Author: Sal
Undercliff Drive Scandal: Update
Thursday, 11th October, 2007 at 6:41 pm, Isle of Wight
Following Monday’s announcement that Undercliff Drive suspended senior officers, Paul Wilkinson and Derek Rowell are no longer on the payroll of the Isle of Wight Council, more news has come out today regarding the investigation.
We’ve been absolutely rushed off our feet all day and haven’t had time to sift through the report yet, but IW Radio have had excellent reports all day, including a detailed discussion during the 6pm news tonight.
We’ll be putting our attention on it tomorrow, so check back to hear more.
Niton, Planning, Politics, Ventnor
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October 12th, 2007 at 7:01 am
[...] Undercliff Drive Scandal: Update [...]
October 15th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
You need to start consider whether the real scandal here is that £1.5million (£30 for every tax payer on the Island) has been wasted on a spurious investigation.
More so, that £650,000 of that money has been squandered on Wragge & Co Solicitors whose brief was to find a reason to dismiss any senior officer left from the pre Tory, pre Duckworth era, no matter how good, how long and how loyal their service to the Island.
It is already clear that there was no corruption, no unlawful payment to any contractor and no failure to deliver value for money on the Undercliff project.
This is clear because the report of Sharp Pritchard Solicitors (leaked to the CP and Private Eye) says so. Why wasn’t that report published by the Council? Because it doesn’t support the idea that they desperately want you to believe that this is the biggest scandal in local government since Shirley Porter ruled Westminster.
How else do we know? Because an independent investigation by a former Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council found the extent of Chief Finacial Officer Paul WIlkinson’s wrongdoing was to delegate too much, which amounted to an error of judgement. It’s hardly Tammany Hall is it?
If procurement rules weren’t followed, so what - has it cost the taxpayer on the Island a penny? No. Has it brought £12m in central government funds to invest in re-instating Undercliff Drive? Yes.
I know you want to get at the truth. Start asking what this is really all about & why so much money has been spent on “investigating” such a non scandal. There’s a Pullitzer in it.
October 16th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
“If procurement rules weren’t followed, so what”
Unfortunately that seems to be the mantra of UNELECTED officers, except where there is the slightest chance of berating or belittling ELECTED Councillors.
An “independent” investigation by the EX Chief executive of Birmingham is akin to a fox asking the chickens “What happened here?”.
I believe Scarborough is very bracing at this time of year, should you fancy a change of air
October 29th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Rubbish Freddie. The Sharpe Pritchard Report says there was no substantive wrongdoing on the letting of the Undercliff contracts, no personal gain, no deceit, and no real loss to the public purse as we would have had to pay for the work anyhow.
Its also 100% independent & 100% hushed up by the council.
So again Freddie why have we spent £1.5 million on this?
October 31st, 2007 at 8:34 am
Are you still there Freddie? Just so we are clear, the original Undercliff contract was worth £900k and bought emergency plans and surveys that were completely legal. Our council have just voted to increase the solicitors costs for investigating the illegal letting of the subsequent contract to £900k according to IWCP. Why?
If you just want to get rid of 7 people who you don’t want to work for the council anymore then just pay them off, buy out their contracts. It happens all the time in the public and private sector and is nothing new. Even if you’d given them £50k each (which I doubt) then total cost £350k, as opposed to the £900k of OUR MONEY that they’ve spent.
It really does not make sense to me. At least the first £900k bought something. Can anyone explain it?