Waste of public money

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Dear Department for Communities and Local Government,

In the light of this article:-

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/pol...

I reported the waste of millions of pounds of council taxpayers' money to my local MP and Junior Minister at the DCLG, Andrew Stunell. This was about a school being built on a toxic waste dump. Brown asbestos is currently being removed by hand from the site by asbestos experts wearing respirators. I reported it in his capacity as junior minister. He told me he would not be taking any action regarding the issues I raised. Please let me have all letters, emails, memos, minutes of meetings, handwritten notes of any meetings,
or telephone conversations or any other written document showing what action he took to look into the matter before deciding no action was to be taken.

Kind regards

Yours faithfully,

Sheila

Dear Department for Communities and Local Government,

In the light of this shocking press story:-

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/co...

Jen Re, Corporate Director responsible, Eamonn Boylan, Chief Executive and Executive Councillor Mark Weldon, still refusing to answer questions on this topic.

We are likely to have the only school built in the country, but one which no parent will send their children to.

This is a Condem council. What is to be done about this?

Yours faithfully,

Sheila Oliver

Dear Department for Communities and Local Government,

When will I receive a reply?

Yours faithfully,

Sheila Oliver

CLG-FOIAdvice,

Dear Sheila Oliver

Thank you for your email of 23rd September , and I apologise for the
delay in replying to you.

Could you please confirm which communication it is that you are seeking a
reply to. It would be helpful if you were able to provide us with a copy
of your original email.

Kind regards

FOI Advice Team
Knowledge Management Division
Zone 2/A3, Eland House
0303 444 3973

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Dear CLG-FOIAdvice,

Thank you for your reply. I sent original documents addressed to the Junior Minister, Andrew Stunell to his constituency shop in Romiley. I am happy to provide duplicates should you need them but I am only concered with what action Mr. Stunell took at the time.

I provided evidence of financial irregularties of over a quarter of a million pounds, evidence that although the Executive Councillor at Stockport responsible, Councillor Mark Weldon, admits the Council knew the Harcourt Street primary school site for 550 children and 50 babies was probably contaminated with brown asbestos, they tried originally to do no contamination investigations. I provided documentary evidence of planning abuses by Stockport Council and Freedom of Information abuses.

At a meeting recently attended by local councillors, parents unanimously refused to send their children to the new school on grounds of danger from the contamination. This may well be the only school built in the country, given the ConDem cuts, but no parent will send their children to it and that was before I posted this shocking clip of the bored and unscientific brown asbestos experts removing brown asbestos from the site:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0rCPnP5H9o

And this story where the school is not even big enough before it is built for its purpose:-

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

My question is

1) Did Andrew Stunell do nothing at all regarding the evidence I sent him because it involved his political cohorts? Did he find nothing worrying in the documents I sent him because if that is the case I would question his judgement.

2) Did he pass the documents to someone else to deal with given his close association with the councillors responsible? That would seem to be the sensible thing to have done.

3) Did he investigate and decide there was nothing wrong. If so, could I please see the extent of his investigations.

Mr Stunell was one of the Gang of Four who negotiated the ConDem alliance and is responsible for bringing in huge cuts to vital budgets and public services, not to mention civil servants jobs. As the Guardian so rightly said such people should be seen to be above approach themselves if they are putting lesser souls through such difficulties.

So I just need to know what, if anything, he did about the documents I gave him. I suspect he did nothing, and that will suffice as an answer if that is the case.

Sorry to cause you problems. The deliberate endangering of the lives of 550 primary school children is a serious business as is wasting millions of pounds on a school no parent would want their child to attend.

Kind regards

Sheila

Sheila Oliver (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

Is my local MP Andrew Stunell having a laugh here? I repeatedly
asked him to make Stockport Council reply to questions, which they
have avoided for about four years:-

http://www.libdemvoice.org/andrew-stunel...

I shall ask him again for help and post his response, or lack of
it, on this site.

Have a look at this frightening You Tube clip of the brown asbestos
"experts" languidly and unscienficially removing brown asbestos
from the school site:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0rCPnP5H9o

Sheila Oliver (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

I don't think that Andrew Stunell link worked. Try this:-

http://www.libdemvoice.org/andrew-stunel...

Dear CLG-FOIAdvice,

Hi

Could I have a response please? No parent in their right mind would send their children to this school with brown asbestos fibres being vented out with the landfill gases, the Council has issued a planning application to change the proposed stand alone nursery just to a nursery class at at time when the ConDems have announced nursery provision from the age of 2 in deprived areas (and this is) and they have applied to change a Learning Resource Centre at the proposed school to a classroom. This is because, as I have said all along, they were building the school too small. I gave my local MP and Junior DCLG Minister, Andrew Stunell, documentary evidence and it appears he did nothing.

I would like to hear something about this from someone. It is no good pontificating about waste when when the DCLG is shown shocking examples, they just look away because this Council is very, very closely linked to Andrew Stunell.

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver

CLG-FOIAdvice,

Dear Sheila Oliver

Thank you for your email of 19th October 10.

You have raised several points in this, and other emails. We aim to let you have our considered response no later than 5th November.

Kind regards

FOI Advice Team
Knowledge Management Division
Zone 2/A3, Eland House
0303 444 3973

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Dear CLG-FOIAdvice,

Thank you.

According to our excellent Stockport Express: "The Council is also likely to push on with its 'personalisation' agenda. The will see, for example, children with special educational needs using public transport - rather than have the Council pay for taxis."

I would rather not have a Council newspaper with the self promotional colour phots of the ruling group ConDem coundillors, not pay for consultants to be paid hundreds and thousands of pounds to continue working on the proposed A555 for which there is no funding, just to ensure the ruling group don't lose votes, and not pay £23,000 pa for committee teas for councillors. Councillor Dave Goddard confirmed recently to me in a full council meeting that this £23,000 would continue to be paid out for these already rotund councillors.

The money could be better spent. Andrew Stunell, my local MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Communities and Local Government and a political cohort of the ruling group at Stockport, should be exercising his influence to make them toe the Government line. If the Government's own ConDem councils won't play ball it exposes basic hypocricy. We are certainly not all in this together.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver

CLG-FOIAdvice,

Dear Sheila Oliver

Further to our email of 20th October I apologise that we will still not be in a position to respond to you on the 5th November. We are in the process of investigating what correspondence the Department has received from you, and what action has been taken on it.

We will respond to you as soon as possible, once we have this information.

Kind regards

FOI Advice Team
Knowledge Management Division
Zone 2/A3, Eland House
0303 444 3973

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Dear CLG-FOIAdvice,

I am happy to wait for a response as long and the response is a proper one. I am going to send your reply to the many enemies of the ConDem government and in particular all the councils who will be affected by the social cleansing policy of removing hundreds of thousands of poorer people from their homes, uprooting children and disrupting their lives.

The people involved with drawing up such policies must be above reproach. My job is on the line in the NHS through the actions of such people and so may your's be, so they must to be shown to have acted responsibly and morally.

Like I said - I am happy to wait for a proper reply.

Kind regards

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver

CLG-FOIAdvice,

Dear Sheila Oliver

Further to our emails of 20th October and 3rd November I apologise that we are still not in a position to provide you with a substantive response. We are still checking to see what correspondence the Department has received from you, and what action has been taken on it.

We will respond to you as soon as possible, once we have this information.

Kind regards

FOI Advice Team
Knowledge Management Division
Zone 2/A3, Eland House
0303 444 3973

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Dear CLG-FOIAdvice,

It now transpires that Stockport Council, run entirely by the LibDems, has not only applied to turn a learning resource centre into a classroom at the new toxic waste dump school, but has also passed an application for a temporary classroom on the site. Why has the LibDem Executive passed a school which is not even big enough before it is built for the intended purpose? Why has every government department which had its attention to what has been going on in this case refused to act- Ombudsman, Dept Of Schools and Families, your department seems to be just stalling too? I passed evidence on to Andrew Stunell MP, my local MP and a junior government minister, with documentary evidence of what has been done by his political cohorts at Stockport and he saw nothing wrong with what had gone on. The Council illegally stopped me from questioning them about all this wrongdoing and despite Stunell's avowed commitment to open government, he went along with that.

As a counciltax/taxpayer, why have I suddenly been forced to borrow circa £5 million for this school at the last minute, when everyone was assured the money was in place and why is the school not big enough even before it is built?

Someone needs to start giving answers to what has been going on at Stockport all with the apparent approval of government minister, Andrew Stunell, a man despised nationally over this U turn on Student Fees and his part in the negotiation of the Coalition Agreement.

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver

CLG-FOIAdvice,

1 Attachment

Dear Sheila Oliver

Please see the attached letter in response to your communications to this Department.

Kind regards

FOI Advice Team
Knowledge Management Division
Zone 2/A3, Eland House
0303 444 3973

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Dear CLG-FOIAdvice,

Thank you very much for your kind reply. I sent the documents to Andrew Stunell addressed to him as Junior Minister on what I regard as a shocking waste of taxpayers' and council taxpayers' money. It would appear from your reply that he took no action, which is as I expected - his political cohorts were responsible.

They are having to put a temporary classroom at the school because, as I said all along, it wasn't big enough. A brand new school shouldn't have a temporary classroom and due to misleading information about the funding, at the last moment £4 million had to be borrowed. These are not trivial issues, and I am glad for your written confirmation that Mr. Stunell, in his position as junior minister at the DCLG, took no action when these matters were brought to his attention.

Kind regards

Sheila

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver