A555 Poynton Bypass conflict of interest with GVA Grimley

Sheila Oliver made this Freedom of Information request to Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was successful.

Dear Stockport Borough Council,

Is the Council aware that the Pension Fund Managers for Greater Manchester Pension Fund are GVA Grimley and, therefore, there would be a serious conflict of interest for this firm to be given any contract regarding the proposed A555? The Council is planning to fund this road using the pension fund money (goodness knows how that would work).

Mrs Sue Stevenson would be the lady to ask this question of - I don't want you to say I am causing you work. It is a simple matter as to whether she has been made aware of this potential conflict of interest or not.

Yours faithfully,

Sheila

FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mrs Oliver,

 

Thank you for your request for information below which has been given
reference FOI 5072. Please quote this on any correspondence regarding your
request.

 

Stockport Council will respond to your request within 20 working days. If
there will be a charge for disbursements e.g. photocopying in order to
provide the information, we will inform you as soon as possible to see if
you wish to proceed; however such charges are usually waived if they
amount to less than £10.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Corporate Information Services

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

 

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Dear FOI Officer,

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver

FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mrs Oliver,

 

I am writing in response to your request for information below (ref 5072).

 

The response to your request has been prepared by the relevant Council
service and is as follows:

 

The Government’s National Infrastructure Plan 2011 includes the M56/A6
Link Road as a funding priority but there is no detailed information
available on funding arrangements and any potential conflicts of interest
will be dealt with if and when they arise.

 

The Council is aware that GVA Grimley provides advice to the Greater
Manchester Pension Fund.  

 

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request for
information, you are entitled to ask for an internal review; however you
must do so within 40 working days of the date of this response. Any
internal review will be carried out by a senior member of staff who was
not involved with your original request. To ask for an internal review,
contact [1][email address] in the first instance.

 

If you are unhappy with the outcome of any internal review, you are
entitled to complain to the Information Commissioner. To do so, contact:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

[2]www.ico.gov.uk

 

01625 545 745

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Corporate Information Services

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

 

 

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Dear FOI Officer,

Thank you. Very helpful but Eamonn Boylan and Mark Hunter Libdem MP had a meeting with Danny Alexander, Secretary of State at the Treasury(LibDem) in early December 2011 to push the scheme through. Surely, they can't be seeking to push it through if they don't understand the funding at the moment. I am worried because this LibDem council tried to push through a £1 billion PFI bypass. I kept asking and asking as the cost jumped from £173 million to I think £425 million, to £650 million to a £ billion, yet very few people were questioning the cost - certainly not the ruling group councillors or MPs. Had that scheme gone ahead, what with PFI being found out to be such a scam, I don't know where the council taxpayers of Stockport would be now with regards to debt.

If the Council is talking about borrowing from the Chinese or using Greater Manchester Pension Fund money, they must have done some preliminary work with regards to this. May I see that please, or did they just pluck that out of thin air for the newspaper article? There must be something regarding the proposed funding of this bypass. Please look again. Otherwise, I will have to raise the matter with the Secretary of State at the Treasury that SMBC are trying to push through an expensive and probably unnecessary bypass possibly to win votes, with no understanding of what they are getting invovled with.

You do see my point, don't you.

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver

Rachel Dalton left an annotation ()

Hi Sheila

I am a journalist and I am interested in what you have found here. Please could you contact me on rachel.dalton@incisivemedia.com or 0207 316 9151.

Thanks

Sheila Oliver (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

Rachel
I have emailed you. You wouldn't believe what goes on in this town. LibDem ruled for a decade with an Iron Curtain of secrecy. They ostensibly believe in open and honest government - no, they don't!

Kids being put on a new school on unremediated toxic waste including lead, arsenic and brown asbestos. For correctly stating that fact I have been branded as vexatious. They are still claiming that today. I said the traffic situation was dangerous. Now the school is open the police have complained about the dangerous traffic. I am still "vexatious" for mentioning this, despite having myself lost a child in a road accident.

They sent a completely innocent man repeatedly to prison for asking for counselling help for his daughters adopted from Stockport Council who had had a terrible time with their birth parents. They are now putting a development on a site gassing 74.4%v/v methane and 33.3%v.v. Carbon Dioxide, even though their own experts say sites gassing over 1% and 1.5% Methane and CO2 respectively shouldn't be developed.

There are so many stories here for journalists.

Love to hear from you.

Sheila

FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mrs Oliver,

 

Thank you for your request for information below which has been given
reference FOI 5169. Please quote this on any correspondence regarding your
request.

 

Stockport Council will respond to your request within 20 working days. If
there will be a charge for disbursements e.g. photocopying in order to
provide the information, we will inform you as soon as possible to see if
you wish to proceed; however such charges are usually waived if they
amount to less than £10.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Corporate Information Services

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

 

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FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mrs Oliver,

 

I am writing regarding your request for information below (ref 5169).

 

In your request you refer to a newspaper article. It would help us to
address your request correctly if you were able to provide a copy or a
link to the article you refer to, or outline which publication this was in
and when it was published.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Corporate Information Services

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

 

 

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Sheila Oliver (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

http://menmedia.co.uk/stockportexpress/n...

This doesn't mention the Chinese money or the pension fund money - maybe that was in the Times which is not online.

I might have dreamt that - I hope so because it seems a stupid method of funding to me. You could ask Goddard where the rest of the funding is likely to come from. He should know if he is trying to rush it through

FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mrs Oliver,

 

I am writing in response to your request for information (ref FOI 5169)
regarding.

 

The information has been prepared by the relevant Council service and is
as follows.

 

We requested clarification on the article you referred to but none was
received so we are unable to respond to your assertions regarding
potential funding for the scheme.  The Council is continuing to discuss
with Government Officials what the final funding package for the scheme
will be.

 

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request for
information, you are entitled to ask for an internal review; however you
must do so within 40 working days of the date of this response. Any
internal review will be carried out by a senior member of staff who was
not involved with your original request. To ask for an internal review,
contact [email address] in the first instance.

 

If you are unhappy with the outcome of any internal review, you are
entitled to complain to the Information Commissioner. To do so, contact:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

www.ico.gov.uk

 

01625 545 745

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Corporate Infoamtion Service

[1]http://www.stockport.gov.uk

 

 

 

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