Thurrock Council - and "high rollers"

Our council spent 30 grand on a plastic christmas tree and refused the local sparkies help to put up lights in the town centre for Christmas so we had none.

The hilarious thing is the real tree has always been provided for free and the local tradesmen have put up the lights for free for decades at least.

It just screams of someone profiteering.

This year now we have independents on the council it is going back to how it was with a Christmas lights switch on with the plastic tree being "relocated".

I know it is small fry compared to Thurrock but it happens at all levels.
 
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Liam Kavanagh is scum but he is what he is, the biggest failing is Sean Clark, absolutely zero diligence and ignored concerns when they were rightly raised. How this man has managed to remain being paid whilst suspended, taking more of the tax payers money is horrific. He needs to be held accountable for his gross misconduct.

Oh an I'm one of the Thurrock tax payers affected. When I first moved to this area the local services used to be fantastic, they slowly got worse and worse and this fiasco has completely ruined them.

Someone raised a petition here calling for an independent review - https://www.change.org/p/public-enq...cils-proposed-financial-losses-of-1-5-billion
 
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Local councils often have more ability to make life expensive and difficult for people than central government.
And yet most people deem them unimportant and pay little attention.

Felixstowe in Suffolk was (is) a reasonable size town, not the most attractive, especially in winter, but a decent size and with some fairly well paid jobs (port).
And yet they had no chain opticians for many years.
Why? One of the council members was himself an optician and basically managed to block any and every attempt for any of the optician chains to move into town.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Local councils often have more ability to make life expensive and difficult for people than central government.
And yet most people deem them unimportant and pay little attention.

Felixstowe in Suffolk was (is) a reasonable size town, not the most attractive, especially in winter, but a decent size and with some fairly well paid jobs (port).
And yet they had no chain opticians for many years.
Why? One of the council members was himself an optician and basically managed to block any and every attempt for any of the optician chains to move into town.
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I've watched a few council meetings (clearly nothing on Netflix!) and they declare any link, no matter how tenuous if someone could suspect it will cause a conflict of interest at the start of a meeting. The local media should be watching them and slaughtering them in the next mornings paper. I have also found my councillor is a right **** to literally everyone. I'm sure he stood for the job in order to have a power trip over other people.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Local councils often have more ability to make life expensive and difficult for people than central government.
And yet most people deem them unimportant and pay little attention.
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This is what happens when no one has the time or understanding of how politics in this country works. You assume that the people put in charge of these things will do their jobs properly in some capacity. The entire country works on a basic system of trust. You don't check your pilot has his license and training before getting onto a train. You don't check the building inspection before entering a building.

People barely have enough time to look after themselves let alone understand and get deeply involved in local politics. To enact change you would have to dedicate yourself to it when you do find out they are ******* incompetent.

Its a mess and a mess that people simply don't have the time or energy to fight.
 
I can't find the name of the lady but there was a load of stuff in the news a year or two ago about one of the towns near me and a councillor living a lavish lifestyle whilst wasting public money doing similar dodgey dealings. I think it might have been a Surrey councillor.
 
I’ve never seen the country in such a state, it’s depressing.

I think we should send Barry The Baptist around to see this guy and, get the money back.
 
aVdub said:
Pick a council, any council and you will more than likely find dodgy dealings and the like.

My county council gets a FOIA now and then from me, in relation to their investments. That is an eye opener, when we are being told how they are struggling and and.
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Can you trust me what you send or a quick note on what and how to request this. I would be really interested to see what level of corruption / mates investments my hometown in lincolnshire is up to as its universally known that there are underhanded dealings.
 
Also regarding the above article.. good job the Govenment saved the money by scrapping the audit commission, im sure some money was saved there.......

"The Audit Commission - a spending watchdog that stopped councils taking too many risks - was abolished in 2015."
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Zenduri said:
Also regarding the above article.. good job the Govenment saved the money by scrapping the audit commission, im sure some money was saved there.......
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Was probably costing the government money and anyone that has worked in any sort of "non-profit" bureaucracy knows that it doesn't matter if you spend £10 of someone elses money if you save £2 for your department. A bit akin to when you have a budget you have to spend before the end of the year or you will lose the money and get a reduced budget the next year. Totally sensible.
 
Zenduri said:
Can you trust me what you send or a quick note on what and how to request this. I would be really interested to see what level of corruption / mates investments my hometown in lincolnshire is up to as its universally known that there are underhanded dealings.
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There are plenty of decent guides online.
Make sure you are specific on what information you request as they will lead you around the houses if not.
I've asked previously for information on investments the county council has which was done pre covid and then again this year.
 
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Participant said:
Working closely with local government, I can easily see how this sort of thing happens. A lot of them are absolutely useless with business and money.
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That’s the problem, we are asking local authorities to be experts in businesses/investment in a bid to generate a return (and make up for funds they’ve lost from central government). This is not what local authorities should be doing; they should be emptying bins, cutting grass, maintaining streets and pavements etc.
 
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mrochester said:
That’s the problem, we are asking local authorities to be experts in businesses/investment in a bid to generate a return (and make up for funds they’ve lost from central government). This is not what local authorities should be doing; they should be emptying bins, cutting grass, maintaining streets and pavements etc.
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We're not asking them to do that. They're taking it upon themselves to do that and not entirely for the noble reasons you think. I've posted above about NCC, just do a quick search for NCC corruption and that explains why they're wanting to make this extra money.
 
Dis86 said:
We're not asking them to do that. They're taking it upon themselves to do that and not entirely for the noble reasons you think. I've posted above about NCC, just do a quick search for NCC corruption and that explains why they're wanting to make this extra money.
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I think it's both. We are asking them to make up for shortfalls in central funding, and to be "imaginative" in generating income.

At the same time, not all actors within the councils (or their partners) have noble motivations. That's a given.
 
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