Library users give big Thumbs Down to OPEN+

Historic Ashton Central Library - Closed February 2019

NORTHERN VOICES has learned that the findings of a survey, 'Open Libraries Plus, Evolution And Review', which  closed on 5th February 2018, was not made public by Tameside Council despite the council having a policy of 'Engagement' - "the continuous conversation with and involvement of stakeholders and residents" and its 'Big Conversation'.

The survey which was undertaken over a four week period from 9 January 2018  to 5 February 2018, by Tameside Libraries into 'Open +' - their unstaffed, do-it-yourself library system - was intended to assess how the system was working and public attitudes towards it. The new library system was rolled out across eight libraries in 2018.  Although Tameside Libraries have stated:

"The purpose of collecting the information was to assist officers in understanding people's views of using Open+, it was not necessary to put this in the public realm", it is clear from reading the survey, and the comments made by those  who participated in it,  that the vast majority of people have expressed dissatisfaction with unstaffed libraries in Tameside, and are highly critical of it.  Despite what the library service say, they seem to have just buried bad news.

Some 145 people responded to the survey, but when asked how many questionnaires had been distributed, Tameside Libraries were unable to answer the question. When asked which library people used most often, Stalybridge was the most used library in Tameside, followed by Hyde, Dukinfield, Droylsden, Denton and central library in Ashton-under-Lyne. 

When asked during which hours do you normally use the library, only 19 people (13.38%), out of 142 responses, said they used the library during Open+ hours.  57 said they used it during staffed hours and 66 during both staffed and Open+ hours. 

Tameside Libraries were keen to stress that the responses to the survey did not represent the total users of Open+ only the ones that completed the survey, adding:  "66 survey responders also indicated that they used the library in both staffed and Open+ mode."

A question about how helpful the induction by library staff to Open+ was, elicited 79 responses with 66 skipping the question. 42 (53.16%) thought it very helpful and 10 (12.66%), unhelpful.  When asked why they found the induction helpful and how it could be made better, only 9 answered and 136 skipped the question.  Some of the comments left by respondents, were as follows:

"As always staff at Stalybridge brilliant."  "I feel that older generation was not informed.  They were told it was 'online and Facebook', but not many people that age access Facebook.  The older people have followed us into the library, they have been very confused.  I have spent more time explaining Open+ than doing my job teaching."  "Don't want unstaffed libraries."  "Libraries without people are merely shells."

When asked which library service people mainly used during Open+ hours, 71 answered and 74 skipped the question. 60 (84.51%), said they borrowed, returned or renewed items, paid charges and used self-service machines during Open + hours. 31 (43.66%), said they picked up or borrowed or reserved items and 14 (19.72%), said they used Open+ hours to use public computers and the scanner. Only 8 (11.27%), said they used Open+ hours to access Wifi. One respondent left the following comment:

"I cannot access Wifi. The computers have gone down on numerous occasions which has had a huge impact on my student who has (SE MS) needs."

The question "How easy have you found it to access the library during Open+ hours?" was answered by 73 and skipped by 72. 33 (45.21%) said very easy and 11 (15.07%) said it was difficult with ten (13.70%), saying very difficult. 29 (40.28%) said they had found the extended Open+ hours very useful and 13 (18.06%), not useful at all. 

When asked to say why they had found using Open+ useful, 47 answered the question and 98 skipped answering it. 21 (44.68%) said the library was quieter in Open+ hours. 34 (72.34%), thought there was more opportunity to use the library due to longer opening hours, and 20 (42.55%) thought the new times worked better around their lives. One respondent said:

"We have had numerous problems being locked out, being tailgated, being followed, being verbally abused. No internet. The only good thing about it are the staff, They are lovely and helpful." 

Another respondent said: "I do not like Open+, I much prefer to deal with human beings. When library users were asked (Question 9), "Are there any other comments you would like to make about Open+ or any suggestions for improvement, 53 answered and 92 skipped answering. Of the 53 responses the vast majority of responses (50), were negative. There are comments about personal safety: 

"We do not feel safe!",  "There has been no thought for personal safety, it's a crazy idea."  "I don't use the library much at all now.  Don't feel safe.  Thanks for excluding us from libraries now.  Not happy!" "Stalybridge library is only open till 7.00 because of gates, not good for me.  The library is ghostly when it is empty of customers. You should have at least one person here.  I feel vulnerable..." "I don't want to go into an empty building with no life.  Not to mention the safety aspect too."  "I was tailgated despite challenging person." "Takes some getting used to, to be alone in a public space in the evening.  I do not linger like I would during staffed hours..."  "I am very concerned about personal safety when using the library when it is unstaffed."   "As a female I feel uncomfortable attending the library during unmanned hours."

Although Tameside libraries have said that they don't consider female library users to be at risk during Open+ hours they have also said that they consider children under 16 to be at risk, even with live CCTV monitoring.  Therefore, they have to be accompanied by an adult during Open+ hours. Tameside libraries also say: "Men are more likely to use an unsupervised library building than females" (Report to Executive Cabinet 14/12/2016) but they don't say why they feel this is the case. However, there is recognition that some people may feel unsafe during Open+ hours. Tameside's active library users are predominately female (59.8%), and it is likely that many of the above comments about fears for safety, reflect the views of female library users.

Though several respondents expressed positive views about Open+ "The new hours work brilliant for me. I visited last week during Open+ hours and found the library empty and quiet..." others wanted to see more staff in libraries and felt that libraries should be an opportunity for human contact and interaction, "It is far better to deal with humans (librarians) rather than machines", said one respondent. Some respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the technology that was sometimes faulty. 

The survey findings which are consistent with other previous surveys, show that library users are predominately from a white background with (90.9%) identifying as such. They are also largely female - 16,193 active library users. Overall, there are 27,079 active library users. Tameside's  population is predominately white. The largest BME group  in Tameside are Asian/Asian British (8.94%). As of 30/11/2018, 3,074 female library users had registered for Open+ and 1,784 male library users. Tameside Libraries also pointed out that 79 library users had declined to indicate whether they were male or female. 

The former leader of Tameside Council, Kieran Quinn, when launching the 'Big Conversation', said: "It's not about withdrawing services, its about redesigning services." The council closed fived libraries in 2012, following a comprehensive review. Staff were cut and hours were reduced at the remaining eight libraries. There were originally 22 libraries in Tameside ( a reduction of 64%) and most of these were closed well before the CONDEM government in 2010, introduced austerity measures. Not only have hours and staff been cut, but also publications. In 1983, Ashton reference library had 130 magazine publications and this was down to about 30 in 2016. I recently visited Ashton reference library and asked to see a copy of the reference book 'Who's Who'. I was told it was in the cellar and that the library hadn't updated it since 2015. This is what Tameside Council call libraries fit for the 21st century. What we're witnessing with Open+ is the dissolution of the Libraries in Tameside by a Labour council that doesn't read books and is as thick as a book end.

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Collapse of Carillion keenly felt in Tameside

by Brian Bamford
NORTHERN VOICES has covered story of the Carillion collapse extensively, and based on reports in the Financial Times and Construction News, had been warning of the dangers for the best part of a year before the collapse happened.  

The trade union body, Tameside Trade Union Council, had been asking for explanations of Tameside Metropolitan Council's close involvement and partnership with the backlisting  company Carillion since August 2011.  Reply came there none!

For years before the crisis the Labour leader of Tameside MBC, Kieran Quinn, continually ignored all the concerns expressed from Tameside Trade's Council and Northern Voices.  Indeed shortly before his sudden death he called for more collaboration.

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THE disastrous collapse of construction giant Carillion in January hit the headlines and sent shock waves throughout the country.

Building work ground to a halt across the country.

Sites were mothballed and the future of £1bn-worth of projects was placed in jeopardy.
Nowhere in Greater Manchester has the impact of the firm's demise been more keenly felt than in Tameside .

From CCTV upgrades and making public spaces safe from terror, to improved playgrounds and a proposed children’s home, a string of vital local services could all end up becoming collateral damage in the wake of Carillion’s downfall.

All face being sacrificed to foot the scandal’s unexpected bill.

The extra millions it has already cost to get projects back on track are set to have wide-reaching ramifications for the 220,000 people who live and work in the borough.

 https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/collapse-carillion-devastated-tameside-scandal-15263055

Should Tameside Council have gone to 'Specsavers' to prevent Carillion debacle?

The 'Rashomon effect' describes a situation when the same event is given contradictory interpretations by different individuals involved. It hinges on the idea of competing realities, the point of view that everything depends on your point view. In an age of post-truth and alternative facts, it seems particularly endemic amongst the political-class, where truth has fallen out of favour. But as the American sociologist and politician, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, once remarked: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."

In Tameside, Greater Manchester, the Labour controlled council  seem quite adept at presenting alternative facts and competing realities. For example, public services don't get closed, they get 'redesigned' or 'reconfigured'. 

In 2011 the council transferred jobs and services in two departments - 'estates' and 'facilities management', to the construction giant Carillion. The council told the public that the transfer of council employees to Carillion would "safeguard jobs and services and cut costs."  Councillor David Sweeton, the executive member for business and community development at the time of the transfer, said:

"This is a landmark decision for the council and will help to ensure that in future we can meet our savings targets, protects jobs and continue to deliver high quality value for money services....It's also important to stress that any staff transferring to the partnership (Tameside Investment Partnership) will have their pay, conditions, Trade Union and pension rights fully protected."

Apart from estate and management facilities, Carillion also provided school meals in Tameside and were responsible for building the new Shared Services Centre part of the 'Vision Tameside' development at cost of over £38m. They also sponsored two primary schools in Tameside and built other schools.

The council expected that the new service centre, the council HQ,  would be open for business in September 2018. But building work stopped in January of this year when Carillion went into liquidation. When Carillion went bump on Monday 15th January 2018, Tameside Council issued a statement stating that it was "business as usual" despite Carillion's troubles and the cessation of work on the new services centre building in Ashton-under-Lyne. Two weeks later, a Labour councillor, told me:

"It's a right mess. The council are negotiating with PWC the liquidator. They have to pay a fee for negotiating with their 16 sub-contractors and every phone call they make to them." As Carillion went into voluntary liquidation, the legal position, was that all former council employees who were transferred to Carillion, lost their TUPE protection. Many of the sub-contractors were also faced with losing money or going bust.

Although Tameside Council seemed to have been taken by surprise by the demise of Carillion, all the warning signs seem to have been there long ago. Certainly, the smart money appeared to know  that there was something wrong. In April 2016, Gazelle Pension Advisory Service, advisers to the trustees of the Carillion pension scheme, highlighted that city speculators were betting that Carillion was in trouble by short-selling Carillion shares - Blackstone, the private equity firm, made £40m. In May 2017, a final report warned that Carillion's debts had reached a level that meant it could not "counter material financial shocks or disappointments" and pointed out that its pensions deficit was now equivalent to the company's entire stock market value. Carillion issued a profit warning in July 2017, which sent shares tumbling 39% and led to the resignation of CEO Richard Howson. In 2016, Howson was paid £1.5m in pay and bonuses, when the company had debts of £900m and a stock-market  value of £61m. The pension fund with 28,000 members had a £990m deficit primarily because the firm had been diverting money to dividends and debt interest rather than into its retirement schemes.

When Carillion went bust in January, a Labour councillor told me that many councillor's were unaware of the details in the contracts between Carillion and Tameside Council because it was all done by a small group of people "behind closed doors." In August 2017, Tameside Tory leader John Bell, told Tameside Reporter journalist Nigel Pivaro that there had been a complete lack of scrutiny involving Tameside Council's relationship with Carillion. He told the newspaper:

"The problem with this deal is it cannot be monitored because there is no scrutiny committee holding it to account. Therefore there is no way to ensure we are getting value for money and Carillion are delivering efficiently. Where is the accountability? We are including back bench Labour councillors here, they do not know anything (more than the opposition). Due to a lack of transparency we get to know nothing."

While Cllr Bell asserts that most councillors were kept in the dark over the deal with Carillion, it isn't strictly true that there was no scrutiny. Minutes of a meeting of the 'Strategic Planning Capital Monitoring Panel' held on 13 March 2017 state:

"On a project of this size strong and focused project management is required, facilitated in this case through the Vision Tameside steering group chaired by councillor Jim Fitzpatrick, and internal working groups...The working group chaired by the First Deputy (finance and performance) continues to meet monthly to oversee the development and delivery of the project."

As regards 'Financial Risk' - 'Affordability', 'Value for Money', 'Control Procedures', 'Costs', 'Income from subletting space', all five categories mentioned in the report were given a risk status of RED!

In his article 'Survival of Carillion crucial for Tameside' (August 2017), Nigel Pivaro looked at whether the Carillion deal was giving value for money and cutting costs. He pointed out that some of the work done on schools by Carillion was found to be 'unsatisfactory or problematic'. Russell Scott school in Denton, built by Carillion, had been beset with problems including sewage back flow and a once serviceable playing field, had been deemed unfit for purpose. Carillion were said by the governors of the school to owe the school £100,000 for energy costs incurred during the building of the new school. The provision of school meals as provided by Carillion, had come in at 26 pence per unit more than central government gave to council's to provide them, and 90 schools across Tameside, were having to meet the shortfall. Pivaro highlighted how Carillion's share price had plummeted and referred to its debts and huge pension deficit and asked:

"What then would it mean for the borough of Tameside being so entwined with the company should the worst happen and Carillion go into liquidation...The dilemma for Tameside now is should it begin to divest itself from its exclusive relationships with Carillion and ask itself is it wise going forward to have all the council's eggs in one basket with one firm on whom it depends too much."

When the council was asked if they had a contingency plan in place if Carillion went bump, they declined to respond.

So incestuous was the relationship between TMBC and Carillion that Steven Pleasant, the CEO of Tameside Council, was also a Director of 'InspiredSpaces Tameside Ltd', a company set up by Carillion and its joint venture partners to deliver educational transformation through the 'Building Schools for the Future' programme. The council also had a 10% stake in InspiredSpaces Tameside Ltd.

Following the death of the former Labour council leader and postman, Kieran Quinn in December 2017, who had close links with Carillion and spoke very highly of the company's reputation (despite being aware that Carillion had been expelled from the Labour Party conference in Brighton in 2013, for blacklisting union construction workers), he was succeeded by former tobacco worker (the fag-end of the Labour Party) Brenda Warrington. Although Quinn was hailed as a 'visionary' at the time of his death - a month before the collapse of Carillion - by his fellow Labour cronies, the council have had to cough up another £9m from its useable reserves to get the 'Vision Tameside' development completed by another contractor, Robertson Construction Group.

While the Carillion deal overseen by Quinn and his cabinet colleague Brenda Warrington, doesn't seem to have cut costs, safeguarded jobs or delivered "high quality value for money services" as promised, we are now being told by Ms Warrington that 'swift action' by the council, has prevented a 'potentially disastrous situation' and the Vision Tameside development becoming a 'white elephant', in spite of being told in January, it was "business as usual." According to the Labour leader, the whole project will now cost £62.7m as compared with the £48,673,794 overall costs of the Vision Tameside programme in February 2015. 

Although the close relationship between Tameside  Council and Carillion turned into a fiasco that put the council at risk, it appears the council had no contingency plan in place in the event of Carillion its 'preferred developer' going bust. As the journalist Nigel Pivaro pointed out in 2017, "Without any plans there are fears that the borough could be beset with chaos and increased expense at filling the gaps left by Carillion." And yet, while some could see the impending demise of Carillion and that it was  likely to go bust, as it did in January 2018, the former 'visionary' Labour council leader Kieran Quinn, was arguing as late as September 2017 in 'Construction News', for a more direct and involved relationship with contractors because "it de-risks it for them." What seems obvious to many people, is the lack of vision on Tameside Council and the necessary foresight required to see and avoid impending disasters.

Seeking Facts in a Sea of Obfuscation

by Brian Bamford

CARL FAULKNER, the Independent candidate for Spotland and Falinge ward in the coming local elections in Rochdale on May 3rd, has written a letter to the Rochdale ONLINE Blog complaining about how people have been excluded from the cabinet meetings of Rochdale Council. 

Mr Faulkner writes:  'It is my belief that the authority which permits this, is being abused to prevent press and public scrutiny of contentious matters.'

He gives a local example:  'discussions that have been taking place with a view to the leasing out of Falinge Park to a private organisation (Vintage Worx).  The incentive being that this organisation will then be able to apply for external funding grants of up to £2.5 million, to help maintain and improve the park (this is a claim made by the company itself).  There has been no public discussion of this proposal.'

 And he claims:  'Labour councillors and at least one senior council employee, are actively preventing public and press scrutiny of the plans to lease out the park.'

This suggests a reluctance on the part of the Rochdale Labour council to let the public know what is going on.

In his letter Mr. Faulkner tells us the '...process [to lease out Falinge Park to a private organisation (Vintage Worx)] commenced with the presentation of a report by Mark Widdup (Director of Neighbourhoods) at a Cabinet meeting held on 1 February 2017.'

And surprise, surprise, he tells us that 'at that meeting it was recommended that both he and Councillor Cecile Biant should be appointed to the board of Vintage Worx.'

But then there was no proper public scrutiny, because the press and public were not allowed to be present when the report was presented.  At the same time there has been no public discussion of this matter at any public forum before or since that time.

Now given what has happened with the basket-case company Carillion in Tameside, where the former Labour leader of Tameside MBC, Kieran Quinn, truly had his feet under the table with the Carillion bosses through his power base on Tameside Council and his seat a the head of the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, it may be of some concern that the Rochdale Labour Councillor Cecile Biant is ascending to the board of Vintage Worx*.  Vintage Worx is not another basket-case giant like Carillion PLC, rather it is a pygmy development trust that could be an acorn from which great oaks grow.

Vintage Worx describes itself as 'a community led not for profit organisation' registered at Companies House.  This development trust seems to survive by applying for grants for what can presented as good causes, and a place like the notoriously deprived Falinge presents itself as something of a honey pot for grant gathering


But what really worries Carl Faulkner, who I spoke to this morning, is the secrecy which surrounds these kind of operations and developments in Rochdale.  

He writes:  'Falinge Park was donated to the people of this town over a century ago.  It therefore belongs to the people of this town.  It is not a council purchased capital asset.  It is for the people of this town to have a say in how it is managed and whether or not its legal status should change.
Any procedure to change its status – particularly if finance is an overriding concern – should be open and transparent.'

 Is this a vain expectation given that Rochdale is virtually a one-party state with no serious opposition from the conservative councillors.

*  Meet Vintage Worx Community Development Trust:
Vintage Worx Community Development Trust (CDT) is a community led not for profit organisation dedicated to removing barriers to opportunities and committed to helping people maximise their talents and realise their full potential.
Based within Falinge Park, the local park of one of the most deprived areas of the country, the team of passionate volunteers who run Vintage worx have a nine year track record of successful engagement with the local community, a record that has only been possible through the sheer volume of community involvement in the projects, activities and events that are delivered.

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'Free Lunches' to School Meals in Tameside

 IN last Wednesday's Guardian, the writer, Tamasin Cave in an article titled 'Find out if your councillor is being wined and dined' wrote:  'The timeless practice of "gastronomic pimping", as Nye Bevan puts it, is a tool long used by commercial lobbyists to curry favour.'   

'These "meetings" are,' she says 'deliberately designed to create bonds, establish shared values and ultimately influence [local] council decisions.'

One must wonder if the recently deceased Councillor Kieran Quinn, who as boss of Tameside Council and chair of Greater Manchester Pension Fund [GMPF], was aware of this when he cosied-up so close to to the outsourcing company Carillion over the last decade?

Afterall, Councillor Quinn, who died suddenly last Christmas, told Construction News only last September:
'One of my pleasures of acting as GMPF chairman is using workers’ money to invest in the city they work in, and [he promised] there will be plenty more investment to come'

Today, after the collapse of Carillion, that now sounds like throwing good money after bad.

Tameside Councillor Quinn last September boasted to the Construction News' journalist Charlie Schouten, that he was actively encouraging closer associations between 'London-based businesses..... [because] they like talking to people like us; they see an opportunity here,' and forming partnerships with people like him.

This was an eloquent appeal by Councillor Quinn for greater public embroilment with big business, yet remember dear reader, it was delivered just after Carillion had issued a profit warning in July 2017.  Was Councillor Quinn trying to bailed-out the troubled company Carillion with public funds so as to cover up his own misplaced historic investment strategy?   Was he calling on the Town Council cavalry in Greater Manchester to rescue a company he realised was already on death row?

After all, he did say that 'If they [companies like Carillion] can come into partnership with us, it de-risks it for them.'

What did Tameside's Councillor Quinn mean by 'it de-risks it for them'?

In her article in last Wednesday's Guardian, Tamasin Cave, tellingly writes:
'One of the surest ways to access and influence the officials you seek to influence is to employ people who know local government inside out.  Councillors up and down the country are employed in the property lobbying business.  They are elected to represent the public interest and at the same time employed by developers seeking to influence the public sphere.'

In the case of Councillor Kieran Quinn and Tameside Council, it seems that Carillion didn't have have to do much lobbying with free lunches to gain influence.  Indeed, when it came to Councillor Quinn and his Council cronies, it seems they were not simply playing footsie under the table but were positively spreading their legs before the construction giant.

As I write this, there are I understand there have two Freedom of Information requests asking about a Tameside Council officer, who may or may not, have been made a director to Carillion. 

'What do developers want from their relationships [with Councillors]?', asks Ms. Cave.

Well in the case of the Carillion / Quinn liaison it amounted to contracts, partnerships and networking facilities.  But it could also in some cases, as Ms. Cave says, amount to help with 'straightforward planning permission; or relief from paying tax used to fund local amenities; or an agreement with the council on the amount of affordable homes the developer has, or doesn't have, to provide.  All of which can be negotiated by the councils upon which such lavish hospitality is poured.'

The one-time chairman of Westminster Council's planning committee Robert Davis was, according to Ms. Cave, 'entertained 150 times by property industry figures in three years'..

Meanwhile, it seems a firm called OCS https://www.ocs.com/uk/services/catering/hospital-and-healthcare-catering/  that was brought to deliver a school meals' contract at Tameside MBC after the departure of Carillion, has now pulled out.    

 There'll be no 'gastronomic pimping' in the school canteens in Tameside.

Councillor Quinn on the Carillion connection

 'Changing Dynamic[s]' in building trade!
NV Editor: The story below shows an interview last September between the leader of Tameside Council / chairman of Greater Manchester Pension Fund, and the Construction News journalist Charlie Schouten, in which Councillor Quinn argued for closer association between 'London-based businesses.....they like talking to people like us; they see an opportunity here,' and people like him.  And then tellingly he adds:  
'If they [companies like Carillion] can come into partnership with us, it de-risks it for them.'

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LAST September Kieran Quinn, who died on Xmas Day, gave an interview to Construction News in which he related his ideas on the strategies of the Greater Manchester Pension Fund [GMPF] to the journalist Charles Schouten over lunch in the 19th century Midland Hotel. 

A former postal worker Mr Quinn, who holds down the job as GMPF chair with other tasks including the executive leader of Tameside Council and a place on the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, the scheme sums up his ambitions to make the fund a much more active player in not just in the local economy, but nationally, too.

Part of that, he said, is the shift in relationships between funders and contractors.

'We’ve started to have much more of a conversation with contractors because we want to take more direct holdings in projects,' he says.

'It also means that the relationship between contractor and funder becomes much more powerful.'

The GMPF fund, chaired last September by Quinn represents all 10 local authorities in the Greater Manchester area, has assets of over £21bn and includes more than 500 employers and over 350,000 members.   It was one of the key funders behind One St Peter’s Square after investing £10m in the scheme, which was completed by Carillion in 2014.  The scheme is typical of the office developments that have made Manchester so successful, not to mention so attractive to investors – although Mr Quinn declined to reveal what the fund’s return on the development is.

CONSTRUCTION NEWS: 
25 September, 2017 By Charlie Schouten

As Construction News sits down to talk to Mr Quinn in Manchester’s grand 19^th century Midland Hotel, the venue seems slightly out-of-kilter with our discussion, particularly as the GMPF has helped to fund some of the projects in the last decade that have made the city one of the UK’s fastest growing.

The fund, which represents all 10 local authorities in the region, has assets of over £21bn and includes more than 500 employers and over 350,000 members

The Farmer Review – Modernise or Die – published roughly a year ago, argued for radical changes in the construction industry.

Among the most controversial of these – and one that has since been rejected by the government – was the introduction of a client charge to help fund areas like innovation and skills.

The idea that clients should help take the lead on areas such as training, innovation and skills alongside main contractors is hardly a new one, but the calls for closer collaboration are continuing; perhaps a reflection of the relatively slow progress being made.

But what if collaboration and best practise could start at an even earlier stage?

That’s precisely the argument that Kieran Quinn, chair of the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, is trying to make.

Funders and financers typically take a back seat in projects; particularly when it comes to conversations with main contractors.

But as Mr Quinn argues – should that now be ripe for a change?

Changing the dynamic

As the journalist Charles Schouten of Construction News sat down, last September, to talk to Mr Quinn in Manchester’s grand 19^th century Midland Hotel, he writes that the venue seems slightly out-of-kilter with our discussion, particularly as the GMPF has helped to fund some of the projects in the last decade that have made the city one of the UK’s fastest growing.

The fund, which represents all 10 local authorities in the region, has assets of over £21bn and includes more than 500 employers and over 350,000 members.

It was one of the key funders behind One St Peter’s Square (pictured, below) after investing £10m in the scheme, which was completed by Carillion in 2014. The scheme is typical of the office developments that have made Manchester so successful, not to mention so attractive to investors – although Mr Quinn declines to reveal what the fund’s return on the development is.

But for former postal worker Mr Quinn, who juggles his role as GMPF chair with others including the executive leader of Tameside Council and a place on the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, the scheme sums up his ambitions to make the fund a much more active player in not just the local economy, but nationally, too.

Part of that, he says, is changing the relationship between funders and contractors.

'We’ve started to have much more of a conversation with contractors because we want to take more direct holdings in projects,' he says.

“It also means that the relationship between contractor and funder becomes much more powerful.”

He uses the Airport City scheme – in which GMPF holds a 10 per cent stake alongside Manchester Airports Group and construction partners Carillion and Chinese firm BCEGI – as an example of the more traditional one-step-removed relationship between funders/contractors.

In that instance, he says, the fund has had “few direct conversations” with either Carillion or BCEGI due to its small holding in the project.

But that is now changing, and the new view is one of Mr Quinn’s fundamental aims for the pension fund.

'Our expectation now is to have a much more direct relationship with the contractor, or whoever is managing, overseeing and delivering the project,' he says.

'That’s not normally how pension funds would take things forward, but we’re now starting to change that; for example on two of our schemes, we have someone on the board, so we’re starting to change the dynamic.'

Fair contracts, fair payment

He adds that part of that approach is getting involved at a much earlier stage – so not just by having an influence over project funding, but also its tender documents.

“Pension funds like to have a stake when a project is completed, but they prefer not to have a stake when something is still in the ground. Again, we want to change that,” he says.

It’s not much of a surprise that social value and fair payment are two of Mr Quinn’s areas of interest here – after all, he has been active in the Communications Workers’ Union for more than 30 years. But he wants to make it a core part of the pension fund’s activities on future projects.

'A lot of councils have been focusing on social value for a while; as a pension fund we make significant investments, so why do we not say, as part of that relationship with contractors, that we expect the same sort of social value?' he says.

The fund is already putting this into practise, starting with One St Peter’s.

“As part of our discussions around One St Peter’s Square, we put social value [in the tender]; the number of apprentices, the number of local businesses, the geographic links to the centre,” he explains.

'All the things that you think would be commonplace in a council tender are now becoming commonplace in the pensions world, and we’re at the forefront of that.'

When CN points out that it’s not always easy to keep a lid on main contractors’ and subcontractors’ payment terms, he agrees that there is 'no magic wand', but argues that fair payment has to start at the top.

'It starts with strong auditing of our contracts,' he says.

'We shouldn’t hide away because ‘that’s just how [main contractors] work’; a lot of these financial mechanisms are a way to abuse the system.'

Part of this approach has now led to the fund exploring 28-day payment terms for all its projects, although Mr Quinn again admits that it may prove difficult to enforce – making the issue of contract auditing “all the more fundamental'.

'We know that we’ll sign [28-day payment] as part of our contract, but [main contractors] will subcontract out parts of the project and that’s where [those payment terms] start to get filtered out.

'Conversations on fair payment are absolutely relevant and we’re prepared to have them; it’s also exactly the right thing for the pension fund to get involved with.'

Again, he admits it may be 'beyond the reach and authority of a pension fund' to stop poor payment practices – that, he argues, should start at the very top with central government – but ensuring it is stamped out from any GMPF contract is his first step.

So what about the GMPF’s future pipeline?

On this, Mr Quinn gets straight to the point:  'There’s no conversation we’re not prepared to have'.

The fund has already restarted its stalled office scheme in the centre of Manchester, which it is aiming to get underway in 2019.

The GMPF is now looking to form a joint venture with a developer to bring forward the 55,025 sq ft Island Site development on John Dalton Street in Manchester city centre, after having purchased the three buildings on the site – Ridgefield, Old Colony House and Grange House – for an undisclosed sum in 2011.

He says that this scheme will be on a similar scale to One St Peter’s Square once complete, giving the city a major new landmark office development in the process.

On top of that, the Fund is 'actively seeking' more similar projects to invest in, particularly in Manchester, with more and more firms casting their eyes north for office space and investment.

'I’m having a lot of conversations with plenty of London-based businesses that want to come to Greater Manchester because they like talking to people like us; they see an opportunity here,' says Mr Quinn.

'If they can come into partnership with us, it de-risks it for them.'

And Mr Quinn doesn’t want to just limit the fund’s activities to the commercial world; its ambitions stretch into both infrastructure and housing.

For infrastructure investments, Mr Quinn again wants the fund to take a more active role, particularly with a £500m war chest to play with.

It has partnered with other institutions, including the London Pension Fund Authority (LPFA), to back a number of schemes. These include rail schemes in Norfolk, and large-scale wind farm project in Strathclyde where it is a 45 per cent equity holder, in a joint venture with the LPFA.

Alongside the LPFA, the GMPF has taken a £150m stake in SSE’s Clyde windfarm, which is one of the largest onshore ones in Europe.

Mr Quinn says that this high-profile investment is exactly what the GMPF should be aiming for.

'The UK pension world doesn’t need to play second fiddle to Canadian funds; we should have the ambition and drive ourselves to have direct conversations on investment,' he argues.

While he says infrastructure can be a 'marmite' subject for funds –  'either you love it and want it as an active part of your portfolio; or you hate it and don’t want anything to do with it, because it’s too complex, too costly, and the returns are unclear' – it forms a core part of GMPF’s ambitions.

That could even stretch to one of the largest infrastructure projects in the country: the TransPennine Tunnel.

Investing in infrastructure

Sealing the business case and getting the tunnel under way is one of Mr Quinn’s key ambitions, particularly with one of the proposed routes for the £6bn tunnel passing through his home territory of Tameside.

'You’re looking at linking six to eight million people together, so if anything, the argument for the tunnel has been under-played,' he says.

'If we’re really talking about releasing the potential of the North, and creating a link between Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, and beyond, then the tunnel has to play a part.

'Every economic assessment I’ve seen – admittedly drafts and guesstimates – have said that the economic benefits that will be released from that connectivity are huge, so we’ll continue to press its case.'

It’s here that Mr Quinn outlines the scale of GMPF’s ambition: 'if the circumstances were right, we could be an equity holder in the tunnel', he says.

'Even if we commit £500m, that’s under 1 per cent of our holdings – it’s not as if we’re raiding the piggy bank to get those funds.

'We’re keeping it well within the normal risk parameters of a pension fund, but it gives us a brand new opportunity to do things much more large scale, and much more direct.'

And while he admits investing in the tunnel in the near future might be unlikely, it shows that shifts in the way pension funds work is one of the changes that contractors will need to be aware – and take advantage of – when opportunities arise.

For Mr Quinn, it’s about not only helping Greater Manchester grow, but grow in the right way.

'One of my pleasures of acting as GMPF chairman is using workers’ money to invest in the city they work in,' he says, 'and there will be plenty more investment to come'

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On Bro. Pritchard's Penchant for Mr. Carillion

Editor:  

The post below was sent to Northern Voices by 
Mr. Pearson, a member of  Unite Greater Manchester 
Community branch.
We understand that this branch has been under investigation
by the North West Region of Unite owing to a series of 
complants by members.  Until the regional authorities of
Unite have determined what problems exist in this branch,
if any, the editors of NV have no views on this matter, except 
to say that we support the freedom to publish.
******
 by John Pearson

I THINK it is deplorable that Bro. Pritchard, the Chair of the Unite Greater Manchester Community branch should post such abusive material on the public internet.

He might have disliked the reference to the late Councillor Quinn in your article on the deep embedment that Carillion had in Tameside Council and the consequent repercussions in that borough of the firm's collapse.  A reasonable commentator would have complained at what you published but to call the publishers "lowlifes" is ad hominem excess at its extreme.

Not only is Bro. Pritchard's action deplorable but it is highly hypocritical since he and his supporters in the Unite Greater Manchester Community Branch officer's group have insisted upon, not only banning Bro. Chris McBride, for over a year now, from the branch's official Facebook group but they have also - unconstitutionally (per the decision of the Unite North West Regional Deputy Secretary, dated 18 January 2016) - removed Bro. McBride from his elected position as the branch's press and media Officer (Communications Liaison Officer) role.  Their primary charge against Bro. McBride was that he allegedly made ad hominem attacks on branch officers on social media.

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Mr Evan Pritchard's Yellow Brick Road Approach

Britain's Yellow Brick Road to Socialism

FOR a more detailed look at the CPB {Communist Party of Britain), it's history, theory and policies, please take a look at the official party programme, "Britain's (Yellow) Brick Road to Socialism".  Evan Pritchard the loyal party member that he is, has written the curiously brave comment below on the post entitled  'Tameside, the costs add up as receivers move in' about the local scandal involving Carillion 'aggresive accounting', and Tameside MBC, dated Sunday, 28 January 2018.

 

Evan [Pritchard} said...

Your reference to Kieran Quinn shows what a bunch of lowlifes you really are.
Beneath contempt.

Tuesday, 30 January 2018 at 14:51:00 GMT 

EVAN Pritchard is a brave and honourable man, as Mark Antony said of Brutus in Shakespeare's play.  Evan is not only the President of the Manchester Unite Community Branch, but he distributes the Communist Party newspaper the Morning Star.  Both noble tasks require the mobilisation of all his consummate skills and abilities.

Both tasks are a thankless jobs!

We should all admire those who seek to promote unpopular causes, even where we disagree with the sentiments as in this case.  Nay, we ought to especially admire Evan Pritchard, when he is bold enough to protest about the 'lowlifes' on Northern Voices and by extension at Tameside TUC, when they have the audacity to challenge Kieran Quinn, the recently dead leader of Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council; who also happened to be the Chair of the Greater Manchester Pension Fund and a position of  Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Like Brutus in Shakespeare's play, the local Labour Party's noble Kieran Quinn, has been praised by all and sundry. special  praise came from the Tameside Chief Executive, Steven Pleasant, who said that 'The book of condolences [for Kieran] includes the signatures of a former Prime Minister, an Olympic gold medallist and members of the local pigeon-fancying club.'

High praise indeed truly he was one of the Great and the Good!

Yet, the man from the Morning Star, Evan Pritchard, has heroically gone and belittled those of us who are critically challenging the odd partnership of Tamside MBC and Kieran Quinn, who had been tenaciously promoting Carillion with its 'aggressive accounting' techniques and even turned a blind eye to the blacklisting of local electricians like Steve Acheson, who lives in Denton.

Mr. Pritchard's comment makes an eloquent defence of the dead Tameside Councillor Quinn's right to be left alone, despite his very cosy relationship with the blacklising company Carillion.   Would Evan have been as keen to support Ian Kerr who dropped dead in similar circumstances, yet before he left this world he admitted to keeping an illegal data base with over 3,000 names on it?  What about Joe Stalin?  I've just seen the black comedy film 'The Death of Stalin', who died of a sudden stroke, would it have been wrong of us to criticise his crimes out of some kind of sensitive to his daughter's feeling?

None of this is intended to compare Evan Pitchard to Stalin.  Evan Pritchard does have Stalin's strong stomach or sense of humour.   No what is implied by Evan Pitchard's comment is that he is prepared to overlook or keep quiet about Kieran Quinn's partnership with Carillion, and that objectively suggests he approves of the PFI deals done, the partnerships created by Tameside Council, and by extension employment practises like the blacklist which the company was engaged in.  In the current climate that is a brave position for someone in the trade union movement to embrace.

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THE WORSHIP OF DIVIDENDS

Dividends:  Holcroft Castings to Carillion & Capita  

 George Orwell said, I believe it was in 'The Lion & the Unicorn',
that 'England is a family with the wrong people at the top'.  
 The kind of people he had in mind were those who
spent their lives 'living off their dividends'.

IN the early 1980s, I was an electrical shop steward at Holcroft Castings & Forgings in Rochdale, which was in turn part of the Reynold Chain PLC group, and armed with a report from the Labour Research Department, I went to a meeting of shop stewards with middle management, and I questioned the high dividends being paid to shareholders by the company.  After an outburst from one manager called Eric Huff, the chair of the middle managers a bloke called Tommy Swan said that as he didn't understand 'dividends' he wasn't prepared to discuss them in the context of our pay claim.

Today, it is the reduction of shareholder dividends to a fetish that is being blamed for the collapse of Carillion, and the danger to business generally is now being blamed on the culture of the glorification of dividends.  

Last Saturday, in the FT, Miles Johnson wrote an article entitled 'Carillion collapse offers warning to dividend fetishists', arguing:

'Like many companies listed in the UK, Carillion held up its dividend payments as evidence of success and corporate virility.  In its 2016 annual report, the group finance director Zafar Khan boasted how "the board has increased the dividend in each of the 16 years since the formation of the company in 1999".'

No doubt it was this kind of smoke and mirrors that deluded the leader of Tameside Council and chair of the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, Kieran Quinn, into thinking that Carillion had the Midas touch and could do no wrong.  Certainly his bedazzlement with dividends can only explain his overwhelming passion for Carillion, which led him last August to urge other councils in Greater Manchester to engage more closely with the now derelict company?

Capita cuts Carillion risk by suspending dividends

This morning  in the FT the journalist Matthew Vincent writes:  'Capita copies Serco to avoid becoming Carillion'.

This morning the FT journalist Matthew Vincent asks:  ' 'What’s the most frustrating job in corporate Britain today?'

Then he answers his own question:  'Apart from middle manager at Carillion asking why on earth did the directors keep bidding for contracts?  And keep overlooking the pension deficit?  And keep reassuring the so-called auditors?  Arguably, it’s middle manager at any other UK outsourcer, trying to address similar questions.' 


Today his FT report continues:  'Capita [which today has] issued a profit warning for 2018 and new chief executive Jonathan Lewis - who only started in December - admitted that the outsourcing group had become “too complex” and “driven by a short-term focus” while “lacking operational discipline and financial flexibility”.  Mr Lewis has therefore suspended the dividend - a source of anger over misplaced priorities at Carillion - and instigated an overhaul of Capita’s finances.  This will involve sales of non-core assets and a emergency rights issue to raise as much as £700m from investors later this year. That is even bigger than the £500m fundraising needed at rival Serco a few years ago.  Dividends will not resume until the company is “generating sustainable free cash flow”,'

We all should clue-up on the dangers of overgenerous dividend payments and what is called 'short-termism' in the boardroom.  We shouldn't be like the middle manager Tommy Swan, who I knew as a shop steward while negotiating wages etc. at Holcroft Castings in the 1980s, and who seemed positively proud to not have grasped what shareholder dividends were.
 https://www.ft.com/content/f9a21332-065b-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5

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Mother Know's Best in Tameside's Labour Party

WHO will be the lucky Labour candidate to stand for Kieran Quinn's safe seat in Droylsden East, Tameside, if a by-election is held before the May local elections?

A spokesman at Tameside MBC told Northern Voices this morning that if a by-election is called, it should take place in either February or March

A Tameside source close to council politics has told us that the Labour candidate in the by-election is most likely to be Councillor Oliver Ryan's mother.  

 

It seems that Oliver's grandad is active in the ward's branch politics owing to his trade union background, and it seems she will be a shoe-in.  They seem to like to keep things in the family round here:  one of the current councillors in this ward is Susan Quinn (Lab Co-op) wife of Councillor Kieran Quinn.

Almost one third of the Tameside Council are married couples, couples, or a related to one another.  It is significantly suggested that Leigh Drennan's mother is also being lined up as a candidate for the safe seat of  Ashton Hurst., that's another mother and son duo.

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TAMESIDE TWEETS OR TWITS?

LAST week Tameside Councillors were daggers drawn in the wake of the Carillion affair.  The Tory Doreen Dickenson wrote on Twitter:

Doreen Dickinson‏ @DorDic1 Jan 17

'Nobody is friendlier with Carillion than Tameside MBC Labour controlled for 39 yrs.'

To which Councillor Ryan for the Labour administration made a remarkable retorted:  
'Tameside Council has had NO direct contracts with Carillion'

Weasel Words

Those of us who have read the responses of the Consulting Association administrator Ian Kerr, will remember his reply to a question at the Scottish Affairs Select Committee about his links to the Security Services.  Mr Kerr, who had previously pleaded guilty at Knutsford Crown Court to managing an illegal data base or blacklist, said; 'We had no direct contacts' (or words to that effect).  When he was then asked 'did you have any indirect contacts with the Security Services', the Chairman intervened and that query was never answered.  Mr Kerr's methods of blacklisting building workers were described in a recent book by Professor Rhidri Jeffreys-Jones* as 'effective but primitive'.

The methods of the former boss of Tameside MBC, Kieran Quinn and the Labour Council can be clearly seen as more sophisticated, and because he was a Labour coucillor and a trade unionist he could get away with murder forming cosy relationships with companies like Carillion.

The current protestations of the Tameside Labour councillors he has left behind following his well timed exit on Christmas Day, leaves them sounding like the chorus in a Comic Opera

******

 *  'WE KNOW ALL ABOUT YOU - The Story of Surveillance in Britain and America', published by Oxford University Press

Carillion collapses! Tameside Council says it's "business as usual."

It's Business As Usual But Where Are The Workers?

If Tameside Labour controlled council are to believed, the one thing that is not in short supply in this crumbling industrial wasteland, is VISION! But given this vision, they were totally unprepared for the predicted collapse of their partner 'Carillion', the construction giant that became insolvent on Monday.

Despite the collapse of Carillion, which runs a number of services for Tameside Council, such as school meals, project design and construction, events and facilities management, the council say that it is "business as usual" and that Carillion is continuing to "operate as normal", after going into liquidation earlier this week. 

Following the collapse of the "too big to fail" construction company, Tameside Council sent out emails to employees of Carillion working on council contracts advising them that they should continue to report for work and would be paid at the end of the month. Who is going to pick up the bill for this, isn't clear, because the Government have said they wouldn't be bailing out Carillion. Nor is it clear, what the situation will be for Carillion workers after the end of the month. However, the Prime Minister, Theresa May, has said that the government will continue to pay the wages of the Carillion employees providing public services.

In 2011, Tameside Council employees working for facilities management, were transferred to Carillion under a TUPE arrangement whether they liked it or not. At the time, they were told by Cllr Dave Sweeton, that this new "Service Delivery Model" would secure jobs and services and cut costs. Yet, only this week, Cllr John Bell, the Conservative leader of the opposition told a local newspaper that there had never been any proper oversight or scrutiny to hold the council to account and that there was no way of ensuring the public were getting value for money. Cllr Bell said: 

"The whole thing has been managed unprofessionally - they are like a bunch of Arthur Daley's if you ask me, they really are."

As previously reported, contractors who reported to work on Monday, were told by security staff that they were being denied access to the new council office complex still under construction on Wellington Road, Ashton-under-Lyne. However, a council spokesman told the local press that "work would continue on site." When NV visited the site today (Thursday), workers were conspicuous by their absence. A lone security guard, refused to answer questions and scarpered off like a sewer rat up a drain pipe.

Cllr John Bell feels that Tameside Council in their relationship with Carillion, put far too many eggs in one basket and that the chickens have now come home to roost. He said:
"Tameside's relationship with Carillion is greater than with any other authority in Greater Manchester."

One suspects that few people will be duped by Tameside Council's reassurances of "business as usual" and that worse is yet to come as this fiasco unravels.

Carillion Crash follows death of Councillor Quinn

'He hath put down the mighty from [their] seats, and exalted them of low degree' 
(Luke 1:52: King James Bible)

by Brian Bamford  

Www.northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/2012/06/tameside-council-leader-kieran-quinn.html

To see readable press cuttings left click on image

GOD KNOWS BEST!  What need be there for anarchist assassins when the Gods are so clearly on the side of the righteous?  When the market so mercilessly murders those who most worship it.

Many blacklisted electricians and other building workers must be feeling chuffed today, as the news breaks of the expected collapse of leading construction company Carillion PLC.  They will feel that there is some justice in the world,

In May 2016, Carillion was one of a range of building firms which issued an apology in the high court in London, admitting that since the late 1960s they had been 'involved in secretly collecting, storing and distributing among themselves information about workers who had, or who were applying for, work in the construction industry'.

At the time this cohort of blacklisters said:   'The simple purpose of this operation was to create a database of information to vet particular workers in the construction industry.'  The firms accepted that 'their secret vetting operation should never have happened.   It caused harm to the employment opportunities of many workers.  The secret nature of the operation meant that those on the database had no way of establishing whether they were included in it, or any chance to challenge the information that was kept and available for dissemination.'

The firms – Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Kier, Laing O’Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and Vinci – told the court that they hoped their apology meant that 'this matter can be treated as a closed chapter'.

The Road to the Blacklist

Carillion was created in 1999 by the famous road surfacing business Tarmac in a demerger.  Today, it employs 19,500 people in the UK alone, and is based in Wolverhampton.

Carillion's major projects have included 'the doughnut' - the iconic circular office building of the UK's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) - completed in 2003.   Alongside new facilities for the Royal Opera House, Carillion completed the Tate Modern in London in 2000.
Its other projects have included the Grand Mosque in Oman, completed in 2001, as well as an expansion to Liverpool FC's Anfield stadium in 2016.

The company’s extensive expansion into acquiring outsourced public sector contracts means that as well as construction staff, the workforce also includes hospital cleaners, prison maintenance workers, port staff and workers in the energy and utilities sector.

Only today Unite's assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail, will have had these workers in mind when she said:
'The Carillion crisis has become a major story but it must not be allowed to go over the heads of its loyal workforce, who are effectively being held hostage by the whims of the market.

'Carillion can’t keep its workforce in the dark any longer it needs to clearly tell them and their union representatives, how they are trying to overcome the current problems, with an honest assessment of what the future holds.'

  Consequences of Carillion Crisis: 'muddle through'

Manchester electricians campaign against blacklist in Tameside

Kieran Quinn became Mr. Carillion in Manchester

Meanwhile, last September one of Carillion's greatest promoters in the North West, was Tameside's Council leader Kieran Quinn* and chair of Greater Manchester Pension Fund, told Construction News journalist Charlie Schouten:

'We underwent a vigorous and lengthy process to ensure that the right contractor (Carillion) was selected for the construction of One St Peter’s Square.
'Experience, reputation and ability to deliver were of paramount importance as we are committed to ensuring that this is a very high quality scheme and that it is completed within the projected time frame.'

The Greater Manchester Pension Fund, formally administered by Tameside Borough Council, represents all 10 local authorities in Greater Manchester, has assets of over £21bn and includes more than 500 employers and over 350,000 members

Quinn has been in-bed with the Carillion blacklisters, both in terms of Tameside Labour Council's long local partnership with what some financial pundits are now calling a 'structurally unstable' company, but also regionally in Greater Manchester, as chair of Greater Manchester Pension Fund [GMPF], in which as recent as last September, he was calling for closer relations with the company.  We don't know how heavily invested the GMPF is in Carillion, especially because sources close to Tameside Council have told Northern Voices that Tameside Council's deals with Carillion were conducted 'behind closed doors' by a tiny clique of councillors and officers.  As I write this other sources are saying that their is talk of engaging another contractor to replace Carillion in Tameside or of bringing estate management services back in-house.
 
Given what's happening now, it looks like Councillor Quinn picked a convenient time to leave this mortal coil.  At least he escaped the current wrekage of Carillion.

Tameside Trades Union Council anxious about Carillion deal

The scheme 'One St Peter’s Square' Quinn promoted was typical of the office developments that have made Manchester so successful, not to mention so attractive to investors – although Mr Quinn declines to reveal to  Charlie Schouten what the fund’s return on the development was.

'Pension funds like to have a stake when a project is completed, but they prefer not to have a stake when something is still in the ground.  Again, we want to change that,' he says.

For Mr Quinn, according to an interview he did with Construction News last September, it’s about not only helping Greater Manchester to grow, but grow in the right way.

'One of my pleasures of acting as GMPF chairman is using workers’ money to invest in the city they work in,' he says, 'and there will be plenty more investment to come'

Yet what Kieran Quinn ought to have known was the contents of the Farmer Review which was published in October 2016 by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC);  Mark Farmer in this review of the UK Construction Labour Model stated:   'This review adopts a structure of evaluating he construction industry’s current and future state which has a strong medical process analogy'.

Mr. Farmer illustrated the ongoing problems and dangers in the British building trade: 

'The evidence reviewed indicates that the construction industry and its labour model is at a critical crossroads in terms of its long-term health.  Whilst the diagnosis points to a deep-seated market failure, there are certain industry trends and wider societal changes happening now that represent both unprecedented risk and opportunity for the industry and its clients.  If the opportunities are not harnessed, the risks may become overwhelming.  The prognosis for the industry, if action is not taken quickly, is that it will become seriously debilitated.  It is facing challenges that have not been seen before, which create an absolute imperative for change.  Previous calls to arms have not been acted on by the industry or its clients at any real scale and somehow the industry has continued to "muddle through".' **

The snag with Carillion is that its plans were based on continuing growth and its strategy fuel by debt to the banks, But what must not now happen is that the tax payers bail out the banks and the investors.  The Liberal Democrat leader. Vince Cable, has said that we can't have a situation in which the profits are privatised, while losses are nationalised.

*    Kieran Quinn died on Xmas Day.

**   https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Farmer_Review_2016:_Modernise_or_die

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Death of a 'people's champion'

Kieran Quinn - Executive Leader of Tameside Council

Tameside Council leader dies suddenly aged 57

EULOGIES have been pouring in following the sudden and tragic death last month, of Kieran Quinn, the Executive Leader of Tameside Council, at the age of 57.  Following a fall precipitated by a heart attack on Saturday, 23 December 2017, councillor Quinn died on Christmas Day in Tameside Hospital.

In glowing tributes from mainly fellow Labour cronies, the former postman and Roman Catholic, from Droylsden, was hailed as the 'ultimate politician', 'unique', 'a great man', 'a visionary', 'a people's champion', and a 'good socialist and proud trade unionist'.   In the first election for the leader of the Labour Party, council Quinn, supported Yvette Cooper MP.

'Proudly pro-business', councillor Quinn, had been the Executive Leader of the council since 2010 having succeeded former Labour leader, Roy Oldham, an Ashton-under-Lyne Freemason, from Longdendale. He had also been a councillor for Droylsden East since 1994. As well as being the Executive Leader of the council, he was also the Chairman of the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) and a chief advocate of devolution for Greater Manchester.  He also championed the extension of the Metrolink to Ashton but later on felt that the tram was 'chronically' underused.  He once advised potential tram users travelling from Ashton to Oldham, to take a packed lunch with them because the journey took so long and they would have to make a day of it.  As the former head of housing for Tameside Council, he also played a key role in the privatization of all council housing and the large-scale transfer of housing to New Charter Housing Trust.  He subsequently took up a paid position on the Board of that company.

Although a former trade union official of the  Communication Workers Union (CWU), and a so-called 'proud trade unionist', councillor Quinn came under fire for his close links with the construction giant, Carillion who are a partner of Tameside Council.  In May 2016, Carillion were one of a group of major construction companies (the Macfarlanes Defendants) who admitted and apologised in the High Court in London, to blacklisting union construction workers.  A multi-million pound compensation settlement was shared between 771 workers when the companies including Carillion, admitted to breach of confidence, misuse of private information, defamation, conspiracy, and breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.

In 2011, local trades unionists from Tameside Trades Union Council, wrote on two occasions to councillor Quinn about Carillion and blacklisting and held protests in the area. Despite press coverage, neither Quinn or Tameside Council, ever answered questions or responded to the concerns of the trade unionists.  Two years later, in January 2013, councillor Quinn, as chairman of the GMPF, approved the appointment of Carillion to build the One St Peter's Square project and told the press:

'Experience, reputation, and the ability to deliver were of paramount importance as we are committed to ensuring that this is a very high quality scheme and that it is completed in the projected time frame.'

Only a fortnight before his death, the people's champion, in a letter to a Dukinfield resident, Steve Fisher, told him that while he was sorry to hear about the extreme financial hardship that he was suffering caused by his Council Tax Support Scheme (CTSS) - which presumed that he received an income he did not receive, and awarded him no council tax support - this was all the fault of the Government's who'd decided to reduce expenditure for the CTSS.  Mr. Fisher - who is self-employed - denies this is the case and that his financial difficulties are entirely caused by a political decision by Tameside Council, to incorporate Universal Credit legislation into their CTSS which was entirely voluntary and unnecessary.  Perversely, when Mr Fisher applies for Housing Benefit from the same council, he receives a full award on the basis that he receives a low income.  Bailiffs acting for Tameside Council, are now threatening to seize Mr Fisher's possessions, in lieu of council tax arrears.

Unlike Steve Fisher, councillor Quinn and his wife Sue, who is also a Tameside Councillor, were unaccustomed to financial hardship as they were raking it in from their numerous political appointments as Tameside Labour councillors.  With his sudden and unexpected demise, the family are likely to see a significant reduction in the family household income. 

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