Details sent to Junior Minister Andrew Stunell about failure to protect public funds and the safety of children by Stockport Council

Dear Department for Communities and Local Government,

I recently supplied the Junior Minister, Andrew Stunell, with
details of a worrying case of failure to deal with a multi million
pound project in a professional manner, failure to comply with
Fraud and Financial Irregularities policies and the failure to
comply with the contaminated land regulation BS 10175, despite
Stockport Council insisting that it had. This is with regards to
the Harcourt Street School at North Reddish, Stockport.

Please may I see any documents from Andrew Stunell or his staff or
superiors regarding how he has or intends to look into this matter
- emails, notes of meetings, notes of telephone calls, minutes,
letters, memos or any other written documents with regards to what
action he proposes to take.

If you wish me to refine my request in any way, I am happy to
discuss the matter and to simplify things if possible.

Yours faithfully,

Sheila Oliver

Dear CLG-FOIAdvice,

Thank you very much for your kind response. I deposited the
information in the office of Andrew Stunell, MP, now junior
minister in the Department of Local Government and Communities. I
made it clear that this was being given to him in his role of
junior minister responsible and not in his role as an MP. I shall
go back to his office and ensure his staff let you have the
relevant details. Obviously, this will lead to a delay in
responding which I am fully aware is not your fault and I wouldn't
be objecting to any unavoidably late response.

Kind regards and warmest best wishes

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver

Dear CLG-FOIAdvice,

Many thanks for your kind and prompt response.

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver

Dear CLG-FOIAdvice,

I have visited his taxpayer funded office and given them details of
this FOI request. I don't think I can do any more, but will if you
think there is more I can do. I think the ball is in Mr. Stunell's
court now.

Kind regards

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver

Dear CLG-FOIAdvice,

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver

Dear Department for Communities and Local Government,

I have received a reply from Junior Minister, Andrew Stunell, to my
home address by post.

He declines to take the matter any further.

The issue involved includes a cost increase in a project from £5.5
million in October 2005 to £8.6 million by June 2006 with no
explanation of the rise in cost, the compulsory purchase of land
without holding a public inquiry when a statutory objection was
received from someone with an interest in the land and failure to
comply with BS 10175 which Stockport Council claimed to have done,
which meant that eventually when it was complied with the
counciltaxpayers faced a large, last minute bill for contamination
remediation. Complying with BS 10175 would have found the
contamination at the outset.

Yours faithfully,

Sheila Oliver

Dear CLG-FOIAdvice,

Many thanks. There need to be answers to what has gone one here.
Just because this is a ConDem council, things mustn't be swept
under the carpet.

The latest outrage is the Council has submitted a planning
application to change the nursery school to a nursery class. They
are refusing to answer questions on the planning application, which
is completely illegal in planning terms because refusing to give
details of planning applications is a recipe for corruption. The
"consultation" with parents about the closure of the nursery is
still ongoing and the final decision lies with the Schools
Adjudicator and not the Council.

In addition, the ConDems have announced nursery education for 2
year olds in deprived areas, and this area is very deprived. How on
earth will they deliver this if they change the nursery school just
to a nursery class? I am sure they are having to make this change
and to change the Learning Resource Centre at the primary school to
a classroom (also part of the new planning application) because the
school never was big enough for the children who needed to attend
at any point in the process, and for saying so I have been publicly
branded vexatious and they have refused to reply to any questions
on the subject (FOI or Council meeting) for many years, even though
the Information Commission has said in writing that they should.

What on earth is going on in ConDem Stockport?

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver

Dear Department for Communities and Local Government,

Mr Stunell is the minister responsible for what has been called the
social and economic cleansing policy, which would mean that
possibly hundreds of thousands of people will no longer be able to
afford to live in certain cities and will have to move. As the
Guardian says, the politicians responsible for all these ConDem
policies, which will have such a detrimental effect on so many
people's lives, need themselves to be above reproach.

I am very interested in your reply and await it eagerly. I don't
think a whitewash would suffice in this instance.

Kind regards

Sheila

Dear CLG-FOIAdvice,

Thank you. I am happy to wait if it means I am given a proper
answer.

There is also a court case, sub-judice until the week after next,
which has probably wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds of
taxpayers' money. As soon as it is no longer sub-judice, I will be
sending the details far and wide. You might want to ask Mr Stunell
about that too.

These politicians, who are bringing in policies which will remove
hundreds of thousands of people from their homes under the social
cleansing proposals or will lose apparently 1.6 million jobs
(possibly your's and possibly mine, )need to be above reproach and
to be seen to be above reproach.

Kind regards

Sheila

Dear Department for Communities and Local Government,

Could I please have a reply. Andrew Stunell is much despised
nationally because of his negotiating of the coalition agreement
and stance on student fees. I provided him both as my local MP and
as Local Government Minister with evidence of presumed wrong-doing
by his close political cohorts on Stockport Council. I merely want
to know what action, if any, he took. To be honest, I assume he did
nothing.

Please let me know the answer and I can then disseminate that
information to the various enemies of Mr Stunell. Anyone in high
public office and responsible for taking action which will
detrimentally affect hundreds of thousands of people needs himself
to be seen to have acted completely above reproach, even when his
political chums are involved.

I think I have given you a fair interval in which to respond.

Yours faithfully,

Sheila Oliver

Dear CLG-FOIAdvice,

Thanks for your reply. I posted the details in the post box of
Andrew Stunell's office addressed to him as junior minister. He
employs taxpayer funded elves. I think they have the ability to get
post from the box and show it him, so I assume he saw everything
and decided to take no action, which is completely as I expected.
That is fine - that is all I wanted to know.

With very warmest best wishes

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver

Dear Department for Communities and Local Government,

I shall today re-post information about the abuses at Stockport
regarding the school on the toxic waste dump issue and the town
hall protester, both of which issues are being kept secret and both
of which had unnecessarily cost the taxpayer huge sums of money,
and pop them through Mr. Stunell's letterbox.

I shall address the matter to Stunell both as my local MP and in
his role as Junior Minister. I shall keep the press and his many
enemies informed of his response should I ever get one.

I did get a letter from him last week but, bizarrely, it simply
said I should do voluntary work. I have worked with the dying at
the local hospital for a decade.

As Mr Stunell had to apologise to Gus O'Donnell for his election
purdah mistake - very serious I am sure you will agree - I have
some very strong doubts about how he does his job.

I shall keep this site posted about his reply too.

Kind regards

Sheila Oliver