Mark Birkett's views on Rochdale's public spending

The Guilty Men: Allen Brett (Council Leader) & Steve Rumbelow (Chief Executive)

IN AN E-MAIL, which we felt was too long to publish in full, complaining to John Rooney, Assistant Director, Information, Customers & Communities, at Rochdale Council - sent on the 10th February 2021- Mark Birkett wrote in conclusion:

'Perhaps worst of all, these two men (Brett & Rumbelow) have also allowed and aided in a monstrous abuse of the public purse. There is no way on earth Mr Rumbelow can do two full-time jobs in once day. But this isn't about some radical ideology; nor is it about whether (Rochdale) MBC needs to remain competitive when it comes to retaining so-called 'executive talent'; still less is it about Mr Rumbelow being 'worth it' or not;'

'It's just simple arithmetic.'

'No-one can do two jobs at once. So if Mr Rumbelow spends (say) 25% of his day now at the NHS tasks, then his RMBC pay must be reduced by that 25%. Thats's why the councillors on July 18th 2018 who voted for this change to Mr Rumbelow's Terms and Conditions had absolutely zero right to do so. There is no workplace on earth where you get to keep two full-time pay packets for doing only two part-time jobs.

'But that's exactly what those all those councillors in 2018 were bamboozled into doing. They failed in one of their most basic tasks; to carefully steward taxpayers' hard-earned monies. Not one of them examined the small print of any reports, or considered any risks to Mr Rumbelow's RMBC role, nor the ramifications for his daily schedule. If you don't believe me, ask any of the councillors who were there. You'll get nothing beyond a shrug and a blank face, from any of them (other than Cllrs Allen Brett, Sara Rowbotham and Daalat Ali who cooked up the whole fiasco at Cabinet in 2017 of course).

Mr Rumbelow should note; you most certainly don't get to pocket that sort of exorbitant dual income and simultaneously have the gall to propose cuts to other Borough services, or cut jobs, or to hike up care home costs for Rochdale's elderly. That is all why my official complaint is now set to continue via the Local Government Ombudsman. And, even more importantly, this pay abuse at the expense of Rochdale's taxpayers will not stand unchallenged either.

Every RMBC councillor should take warning;

'If any of them vote to allow Mr Rumbelow to continue in this ridiculous NHS role (when the contract is apparently due for renewal on 31st March), and / or if they do not deal with this pay abuse at the March Budget Setting Meeting, and / or they have the nerve to dump the cost of 'savings' on pensioners in care homes, or on any other people in the Borough, then the local elections this May are going to be a very bumpy ride indeed - for every last one of them.

'Mr Rumbelow's pay abuse will remain in the spotlight. As will this appalling abuse of my democratic rights and (by implication) everyone else's. As will any councillors who think all of this is vaguely amusing. It isn't.

In case any of them hadn't noticed, the post-COVID world is going to be very different from the one they've been used to.

Sincerely

Mark Birkett

Has Animal Farm Come To Rochdale? by Les May

IT would seem that my puzzlement about Councillor Blundell’s standard response to messages sent to his council e-mail address has been clarified and we now know we are in the land of ‘porky pies’. The fact that he has been allowed to get away with this for so long does not reflect well on either the Council Leader or the council officer responsible for Governance. Perhaps one of these people will be kind enough to tell us just how residents are supposed to raise with this councillor matters which are of concern to them; by snail- mail?

It’s not just Blundell who doesn’t want to be troubled by awkward questions. This is what someone received when he tried to raise questions about 'Two Jobs Rumbelow' with Councillor John Hartley:

Dear Mr ****, Sorry I missed your call today as I was giving my services as a volunteer at the vaccine centre which I think was far better use of my time than speaking with you on the telephone. Now regarding your constant emails, all I am going to say is that the council decision was made in an open and transparent manner and you could have been at that full council meeting as a member of the public to check it out had you of wished to do so. I am not your councillor and do not wish to make any further comment on this matter and I will not responding any further.

Regards XXXX.

A borderline rude response from someone who seems to have an inflated sense of his own importance.

*****************************************************************

Pushing Public Health Messages by Les May

ROCHDALE THE 'WORST AFFECTED' BY VIRUS!

I LIVE in Rochdale, one of the metropolitan boroughs that make up Greater Manchester. Last Saturday lunchtime I was treated to the sight of our local council leader speaking on a BBC news programme about the negotiations with the government about the financial support which would be available if ‘Tier Three’ restrictions come into force. He also raised doubts about whether the additional restrictions were necessary, citing the fact that the negotiators had been presented with ‘old data’ about infection levels.

Last Wednesday I watched the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Jonathan Van Tam, present graphics showing how in the past few weeks rising Covid 19 infections, which were substantially affecting young adults have spread initially, are now moving into the older parts of the population in my town and others like it. These of course are the people whose illness places greatest strain on the NHS and who are most likely to die.

The next day Sky News ran a piece which made the claim that my town, Rochdale, is the borough worst affected by the virus.

Now I don’t wish to suggest that Allen Brett, or Bretty as he likes to style himself, was being deliberately misleading in his comments about the infection levels in Rochdale, but I will say that I find it a little surprising that our council leader seemingly had not taken the trouble to be briefed by Rochdale’s Director of Public Health, Andrea Fallon, about the situation in the town. She’s the expert in these matters, not him. Or perhaps it’s not really so surprising.

Since March when the initial ‘lockdown’ was imposed it can hardly be said RMBC has been proactive in its approach to handling the pandemic. Residents have received precisely two communications about Covid 19, one A5 leaflet came in late March and the second a couple of months ago. No doubt the response would be that there is comprehensive information about the ‘rules’ we are supposed to adhere to on the RMBC website.

Indeed there is, but in the jargon of the computer world, this is a ‘pull strategy’. In other words if you want to get the information, which is liable to change at any moment, you have to be sufficiently motivated to go and find it. If you are a MS Windows user are you sufficiently motivated to access the Microsoft website every time you switch your computer on to make sure that your machine has the latest security patches? Knowing that you are not, MS adopts a ‘push strategy’. Each time you switch on the new patches are sent to your machine automatically; you don’t have to do anything to keep your machine safe.

Some of the money being given to local councils in the Greater Manchester area should be spent on implementing such a ‘push strategy’ to disseminate the latest information about the status of Covid 19 infections in our towns as assessed by the Director of Public Health. This could be done by running an Internet based service dedicated to doing just that. Residents would initially register an e-mail address with the service, and would receive regular updates, encouragement to continue self isolating if asked to do so and advice about infection control in their daily routine. Why should it have taken a query to a local councillor to supply evidence to support a statement she had made to unearth the fact that there was an interactive map* showing the rolling seven day number of new infections in the area I live in? How many councillors are themselves aware of this?

This virus is not going to go away quickly and we have to learn to live with it. The optimistic view of how the future is going to unfold is that at some time not too far ahead, an effective vaccine will be discovered. If we are lucky this may happen. But even if it does the first recipients will be those in involved in health care who are daily putting their own lives at risk treating Covid 19 patients and those who are particularly vulnerable due to existing conditions. The rest of us, and that includes old people like me, will have a lower priority. It may take two or more years before everyone who wants it has been given the vaccine.

The pessimistic view is that we will never have an effective vaccine or effective therapeutic drugs. This is at least a possibility which should not be discounted. Many colds are caused by coronaviruses and in the past one or two million years we humans have never evolved immunity to ‘the common cold’. So in the absence of medical methods of removing the threat to human life presented by this virus, be it for another couple of years or stretching into the future, we are left with public health interventions to mitigate its danger. This should be part of any ‘roadmap’ for the future.

In the fight against this virus it is not enough for us to be passive entities obeying rules we did no make and perhaps do not understand the logic of. Our first priority should not be to acquaint ourselves with the ever changing ‘rules’; it has to be doing whatever is necessary to keep ourselves and our families safe from infection. It is no use local politicians complaining that hospitality venues should not be closed because community transmission is highest where households mix, unless they also have a strategy for discouraging household mixing. To do this we need to have all the information available about where the infection rate is highest, where it is increasing at the fastest rate in our local area and regular reminders about why this is happening and the part our behaviour is playing in this.

Getting this information and advice on a regular basis to residents in the boroughs around Greater Manchester and similarly affected conurbations, isn’t ‘rocket science’. It simply needs a bit of imagination and effort on the part of local councils. If they cannot even manage this what makes anyone think they could run a less shambolic ‘Track and Trace’ system than the present government?

* Initially this map could be found at;

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=47574f7a6e454dc6a42c5f6912ed7076

If you go to this site you will be redirected to;

https://coronavirus-staging.data.gov.uk/details/interactive-map

This is more detailed and more informative, but the text is not so easy to read.

If the links above are not ‘live’ then copy and paste the link into your browser.

Cyril Smith and Faisal Rana

by Les May

NOT two names you would ever expect to see together, but as I was reminded when I read the somewhat garbled story by Jennifer Williams in the Saturday edition of the Rochdale Observer, there are some remarkable similarities.

Let’s forget the speculation and recap what we actually know. Smith indecently assaulted young men at the Cambridge House hostel in the 1960s.  Had he not been guilty of this he would have sued Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) for the article in the May 1979 edition.  Rana voted twice in the May 2018 local government election. When found out he admitted it. Two guilty men; two sets of blind eyes being turned.

What are the similarities?   For a start neither of these men ever stood in the dock and answered for their crimes, though the reasons for this appear very different. Another similarity is the way that people who could, and should, have taken non-judicial actions against these two guilty men have excused their reasons for not doing so.

David Steel who was told of these accusations against Smith by the RAP editors, David Bartlett and John Walker, has excused his inaction by saying;

‘These allegations all related to a period some years before he was even an MP and before he was even a member of the party, therefore it did not seem to me that I had any position in the matter at all. He accepted that the story was correct. Obviously I disapproved, but as far as I was concerned it was past history.’

How remarkably similar this is to the response I received when I raised the matter of Rana voting twice with the RMBC monitoring officer.  I was told that Rana’s criminal behaviour had taken place before he became a Councillor, hence no action could be taken.  Just as party leader Steel was able to avoid taking any action against Smith, these seems to have been enough to have allowed party leader Alan Brett to avoid taking action against Rana.

In fact the excuse from the monitoring officer was nonsense.  Rana’s crime was committed on polling day 3 May 2018 and his term of office runs from that day until the day before the next poll is held.  I feel justified in using the term ‘excuse’ here because when I later asked for clarification about Rana’s failure to declare his interests within the stipulated time period the officer who dealt with this during an extensive correspondence squirmed and did everything possible to avoid having to admit that Rana had failed to comply with the rules.

So why did neither of these men appear in the dock?  We know that in the case of Smith the police pursued a rigorous investigation, that the file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and that no action was taken against Smith.  No evidence has yet been produced that this was a ‘cover up’ and the most likely explanation is that even though a number of young men has made similar accusations against Smith as the law stood at the time this could not be taken as corroboration that he committed the crimes he was accused of.  This seems absurd to us now and the law has since been changed.

In the case of Rana things are much less clear. We don’t know whether the decision to allow him off the hook with only a caution was taken by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) without referring the matter to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) or whether it was a decision made by the CPS.   If the decision was made by GMP alone then it seems to me to be a significant error of judgement on someone’s part.

Voter fraud strikes at the heart of our democracy and whether it be GMP, the CPA, a council officer or a party leader no one should do anything which appears to excuse or condone it.  Smith is dead, Steel is yesterday’s man and Rana is still a councillor. Which do you think we should be most concerned about?

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/2019/03/what-rap-said-about-smith-in-1979.html

*************

A TALE of TWO TOWNS In the NORTH WEST

ROCHDALE: Sleeping Lions Led by Hyenas & Foxes
by Brian Bamford

IN its current budget set for 2019/20 Bury Council declared that it aimed to regenerate and create thriving businesses, and communities as part of its £16 million funding boost.  In Bury, every township in the borough will receive investment under plans approved by the council when it set its budget for 2019/20 on 20 February 2019.  Including £2.7 million to promote business growth.

One of the main projects in the town's announced budget was the 'investment of £1.3 million into Bury Market, to ensure that the town's "jewel in the crown" continues to be a major attraction'; it has recently been voted the Nation's Favourite Market.

At the same time as Bury Council is backing  its famous market so Rochdale Council is effectively reported as condemning its own market to the knacker's yard.

On Monday the 14th, October Rochdale’s 768-year-old market is set to close after town hall bosses have claimed it to be ‘no longer financially viable’.

Recently I approached some of the market stall holders, who seemed utterly dejected as they anticipated the closure of the market a week next Monday.  . 

The Rochdale council claims that over the last year, the number of traders regularly attending the market had halved and it is no longer financially viable.  There have been four days over the past year, including two Saturdays, when no traders turned up, and on nine others only one trader was present.

While I was talking to some of the stall holders an officer employed by the Council turned up, and defended the Council's decision saying that it was costing the Council money to keep the market going.  He said that Bury Market was different because it had a significant tradition.

But when I countered that Rochdale Market, now in the Town Centre, was in a setting amid fantastic architecture overlooking the town's magnificent Rochdale Town Hall, he had to agree with me.

More troubling was that he couldn't reassure me as to what the Council planned to do with the former Santander building which was now serving as a small indoor market.

Some people are complaining of inclement weather & want to be protected from the weather.  Yet I was in Salzburg (Austria) in mid-February this year, and we ate fish from a plate at a table in an open square in the town centre.  How do they manage to brave the icy conditions there?  And note we were eating fish on a cold day - in an inland city - far away from the sea.  How I wonder do these people in mitteleuropa manage it when folk in Rochdale can't?

There is clearly something profoundly lacking in the imagination of the bosses of Rochdale MBC, and why is Bury so much better at promoting its market?

Clearly, Rochdale is a town in which sleeping lions are being led by hyenas like Cllr. Allen Brett, and property speculators like Cllr. 'Two Votes' Faisal Rana.

******************

Rochdale Labour Aim at Restoring Trust

 Leak of Motion for clean break with past politics

LAST Wednesday, the West Heywood and East Middleton wards agreed to move the motion below which raises concerns about the proposed reinstatement of a former Rochdale Labour leader, Richard Farnell, who many in the local Labour Party and among the public beyond who generally feel he was discredited by the finding that he lied under oath at the  Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).  

The tenure of the motion suggests that the people moving it feel that not only has Richard Farnell become totally toxic by his insistance that he was unaware of what was going on at Knowl View residential school, but that the culture created by Farnell's successor, Alan Brett, is now stifling any remaining remnant of decency in the body politic in Rochdale. 

The Heywood and Middleton Constituency Labour Party below urge a change of leadership to create a 'break with that (spirit of) Richard Farnell and Allen Brett, in order that trust and confidence in the local party can be restored'.

Wed 03/07/2019 21:59

 The Motion states:

'In light of recent press reports relating to Richard Farnell and Allen Brett, Heywood and Middleton CLP/ branch note that: Richard Farnell was suspended from the Labour Party when the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) reported its finding that he had lied to the Inquiry under oath; his replacement as Leader of Rochdale Council, Allen Brett (himself found to have brought the authority into disrepute) is reported to have said that he will be pressing for Richard Farnell’s suspension to be immediately lifted; the Executive of Rochdale CLP have apparently written to Labour North West Region in respect of the suspension, with their meeting minutes referring to selection meetings in September and the unfairness of Richard Farnell being “in limbo”. Heywood and Middleton CLP/ branch are of the view that: regardless of the outcome of Richard Farnell’s suspension, his behaviour at the IICSA and IICSA’s finding that he lied under oath, reflect very badly on the Labour Party in Rochdale; perceptions of Allen Brett’s behaviour compound this, along with his call for Richard Farnell’s immediate reinstatement; there is a risk as borne out by responses on social media, and in spite of the good work of many councillors and party members, that the Labour Party in Rochdale Borough loses trust and credibility in the eyes of the electorate. And so, (Heywood and Middleton CLP/ branch) call on Rochdale Council Labour Group to bring about a change of Rochdale Council leadership in a way that represents a clean break with that of Richard Farnell and Allen Brett, in order that trust and confidence in the local party can be restored.'

 Passed at West Heywood and East Middleton so far. On the agenda at Castleton branch next week.

***************************

Election Fraud Rewarded with Finance Job

Why is 'Two Votes' Rana Welcome on Rochdale Town Council?

Cllr. 'Two Votes' Faisal Rana

LABELLED by Private Eye as a 'Rotten Borough' because of its Council's tolerant acceptance of Cllr. Faisal Rana's mis-doings in helping himself to two postal votes when he was elected in May 2018 local elections, the Rochdale Labour Party has now decided to reward him with the Cabinet position of Assistant Portfolio Holder for Finance.  

It is not the first time that the self-confessed fraud Cllr. Rana has held this position, he was in the job before he accepted a caution from the Greater Manchester Police for election fraud.  As a concession he humbly stood down at that time, and it was argued that he had been punished for his untoward behaviour at the time.

Fortunately the Lib Dem and Conservative opposition to the Labour Party administration on Rochdale Council is about as floppy as a bunch of wet lettuces and are unlikely to refuse to work with the blatant fraudster Cllr. Rana the Councillor for Spotland and Failinge ward.  When a no confidence motion against Cllr. Rana was put to the Rochdale Council, the Labour Councillors, as expected backed the fraudster, but for some reason the leader of the Lib Dems didn't show for the vote.

It should in fairness to Cllr. Rana be pointed out that he has a large property portfolio in Rochdale and beyond,. This may have impressed the council leader Allen Brett and perhaps is the reason he got the assistant Finance portfolio job.

We must await further developments to see if anyone has the guts to oppose Cllr. Rana's new appointment.  Who knows perhaps Rochdale Council will again come to the attention of Private Eye's Rotten Borough's coloumn?.

*************

Cllr. Rana commited the crime, did he do the time?

 

by Brian Bamford & Les May

with help from Carl Faulkner

Last year Allen Brett Rochdale's council leader said Cllr. Rana had ‘stepped away’ from his cabinet responsibilities.

ON the 16th, August 2018 businessman and big time Rochdale landlord, Cllr. Rana, was said to have 'stepped away' from his responsibilities as assistant to the finance portfolio holder Labour leader Allen Brett. It must be a cosy relationship.   In August last year Cllr. Rana was outed as a vote swindler by Carl Faulkner for falsely claiming two postal votes, Council leader Brett was quick to defend Cllr. Rana.   

After expressing initial regret Brett said:  'Naturally I am disappointed in Cllr. Rana's error [but] he is a very talented individual who shares our collective passion to improve our borough.’

Now the landlord Rana, who duped the electorate in 2018, is now comfortably back in the saddle next to the boss-man Brett. 
 
Who says crime doesn't pay?

Cllr. Rana must be very talented to purloin two postal votes for himself out of the British electoral system and to now land a top job helping the Council leader Cllr. Brett to run the town's financial affairs. There are not many of us that could do that and get away with it.

Farooq Ahmed, who was in charge of finance in 2014, was not so lucky as Cllr. Rana; when a fellow Labour Councillorr Neil Emmott claimed he had been the victim of a homophobic remark from Cllr. Ahmed.  Cllr. Ahmed was alleged to have warned him to 'mind his back' in an altercation on Cheetham Street in Rochdale.  Cllr. Emmott was at the time working for the now disgraced Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk, who ultimately left the Labour Party under a cloud.   Cllr, Ahmed ended up leaving the Labour Party after he was convicted of a public order offence.

It's a strange world in which someone guilty of a public order offence loses his position as head of Finance, while a self-confessed election fraudster keeps his job.  Perhaps poor Cllr. Ahmed, who is of Bangldeshi origin didn't put his nose in the right place, or maybe he simply didn't own enough real estate in Rochdale.

***********

Greater Manchester's Buses

A call for regulation of Greater Manchester's Bus Services.

 by John Wilkins

BOLD # (Building Our Local Democracy) members and an associate met with Rochdale Council Leader, Allen Brett, to obtain a firm commitment from him to support the motion proposed by colleague, Phil Burke, to support the Better Buses for Greater Manchester Campaign for a form of regulation of our bus services. We were joined by campaign organiser, Pascale Robinson, MEN reporter Nick Statham and Clr. Burke (Lead for Transport).

We had arranged the meeting to publicise the Campaign's 'Week of Action' and staged it in Rochdale Bus Station. The initial part of our meeting turned into a photo opportunity and publicity for Clr. Brett. Whilst he committed himself to fully supporting the motion in support of the motion from Clr. Burke based on the model one supplied by the campaign coordinator, Pascale Robinson, he seemed keen to promote himself also. Clr. Brett, who was a director of the old Greater Manchester Buses prior to privatisation, stated “This is something I’m passionate about 100 per cent, and will argue for behind the scenes.” We photographed both councillors along with Pascale and group members in front of a 17A bus and around the bus station. The Council Leader also had members of his own publicity team photographing and recording the meeting before he left to return to his council office.

Our group then joined Clr. Burke in the Council's offices in Number 1 Riverside for further productive discussions on the need for better regulated buses. He was extremely enthusiastic about the subject and listened and responded to all our comments. He stated that “We need to get bus services back to local people for local people, to use them when they want to use them.”  He said Mayor Andy Burnham needs to listen to council leaders that this is what residents want ie. “reliable, clean bus services that will take them from A to B with no issues.”

This echoes comments we received when collecting petition signatures in Middleton a couple of weeks earlier. We collected nearly 100 on the day and almost 200 in total. It is an issue that affects all age groups. We were told about youngsters getting detentions for lateness because of buses, the cost for many workers to the elderly who are being made to feel more isolated with the cutbacks to local routes, whilst companies 'cherry picked' the busier routes. Concerns have been raised throughout the 10 Greater Manchester Local Authorities, with over 200 people attending a meeting organised by Better Buses recently in Manchester Art Gallery.

The response from Onebus (a collective representing GM bus operators) claimed that Better Buses are misleading the public, and driven by a pro-nationalisation political agenda. Clr. Burke rejected these this saying the campaign represents public concerns and “There is no hidden agenda. Our agenda is to provide a good reliable bus service for the people of the north west”.

As well as cost, unreliability of services, the group and Clr. Burke felt there needed to be improvements in accessibility for disabled users, greater cleanliness, public safety and emissions reduced.

If you are reading this and have not signed the petition yet please go to: www.betterbusesgm.org.uk and get your councillors to support the campaign.

Some Facts & Figures:
2 x more spending per head in London than greater Manchester.
Bus use in Manchester has gone down by 40% since deregulation 30 years ago, whilst bus use in London (with regulation) has doubled.
Drivers on same routes different rates of pay, different conditions of service including pensions.
Fairs not standardised a single ticket can cost more than£4 whereas a journey of up to one hour in London could cost as little as £1.50.
Health: Air pollution = 1,000 premature deaths. Highest admissions in Manchester for asthma and higher rates of dementia and respiratory problems.

# BOLD is a non politically aligned campaign group based in Middleton. Find out about us on Facebook at BOLD=Building Our Local Democracy.

If there is a similar group in your area we would love to get in touch with you and work together on important issues.

**********

Is Rochdale Labour Party 'a disfunctional bubble'?

NV Editor:   Last week the Rochdale Labour councillor, Kathleen Nickson, defected to the local Liberal Democrats claiming that she had suffered bullying in the Labour Party under its current leader Cllr. Allen Brett.  Cllr. Brett doesn't recognise her account, but he has just been subject to a disciplinary inquiry over his own conduct.  Meanwhile, his Labour Party colleagues have taken to recording what he says at private meetings of the Labour group.  In the story below The Guardian reporter quotes a solicitor as accusing the party of Cllr. Brett of existing 'in its own dysfunctional bubble' and having 'a problem at the political leadership level'.  That was last April almost a year ago, but since then things haven't got any better with one councillor, Faisal Rana, having been cautioned by the police for the electoral fraud of multiple voting.  

Read Tony Lloyd MP for Rochdale on electoral fraud:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWmHpSqdzNE 

*******

ON the 15th, April 2018, The Guardian journalist, Josh Halliday, reported:  'Rochdale's "toxic" political leadership must be overhauled for the town to move on from decades of institutional failure on child sexual abuse, the lead solicitor for victims at the official inquiry has said.'

A solicitor Richard Scorer, who was representing victims at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IISCA), said Labour had allowed Rochdale’s political leaders to act in a “dysfunctional bubble”.  And he added:  “If Rochdale is going to be able to move forward there has to be changes at the political leadership level,”.

That was when Richard Farnell, the former leader of Rochdale Councill, had just been accused of lying under oath.

According to The Guardian story, Farnell was branded “shameless” for his refusal to take personal responsibility for the abuse, which happened during his first stint as town hall leader between 1986 and 1992.

This former Labour council leader, Farnell, who was recently suspended by the Labour party amid a possible police investigation into perjury, has denied lying to the inquiry and insisted he was not informed about abuse at Knowl View during his time as leader.
  
The Guardians journalist, Josh Halliday, then reported:
'However, Farnell’s successor, the former deputy leader, Allen Brett, has also been criticised by some fellow Labour councillors for representing “no change” to the political regime. His appointment triggered the resignation of Donna Martin, the deputy leader, and two councillors from the town hall cabinet.
'Brett, a long-serving councillor who has held a number of senior positions on Rochdale council, previously backed Farnell over his evidence to the IICSA.
'Speaking after his appointment in December, he said people “should believe what has been said” by Farnell and that he hoped the inquiry would show that “what Richard said was true”.'

But at that time Brett refused to discuss the Rochdale abuse inquiry, or say whether he stood by his remarks on Farnell, when contacted by The Guardian.

In a press release at that time, Brett said he realised 'it was wrong of me to pre-empty [sic?] the inquiry'.   He said Farnell “should now personally reflect on the report” and apologised to victims who had been 'let down by people who should have been protecting you'.

But the solicitor Mr. Scorer said Brett’s pre-empting of the inquiry, as well as the fact Farnell stayed in post for two months after his much-criticised evidence, 'confirms the problem of the political culture' in Rochdale.

Solicitor Scorer then tried to describe the culture of Rochdalian politics up to that date in April 2018:
'In the very recent past the social services and education teams have tried to make improvements but I think what’s apparent from this report is that Rochdale still has a very toxic culture among its political leadership,
'Labour are now the controlling party.  They’ve allowed Rochdale to operate in its own dysfunctional bubble and that now needs to come to an end. They still have a problem at the political leadership level.'

  *********

Turning A Blind Eye

by Les May

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL recently published it’s global rankings on public sector transparency. In the past the UK has been in eighth position.  Now we have dropped out of the top ten most transparent nations.  This fall suggests that we should not be complacent in tackling misconduct in public life.

Larger issues such as the suspension from Parliament of Ulster MP Ian Paisley for failing to declare two jaunts paid for by the Sri Lankan government reach the national press and are quickly stamped upon.  These are not the major problem. It’s the complacency about the ‘drip, drip, drip’ of seemingly minor issues of misconduct which leads to increasing distrust of institutions, officials and politicians, and ultimately to a decline in standards in public life.

In recent years Rochdale has had two issues of complacency with regard to somewhat dodgy goings on at the ballot box.  In 2016 a ‘marked register’ went missing under mysterious circumstances in the Spotland and Falinge ward.   I use the word ‘mysterious’ deliberately because no police investigation followed what might have been deliberate theft after a council officer simply declared it ‘lost’.  Other towns take matters like this seriously.

The second was a Rochdale Councillor for the same ward who admitted improperly soliciting a postal vote and then using it to vote twice in the May 2018 local election. Both of these are serious offences.  Again the two offences were treated with complacency. Instead of looking at the seriousness of the crime, which he should have done, Labour leader Allen Brett turned a blind eye to this and chose to look only at the nature of the punishment received; an admission of guilt, a police caution and no jail sentence.

In October 2018 Tory leader Ashley Dearnley raised this matter in a full Council meeting.   Unanimously Labour voted against the Dearnley motion, which is interesting.  Now I know that not all Labour councillors were so complacent as Brett about this example of electoral fraud.  The fact that the Labour vote was unanimous suggests to me that Labour councillors were instructed to vote in a particular way.  That such things do happen can be gleaned from the comment of the ex Labour councillor for Balderstone & Kirkholt who said, ‘I was being told how to vote, being threatened ...’ after resigning from Labour and joining the LibDems.

Allen Brett may have been able to brush this piece of misconduct under the carpet and keep his disgraced councillor onside in August 2018, but it may yet end in tears for Labour.

Last May the ward I live in came close to a serious upset for Labour.  Very unexpectedly the young Tory candidate came close to beating the Labour incumbent.   If he decides to stand again this year and chooses to make an issue of Allen Brett’s obvious willingness to support a Councillor who admitted electoral fraud who knows what might happen? 

******** 

Falling-out leads to defection!

KATHLEEN Nickson, a Labour councillor for Balderstone & Kirkholt, on Rochdale Town Council, left the Labour Party and joined the local Liberal Democrats last week.

Party bulling was given as the reason for her departure.

She claimed:  'I simply could not go on working in an undemocratic party manner.  I was being told how to vote, being threatened and effectively blocked from being able to do my job as an elected member in the Labour Party.'

The Leader of Rochdale Labour Party, Cllr. Allen Brett, thanking Cllr. Nickson for her service, said:  'Her relationship with the [Labour?] Group executive was becoming increasingly untenable which was only ever going to end one way'.

It cannot have gone unnoticed that Cllr. Nickson lives up Newhey; an area where in an outburst only last year Cllr. Brett had threatened to withold funding from road repairs if he didn't get the election result he wanted.

*******

The Aspiring Rotten Borough of Rochdale

by Mick Coats

THE rotten borough of Rochdale has brought the antics of the councillors of Musborough up to date, or rather back to the future.  At the recent meeting of our good councillors, the matter of the transgressions of one of their number was discussed, or rather not discussed.

Observing from the gallery, we expected the leader of the opposition to express severe criticism of the recently elected councillor for voting twice in the recent election.

However, he proceeded to take the transgressing councillor to task with all the vigour and effectiveness of a caterpillar eating a wet lettuce.  Going through the motions, he gave the impression of not wanting to be at the meeting, fearful of upsetting the class bully.

He was not alone acting in a lackluster way, all the councillors seemed to have been told to say nothing.  They obsequiously complied and behaved like good little boys and girls.  The guilty person himself said nothing, not even sorry for his criminal actions.

What a sorry lot of people, who do they represent; certainly not the electorate!

*************

Cllr. Rowbotham, Big Cyril & Single Issue Politics

by Brian Bamford

ON the 5th, December Carl Faulkner, an independent analyst and investigator concerned about the decline of common decency in local political life, published a video skillfully outlining the attitude of most Rochdale councillors to the importance of democratic procedures in local politics.  The video entitled 'Birds of a feather:  Protecting the Guilty' * and commenting on the Rochdale  full council meeting of Oct. 2018, that  describes in detail how councillors of a Labour complexion gave spirited support to one of their brethren who is a self-confessed fraudster using postal ballots to vote more than once in the last municipal elections in Rochdale.

This artfully designed video superbly captures the depth to which Rochdale politics has sunk, with the now disgraced Council leader Allen Brett calling on the Council to let the culprit fraudster, councillor Faisal Rana, be 'allowed to continue his good work'.  Councillor Brett was responding to a formal motion from the Tory leader of the opposition inviting Councillor Rana to 'just reflect on the positon that he's in and the position that he's put the Borough in'.

The Rochdale Labour councillors are by now well immune to controversy and scandal having endured pantomime politics for decades under the tutelage of such tacticians as Simon Danczuk, Richard Farnell, and now Allen Brett.  Perhaps we ought to mention that at the time the tragedy of Cambridge House was in being as a going concern in the 1960s, Cyril Smith was a big noise in the Rochdale Labour Party.

The now disgraced Council leader Allen Brett is merely the ultimate conclusion of a rather bad bunch.  Alongside him Sara Rowbotham cuts a curious figure as his deputy, it was she who rose to fame when Maxine Peak portrayed her in the 'Three Girls' dramatisation on TV.  She is interesting because she has a following among a campaign group called 'Parents Against Grooming' or PAG.**

PAG supporters were out in force at the Council meeting at which Allen Brett defended the self-confessed fraud Faisal Rana.  But they were clearly less interest on electoral swindling than on the exploits of a dead man in the last century at Cambridge House etc.  Historical memory is not to be ignored, as we know that even today that Spaniards are anxious to unearth the bones of victims of General Franco in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39.  If the supporters of PAG want to explore and campaign for what they call the 'survivors' of Cyril Smith they are entitled to do so.

What is worrying is that in doing so, and pursuing a single issue, the PAG campaigners  may be overlooking what is now under their own noses:  that is that they themselves may be being used as 'useful idiots' by an ambitious politician to feather her own nest.  I can't say this for certain, but their own heroine Sara Rowbotham has gone on record of making allegations against other Rochdale councillors, yet at the meeting PAG attended Sara had no qualms about joining the 'Roll of Shame' and backing the electoral fraud, Faisal Rana.

In this respect by getting carried away with the virtue signals and grandstanding of these half-baked ambitious politicians aren't you being a bit myopic?   Before you start to 'Look Back in Anger', just consider that I was one of those folding RAP in the cellar on Spotland Road, when in May 1979 the allegations against Cyril Smith at Cambridge House were first about to be put into the public domain.  Also, this Northern Voices Blog together with John Walker former joint editor of RAP; the Westminster Blogger, Paul Waugh; and the much lamented former Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk,   created the conditions for PAG to exist after Danczuk made his speech in Parliament in 2012 (see the excerpt from the Northern Voices Blog archive in November 2012 below).***

***********

*    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFFKrkQaKqw&feature=youtu.be

** See the video link in which Sara Rowbotham denounces Councillor Allen Brett entitled

'3 BOYS , A GIRL AND A GROOMER ROCHDALE COUNCIL PART 5': 
PART 5 OF SURVIVORS MATTERS EXPLANATION AS TO WHY ROCHDALE BOROUGH COUNCIL HAVE REPEATEDLY MADE PROMISES TO THEM ONLY TO LEAD SURVIVORS ON THE ROAD TO NOWHERE , WHILST ROCHDALE COUNCIL TRYING TO PORTRAY ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND CHANGE

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9gXUO6bK0qRQxCqmjKBenQ

***   Monday, 19 November 2012

It Was The Voices That Did It!

Cyril Smith - the Legend Falls

LAST WEEK, Northern Voices was party with others to the opening up of a story that has lied in the shadows for decades.   We cannot claim all the credit as we did not do the original research into Cyril Smith:  that was performed by the editors of the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) in May 1979, when they first published the story and were threatened by Cyril Smith's solicitors at the time with a 'gagging writ'.  Private Eye and the New Statesman followed through with reports but the case against 'Smith the Man' was killed before it reached the mainstream media.  Later attempts to resurrect the story also failed because those giving evidence against Sir Cyril Smith lacked the confidence to put their names in the public domain. 

***********

ROCHDALE-GATE: CITY OF SHAME!

CLICK ON LINK BELOW TO SEE VIDEO OF FULL COUNCIL
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFFKrkQaKqw&feature=youtu.be

To see The Rochdalian more clearly left click on image

Councillor Ashley Dearnley:  ‘Mr. Mayor, I take no pleasure… in Rochdale being reported in the Rotten Boroughs section of “Private Eye”.’

Northern Voices editorial comment:

CARL Faulkner by creating this YOU TUBE video has accomplished a magnificent work of art, which penetrates to the roots of Rochdale's sad political panorama in all its sordid reality.  It may well even be a microcosm that represents a wider crisis in our culture; that a civil administration like Rochdale town council clasps a self-confessed electorial fraudster like Faisal Rana to its breast is itself an assault on common decency.

The motion proposed by the Tory leader, Ashley Dearnley in the video was a strikingly meek and humble presentation urging Faisal Rana merely to 'consider his postion', having admitted his fraud.  But if the Tories are meek, then the failure of the Liberal Democrats, to utter a dicky bird on the night of the vote was pathetic.

The situation in Rochdale has not been helped by the craven nature of the local press of late.  None of the local media is holding our representatives on the council to account.  The Rochdale Observer is a tired shell of its former self that rarely features a letter's page, and ROCHDALE ONLINE has not only abandoned its letter's section but has now shoved its whole letter's archive down the Orwellian Memory Hole forever.

Thus it has now been left to this regional Blog and Carl Faulkner, a local independent investigator and a relentless critic of the Rochdalian polluted political culture, to throw this scandal into relief.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFFKrkQaKqw&feature=youtu.be

********

Not Cricket Councillor Rashid!

ON the 18^th, December, the ambitious Rochdale Councillor Aasim Rashid welcomed the resumption of flights to Pakistan from Britain after a 10 years suspension.   In a self-congratulatory Face-book entry he said:

‘it was part of our agenda when our Rochdale Delegation visited Pakistan in Oct. that British Airways should resume flights to Pakistan and the England Cricket team playing in Pakistan. Tony Lloyd MP, Allen Brett and myself had very detailed discussion with British high commission in Pakistan...

‘I would like to congratulate Overseas Pakistanis Minister Zulfi Bukhari for his team efforts. It is a huge example if we work together there will be a positive outcome.’

Councillor Rashid is lavish with his praise for an overseas minister who has a strange history.

Syed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari alias Zulfi Bukhari, was accused in the newspaper DAWN on November 20^th, this year, of not cooperating with the investigators of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) probing a case into his alleged illegitimate assets.

Mr. Zulfi Bukhari is a close friend of the current prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan.  Earlier, in the July-25th, elections, he was in-charge of elections campaigns of PTI party chief Imran Khan for NA-53 Islamabad.  He is a dual British-Pakistani national with family in the UK.

The NAB notice mentioned that Zulfi Bukhari owns six offshore companies which were revealed in Pakistan by The News reporter Umar Cheema last year.

Bukhari had in 2016 defended having offshore companies and said that it was 'legal and common practice for companies & businessmen like myself to establish commercial entities in different jurisdictions.'

According to the ongoing NAB enquiry : “Consequent upon revelation of Panama Papers, various allegations leveled that the petitioner in connivance with others has established various offshore companies in the British Virgin Island (BVI).” 

Is this cricket?

It is to be hoped that the Rochdale MP Tony Lloyd and the noble boss of Rochdale, Councilor Allen Brett, know what they are getting into with Councillor Rashid and the curious politics of Pakistan.

*********** 

Disgraced Councillor Brett Offer's Apology

YESTERDAY at a Hearing Rochdale Council leader Allen Brett, through his solicitor, gave an unreserved apology for having threatened to gerrymander funding for highway maintenance so that a ward that didn't vote Labour in last May's local elections was disadvantaged.

The Audit & Governance Hearing found that Councillor Brett had been in breach of Paragraph 5 of the Councillor's Code of Conduct, when earlier this year he discussed acting in an unlawful way at a meeting of the Labour group which included other Labour councillors.

Even where the unlawful comments made are claimed to be made as 'banter' or as a joke, such remarks are not afforded the protection that public officials can claim them to be private remarks under 'Chatham House rules', as Councillor Brett sought to claim in his defence.

In his report to the Hearing the investigator Simon Goacher found that there was no evidence Councillor Brett would have acted on the 'threat' he made in his comment, and he had not acted in breach of paragraph 6 of the Code of Conduct, therefore in consequence '[h]e has not sought to obtain improper advantage/disadvantage for any person'.

What the Hearing did find, in keeping with Mr. Goacher's finding, is:  'he [Councillor Brett] has failed to comply with paragraph 5 of the Code as he has brought himself, his office and the Council into disrepute.'

The Hearing accepted that '[t]he comments made by Councillor Brett and widely reported will, understandably, have had a detrimental impact on the public's perception of Cllr Brett and the Council.' 

Perhaps we should leave almost the last word to Councillor Brett's solicitor, Mr. Dixon, who told the Hearing that with Cllr Brett 'What you see is what you get!'

The sanctions will require that the council leader to undertake further training relating to the code of conduct and the committee panel will publish its findings on the matter.

Following the hearing, Coun Brett in a statement given to the Manchester Evening News said: 

'I have said many times that my comments were not meant to be taken seriously and this process has finally concluded there was no way I could have influenced where our record road investment should be allocated.

'I now want to put this behind me and get on with the job of transforming our borough, which we are very much doing.

'I also want to look at ways of increasing our road repair programme even further because I know it's something many of our residents want
us to do.'

As a result of the hearing a recommendation has been made that in future all councillors undertake further training on the code of conduct.

***********

Can Councillor Brett Survive the banter

or his deputy Sara Rowbotham's scatter-gun?

A STRANGE recording was recently aired in a YouTube video.  It was filmed on behalf of a body called 'Survivors Matter'* and dealt with events which followed the last meeting of Rochdale Council.

The YouTube recording starts with a telephone exchange in which Councillor Sara Rowbotham, the deputy leader of Rochdale Council, is highly critical of two of her fellow Labour councillors.  Northern Voices has e-mailed Councillor Rowbotham asking her to confirm or deny that the recording referred to in the link below* is authentic.  Reply came there none! 

It seems clear that Councillor Rowbotham wasn't aware that she was being taped because, after criticising the two councillors, she then turned her scatter-gun on her Labour Party colleagues or as she called them, 'the nasty bastards behind me', of which one was her leader, Councillor Allen Brett, who was sitting right next to her in the Rochdale Town Hall Council Chamber.

In August, a draft report of an investigation into the council leader's conduct, involving his careless remarks or 'banter' about withholding funds for road improvements was leaked to the media.  It is reported that the draft report suggested that he ‘brought himself, his office and the council into disrepute’.

But if Councillor Brett may have brought Rochdale Council into disrepute, what now of his deputy leader Councillor Rowbotham, caught on tape blasting-off liberally against her colleagues?  May she too have had what the earlier draft report on Councillor Brett describes as had ‘a detrimental impact on the public’s perception’ of the council.

Both Rochdale's Leader Brett, and now his deputy Councillor Rowbotham seem to have behaved somewhat recklessly to say the least.

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plcpbDLm6Pg

********

Rochdale to be 'a plastic-free borough'!

The Town Hall's plastic cutlery

by Brian Bamford

Council Leader Councillor Allen Brett

ON January 25th, this year, on the back of all the publicity about plastics in the environment the Rochdale Council leader declared his intention to make Rochdale one of the first single use plastic-free (SUP-free) boroughs in the country.

Yesterday, visitors to the Christmas Fair in Rochdale Town Hall may have been surprised to find that their meals were being served with plastic knives and folks.

And this was in the week that a dead  sperm whale*  was washed ashore in eastern Indonesia had consumed a horrifying collection of plastic trash, including 115 drinking cups, 25 plastic bags, plastic bottles, two flip-flops and a bag containing more than 1,000 pieces of string.  In total, the plastic contents of the whale’s stomach weighed some 13.2 pound (six kilograms).

The rotting carcass of the 31-foot (9.5-meter) whale was last found Monday in shallow waters just off Kapota Island in the Wakatobi National Park, according to news reports.

I'm told by people who were at the Rochdale Town Hall special 'Xmas Do' that the cups available were plastic coated as well.  Thus the sperm whale in Indonesia won't have had chance to gourge itself on the this debre.

It seems that Indonesia, with a population of 263 million people and 34,000 miles (54,716 kilometers) of coastline, ranked second, behind China, on a list of the top 20 worst polluters of plastic trash to the world’s ocean, according to a 2015 study that found 192 coastal countries contribute a combined total of 8.5 million tons of plastic waste to the oceans every year.

Rochdale is not a coastal town, but it looks like the good Councillor Brett is not managing to keep to the 5-point plan to give the town the noble plastic-free status he put forward last January.

*   Sperm whales normally feed mostly on giant squid, supplemented with octopus, fish, shrimp, crab, and small sharks. They are found throughout all the world’s oceans and are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and considered depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

************