THE SALFORD RED DEVILS `PAPERWORK ERROR' AWARD
Goes to…
Salford City Mayor Ian Stewart
Last year Martin Vickers won the Something Stinks In Salford Award (see here) but this year we have re-named it and gotten a new winner.
Vickers was the former Salford Council Strategic Director who left with a £78,000 pay-off, only to turn up weeks later in a job with Salford City Reds (now Red Devils) rugby club – having been central to negotiations with the club's new owner Marwan Koukash and the rather favourable terms of the Council's £1.5million loan payments.
That was rather shocking. But this year we learnt that during that process Vickers, with the Mayor's knowledge, had agreed to waive the rugby club's match day costs up to £164,000 which it should have been handing over to the Council's jointly owned stadium company. The club also got two year's free rent at the AJ Bell Stadium.
The deal by the cash strapped Council to subsidise the rugby club was kept secret from everybody, including councillors, in that no official `Record of Decision' was ever published. Oh, and the Monitoring Officer at the time who should have been "ensuring lawfulness and fairness in decision making" was, er, Martin Vickers (see here and see here and see here).
What's more, a confused Mayor seemed to reveal in a Council meeting what everyone in Salford already suspected, that the secret subsidy had been taken out of the `revenue' budget which should have paid for front line services for the city's vulnerable people (see here).
Scandal upon scandal! So did the Mayor fall on his sword and resign? Was there an independent or police inquiry? In yer dreams! It was put down to a `paperwork error'. The decision was backdated to make it legal and everyone carried on happily ever after (see here)...
Ladies and gentlemen, this Award should really have been titled Why The Fuck Are You Still In Office Mr Mayor? But in deference to decorum it's been ironically named the `Paperwork Error' Award'. So, kick over the wheelchairs of those who have had their transport cut and suck the wallet of the millionaire rugby club owner for the winner of the, er, Salford Red Devils `Paperwork Error' Award...
Salford City Mayor Ian St-e-e-e-wart!!!
If Ian would like to refer himself to a police inquiry or make an acceptance speech please use the comments box below...
The 2014 Salford Star Mary Burns Awards...
The Feed The Rich With £6Million Award (Part 1) – Peel Holdings – click here
The Our Friends In The North Memorial Prize – Sigma Capital Group – click here
The Daft As A Brush Panto Award – Salford City Council – click here
The China In Your Eyes Award – Salford City Mayor Ian Stewart - click here
The Ben Hur Award For Services To Hollywood - Salford City Council - click here
The Bridge Over Troubled Water Award - Salford City Mayor Ian Stewart - click here
The Downhill Slalom Gold Medal For Collapsing Fracking Share Prices – IGas Energy – click here
The George Bush `Read My Lips' Award' - Salford City Mayor, Ian Stewart – click here
The Feed The Rich With £6Million Award (Part 2) – Scarborough Development Group – click here
In The Thick Of It Award for PR – Matthew Finnegan – click here
The Palm d'Or Award – Hazel Blears – click here
The One Rule For The Mayor And One For Everyone Else Award – Salford City Mayor Ian Stewart – click here
The Disgraceful Disgusting Urban Splash Award – Urban Splash – click here
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