UNCLE JOE STALIN AWARD FOR OPEN AND DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT
Goes to...
SALFORD CITY MAYOR PAUL DENNETT
2017 will see the anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia which promised so much freedom and equality – until Joe Stalin arrived and subverted everything into a horrid one party state, where the Party was right and everything else was wrong.
This Award, in honour of Joe Stalin, is the oldest category in the Salford Star Mary Burns gongs ceremony, and has been won every year by Salford City Council and its leaders. The regimes may change slightly but transparency, democracy and accountability always remain the same – almost non-existent.
2016 saw the election of Paul Dennett as Salford City Mayor, promising "a fresh approach to governance"...
"It was quite clear during the election process that transparency and accountability, or at least the public perception of those sorts of issues, is very much important amongst our electorate" he added "...So it's incumbent on us all...to tackle some of those issues around transparency, accountability and engaging the public in how we do our business." (see here)
Dennett also pledged "a transparent approach to decision making", before calling for more propaganda... "As a Council we have not done enough in my opinion to communicate and publicise our hard work and the great achievements of this city" he said "We need to be telling the public about the fantastic work we are doing."
Well, in the nine months since he was elected, Dennett has certainly been pushing the propaganda while the "transparency and accountability" bit has quietly been forgotten.
Why, only next week, the Council's Cabinet meets to make a decision on a `Company Voluntary Arrangement Variation' but all details are being kept secret.
The Salford Star believes that this is something to do with giving Salford Red Devils owner, Marwan Koukash, yet another `payment holiday', under which he won't have to pay back a penny of his £1.5million debt to the Council until December 2017. But neither the Star nor Salford residents will know because it's all being done behind closed doors. The agenda doesn't even mention Salford Red Devils.
Meanwhile, Salford Council has to reveal all spending over £500 to the public. The accounts sheets are stuffed with payments that have been `redacted', or kept secret. There are lots of payments for things like helping residents with social care, tenancies, education and stuff which should rightly be kept anonymous, but there are also loads of other amounts that are being hidden from the public.
In just the last two months that have been disclosed – August and September 2016 – there are over £21,000 of redacted payments under headings like `Professional Fees' (around £5,500), `Corporate Business Grants' (over £12,000) and `Miscellaneous Expenses' (£2,500) that somebody is trousering. Who are these payments being made to? What for? No idea!
And over in Chapel Street and the re-branded `New Bailey' the secrecy gets even worse thanks to a well dodgy deal between Salford City Council and the English Cities fund (ECf) that basically hides all planning fees and funds that should be set aside for affordable housing.
In October, for instance, the ECf – a joint venture between Legal and General, Muse Developments and the Government's Home and Communities Agency - received planning permission for a car park, retail units and 843 flats in five blocks up to thirty storeys high, off Stanley Street by the River Irwell. Normally the ECf would have to pay Section 106 money to mitigate the impacts of its developments, and would also have to provide affordable housing.
However, thanks to a deal struck between the Council and ECf in 2009, all payments for all ECf developments are, instead, to be paid into a thing called the Development Trust Account controlled by Salford City Council (see here). So, have any details of this Account been made public since Mayor Dennett was anointed? No chance!
Indeed, the Salford Star had to spend over a year fighting the Council through the Freedom of Information Act and the Information Commissioner to force the info out of it. And it was disclosed in November that not one single penny had been paid into the Development Trust Account, despite the massive amount of development that's going on in Chapel Street and New Bailey (see here).
As a media organisation, the Salford Star should be able to hold the Council to account by asking what the hell is going on with all these issues and more, without having to use the Freedom of Information Act which takes up valuable officer time – but neither Salford City Council, nor Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett, will answer any questions or requests for comments by the Star, and haven't done for over four years...
...Now that's what we call tackling "some of those issues around transparency, accountability and engaging the public", as the Mayor promised. We could go on and on and on about the complete lack of transparency and accountability within Salford City Council but how long can a webpage get?
So, ladies and gentlemen, listen to the sound of that nice Jeremy Corbyn having his political name taken in vain, and scream `A new dictator on the throne but the same old shit!...' for the winner of the Uncle Joe Stalin Award for Open and Democratic Government...
Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett!
If Salford Mayor, Paul Dennett, would like to make an acceptance speech, please use the comments box below...
Winners of the 2016 Salford Star Mary Burns Awards
*Nice Work If You Can Get It Award – Hazel Blears – click here
* Green Fingers Award - Salford City Council - click here
*Ethical Hypocrisy Award – Co-operative Group – click here
*George Bush Read My Lips Award – Hazel Blears, Phil Mayall and Councillor Derek Antrobus - click here
*Services To Heritage Destruction – Fred Done – click here
* Pimp My Poverty Award - Salford City Council - click here
*Feed The Rich Award – Peel Holdings – click here
*International Award – Manchester City Council – click here
*`How The Fuck Did You Manage To Ignore Almost 3 Million People?' Award – Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) – click here
*Services To Social Housing - Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett – click here
*Affordable Housing Hypocrisy Revolving Door Award - Councillor Paul Longshaw – click here
* Gary Neville Finger In Pies Award - Salford City Council - click here
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