging from the Mayor’s office over Gaga’s employment and earnings at Bristol 2015 Ltd reeks of BULLSHIT. The Mayors sidekick-in-chief, Deputy Mayor Geoff “” Gollop provided a long-winded explanation of Gaga’s conduct to the council’s Audit Committee last Friday.

The dodgy Tory accountant blustered that Gaga had to be paid a salary in order to demonstrate her role of Chief Exec at Bristol 2015 Ltd was independent of her role as Chief Exec of Bristol City Council. Gollop effectively seemed to claim that paying £1k a month into Gaga’s bank account made any conflict of interest she might have disappear in A PUFF OF SMOKE. Nonsense. Gaga’s conflict of interest cannot just vanish in exchange for cash.

The correct practice should be that at any Bristol 2015 Ltd meetings where business of the council is discussed, Gaga should LEAVE the meeting. Similarly at any meeting of the council where Bristol 2015 Ltd is discussed, Gaga should LEAVE the meeting, which makes it pretty much impossible for Gaga to perform both Chief Exec roles. Any claim by Fergo and Gollop that greasing her palm with cash somehow makes it possible is a load of BENT BOLLOCKS of the highest order.

And it doesn’t stop here. There’s some further dodgy practice around Gaga’s Bristol 2015 job. Gaga’s contract also states:

8. INCLUSIVE SALARIES

Salaries shall be deemed to be inclusive, and all other fees and emoluments, unless they are covered by Paragraph 9 (returning officer, etc.) or the authority expressly agrees that they shall be retainedby the officer, shall be paid by the officer into the council’s accounts.

In other words, any extra salary payable to Gaga for any other work she does SHOULD GO TO THE COUNCIL not to her. Unless “the authority expressly agrees”. Where is this agreement from councillors? Looks like Gaga owes us £18k then.

There it is then. At least two occasions when Gaga’s BREACHED HER CONTRACT plus 18 months of undeclared and unaddressed conflicts of interest between Bristol City Council and Bristol 2015 Ltd she’s done NOTHING about.

Is it time for some disciplinary action down at the Counts Louse?

GAGA’S WAGE WATCH

yates iiBoth the city council pay policy reports to councillors in 2015-16 and 2016-17 insist council chief Nicola “Lady Gaga” Yates’ salary is £160K A YEAR. This means she should earn ‘only’ up to ten times the amount of the lowest paid council workers on the living wage of £15,900.

This 10:1 highest to lowest wage ratio is supposed to be official council policy as laid down by the people we elect. Strange, then, that the last senior officers pay report published on the council’s website in December 2015 stated that Gaga actually earned £193K A YEAR!

Yates pay

This is up from £180k in April 2015 and up from the publicly agreed wage of £160k we were told she would earn when she started in April 2013. Gaga appears to have unilaterally awarded herself a SECRET 20 PER CENT PLUS pay rise outside of her own council’s written policy then.

The FOUL STENCH surrounding this woman and her easy access to public money is compounded by the fact she’s now been forced to admit she also earned £12k a year at an hourly rate of £60.00 as the Chief Exec of Bristol 2015 Ltd. This means her earnings may have topped £204k last year! Not bad for someone who ‘only’ earns £160k a year according to all the formal council documents on pay being fobbed off on us.

Look out too for that useless trade union worker and chair of the council’s Human Resources Committee Labour’s Mike ““ARSEHOLE” Wollacott at the Full Council Meeting next Tuesday. He’s adding his own cheap and nasty fragrance to the general stink of ill-managed public money, lies, greed and corruption wafting around the Council House these days.

Wollacott will openly LIE to councillors and to the Bristolian public on Tuesday and assure us all – on the record – that Gaga only earns £160k a year. Thus he can maintain his LIE that the council’s highest earner only earns ten times the salary of the lowest earner.

Gaga pay policy

Bristol City Council Pay Policy Statement for 2016/17

And before Wollacott or any of his mates start sending us wanky legal threats, he has already published his LIE in the report that he’s presenting to the Full Council on Tuesday recommending councillors give the bosses their 20 per cent pay rise.

Why’s this trade unionist openly LYING to councillors, his staff and the public about senior bosses’ salaries? Why’s he pretending he’s helping the low paid at the council while simultaneously hiding the real salary of Gaga that just happens to make a mockery of his party’s own living wage policy?

The whole lot of ’em – bosses and councillors – are taking the piss out of us, their staff and especially the low paid.

TOWN HALL FAT CATS ATTEMPT WAGE HEIST

pigs-feeding-at-trough

Service directors take lunch

A council pay policy report talking up the living wage and shoved in front of councillors on the Human Resources Committee last month claimed that the council’s new SENIOR MANAGEMENT PAY POLICY, apparently conjured out of thin air, is that the salary of Strategic Directors will be 85% of the City Director’s salary of, allegedly, £160k.

What this means, then, is that the council’s four strategic directors, struggling along on just £130k a year at present should get a tasty little £6K PAY RISE to £136k a year! … So much for austerity and cuts at the council …

That’s a 4.6 PER CENT pay demand from the bosses then. Meanwhile, the little people who actually do all the fucking work will be lucky to see a one per cent pay rise this year. Not that their bosses, busy FEATHERING THEIR OWN NESTS, have tried to get them any kind of pay rise at all.

Also joining in with this latest FAT CAT PAY BONANZA at the Counts Louse were 19 Service Directors. In their case, councillors are instructed to up the pay of this well paid shower of twerps “IN LINE WITH THE MARKET RATE“.

The “market rate” being £94,601, up from £90,989. That’s a cool FOUR PER CENT wage demand from them then. Apparently demanded – with a straight face – while these service directors personally take an AXE to public services in the name of austerity.

Adding to the sense of WHOLESALE RIP OFF of taxpayers and service users, bosses also demanded “An Uplift Band payable to Service Directors to reward exceptional performance.”

An “uplift band” that can earn a maximum of 15 PER CENT of total salary. In other words, service directors could earn as much as £110K A YEAR if they meet undisclosed performance targets based on secret criteria judged by themselves! But don’t worry, because bosses assured councillors they’d inform them immediately after they’d awarded themselves any “uplift band”!

The cost of all these proposed wage hikes appears to be in the region of £400K OF COUNCIL TAX PAYERS MONEY and no doubt these bosses have worked very hard indeed to set aside our money to sort out their wages for the next year in these straightened times?

But what about their staff? Are they getting a four per cent pay rise and a 15% “uplift band”? Well, we’re yet to hear ANYTHING AT ALL about pay proposals for them!

This pay demand – disguised as a ‘pay policy’ – now goes before all councillors at a FULL COUNCIL MEETING next Tuesday. And the Human Resources Committee, chaired by a supposed trade unionist, LABOUR’S Mike “Arselick” Wollacott is recommending councillors agree to bump the bosses’ wages up by 20 per cent while offering no pay rise to other council workers.

With trade unionists like this, who needs exploitative bosses?

HOMELESS NEWS

HooperMayor Wanker’s Tory boy housing boss, Nick “DROOPER” Hooper is threatening to EVICT homeless people living in parks in tents because they’re “a nuisance that attracts anti-social behaviour.”

No doubt they also ruin the view when this SUPERANNUATED HOUSING PONCE looks out of the window of his Clifton pile?

Instead, the man handsomely paid to be directly responsible for the homeless problem in Bristol says the homeless should “SLEEP IN DOORWAYS” or “UNDER BRIDGES” while the incompetent oaf thinks up something else to do with them all.

This news comes hard on the heels of Drooper’s attempts to evict high-profile anti-pollution activist Steve “THE AVON MOUTH” Norman from his Avonmouth council home for parking his car with a disabled blue badge in, er … a parking space!

Let’s hope the first thing the new mayor does in May is sack Drooper, a revolting piece of Tory shit with no place in our city.

LABOUR BUSH CONFUSION

Bush

The level of utter confusion in our local Labour Party was highlighted recently following the death over Christmas of the popular St George West Labour councillor, RON STONE.

Among many tributes paid to Ron was one from parents and friends fighting the closure of the BUSH RESIDENTIAL CENTRE in Knowle. This centre provides support and respite care to some of the most seriously ill and disabled children in the city and beds at the centre are currently being cut.

The Bush campaigners praised Ron for his unstinting support for their cause. Which is odd because the politician behind the closure is Ron’s Labour Party colleague and member of Mayor Fagin’s ridiculous ‘RAINBOW CABINET‘ of hapless nobodies, Barbara “YES GEORGE” Massey.

Massey is on record SUPPORTING the cuts to the Bush, claiming the money will provide more families with ‘short breaks’. Although she’s UNABLE to explain what service will be available – if any – to the desperately vulnerable kids losing their places at the Bush.

It’ll be interesting to see, then, how Labour’s misfiring mayoral candidate Marvin “LUTHER” Rees deals with this issue. Will he share old school socialist and trade unionist Ron’s view? Or will he side with his senior NEW LABOUR colleague, Massey, and opt to support the ‘MODERNISING‘ market solution for vulnerable kids?

Or maybe he’s got a THIRD WAY? Sit on the fence, say nothing and hope nobody notices that his party has two opposing views on the issue – one for brutal cuts to disabled children’s services; the other against brutal cuts to, er, disabled children’s services!

CITY COUNCIL SALARY WATCH

Greedy pig: Nicola ‘Lady Gaga’ Yates

Anyone got any idea how much city council Chief Exec Nicola “LADY GAGA” Yates really earns?

The council’s annual report, which contains audited accounting information, insists she earned £180,617 in 2014 -15. However, the ‘Table of Salaries for City Director and Chief Officer Posts as at 1 April 2015’ published with great fanfare and openness on the council website insists she trousers a mere £160k.

Why the difference? And are either of these figures accurate? Because Nicola actually has FOUR jobs courtesy of Bristol City Council. As well as Chief Exec, she’s the ELECTORAL RETURNING OFFICER for the city; Chief Exec of the disastrous GREEN CAPITAL private limited company and she’s now nabbed a directorship of the brand new ‘BRISTOL WASTE‘ private limited company!

In the case of the last two, Gaga has openly used her influence to ensure the accounts of these publicly owned companies are TOP SECRET and not even subject to the attention of the council’s auditors. This means we have absolutely NO MEANS OF KNOWING if Gaga’s trousering any more of our cash on the sly through these companies.

Ain’t secrecy grand?

Elsewhere, the ‘Table of Salaries for City Director and Chief Officer Posts as at 1 April 2015’ for public consumption lists the salaries of Lady Gaga’s four STRATEGIC DIRECTORS as between £130 – 135k pa each.

Which is odd because the audited annual report says Business Change director MAX WIDE “BOY” earned over £141k in 2014 – 2015. Meanwhile Mayor Pillock’s thicko urbanist mate BARRA MAC “NUGGET” RUAIRI reels in a cool £139,350 pa for wandering aimlessly around ABU GHRAIB – Lady Gaga’s ‘agile’ Temple Street office complex – in brown cords.

Can these two senior bosses not add up? Or have they been treated to a secret pay rise?

THAT GEORGE FERGUSON ‘STATE OF THE CITY’ SPEECH IN FULL…

In 50 years time it will be 2065 … How will we get there? … I suggest by Bus (reference sponsored by First Bus) … Or if you want to go only half way take my MetroWest Suburban Rail … Digital thingies … in an aquarium (surely planetarium, ed) … Ducts underground for other digital thingies … er, data … experiment thingies, er … Coding! … Children should do coding in schools … in clubs … when I can afford it … Can you lend us a tenner, guv? … Children … We are the world, we are the children … We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let’s start giving … to sensible sustainable projects run by my friends and family obviously … don’t give to the poor, obs … leave all that to my housing boss Nick Hooper, he’s arranging legal measures to get the homeless off the streets of Bristol West as I speak … Then in 50 years time we’ll all be equal … Isn’t housing a good thing? … But there wasn’t any … there isn’t any …. and their won’t be any … But i will take the time to chair a committee about it … And might get around to amending a strategy if Mr Hooper writes it … Does anyone know Kevin McCloud? … Er, have I mentioned children?  … How about babies? … And trees … Aren’t they good? … European Green Capital … Barcelona … Bristol … Berlin … Barcelona … What’s that other place in Spain with the a big concert hall? … There … The future isn’t it great? … 50 years time … Do you want to buy a brewery?

Blah, blah, blah (ad infinitum)

SWANKY OFFICE WATCH

George buys 100 Temple Street for a bargain £18 million

The current multi-million pound refurbishment of the Counts Louse will include the THIRD refurbishment of the building’s third floor management suite for profligate twats on six-figure salaries in SIX YEARS!

In 2009 former Chief Exec JAN ORMONDROYD spent a six figure sum refurbishing her office suite in the regal style with purple carpeting, bullet proof glass and the legendary strategic leadership fridge.

Then last year, new Chief Exec Nicola “LADY GAGA” Yates spent a load of money on furniture and IT kit to stamp her personal style on the third floor. Indeed, she even threw a tantrum and fired the council’s Workplace Programme Manager, GRAHAM SKINNER when her new furniture didn’t arrive on time and thus putting a £60m project into chaos!

Now, in this age of austerity, more money is being spent refurbing the management suite all over again! This time to create an ‘AGILE WORKSPACE‘ we’re told.

Let’s just hope when we get a new mayor next year they like the results or, no doubt, we’ll be forking out another six figure sum for new carpets, soft furnishings and an a la mode mayoral cappuccino machine!