Brighton and Hove Council's Clusterfuck Parking Fee Contract

Those of you who would like to study a textbook example of council incompetence, should read the article in Brighton and Hove News about how Brighton and Hove council managed to end up being owed £3.2M by a company (CCI) that was hired to collect parking fees that went bust.

Several "ironies" are obvious within this clusterfuck:

1 The council did not have insurance! Colour me stupid, but don't councils always bang on to everyone else about needing insurance for absolutely everything?

2 The company was meant to pay money over to the council within 10 days of collection. It didn't, and the debt built up over 3 months. How is it the paid "professionals" in the council didn't see this as a warning sign of trouble?

3 The council renewed the 3 year contract in February 2014, even though there were obvious signs of trouble.

4 The council’s previous cash collections contractor also went bust.

5 CCI was set up by a former Metropolitan Police officer, John Baker, and his wife Doreen, in 1981. He, and his daughter, have now been arrested.


Here is an extract of the full story :

"The company that collected cash from parking machines around Brighton and Hove went bust owing the council £3.2 million.

The loss was not insured and Brighton and Hove City Council is unable to tell what chance it has of recovering the unsecured debt. It is believed to be unlikely to receive more than £25,000.

An audit report to councillors pointed out that at one point Coin Co International (CCI) owed the council more than £4.7 million.

The debt built up over several months even though CCI was contracted to deposit any cash that it collected within ten days.

Officials said that lessons had been learnt but declined to say whether anyone had been held to account over the loss when quizzed by councillors this week.

CCI was paid almost £300,000 a year to collect more than £11 million cash from parking meters and £8 million cash from council offices and schools. The company also handled £21 million in cheques.
It was allowed to hang on to the funds for up to ten days, enabling it to earn interest on top of the fees paid by the council. The money should have been paid into a separate and safe account by CCI but it wasn’t.

Officials briefed the council’s Audit and Standards Committee at Portslade Town Hall on Tuesday (22 September).

For the second time in three months, members of the committee expressed disbelief at the turn of events.

They were told that this was an unusual case yet the council’s previous cash collections contractor – Estate Security Southern – also went bust. The Kent company won the £1 million three-year contract in August 2006......

..In January this year about 90 officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) swooped in a series of co-ordinated raids at six Sussex properties, including CCI’s offices.

The NCA said: “Five people have been arrested as part of a major joint investigation into the supply and importation of counterfeit pound coins worth around £1.2 million.

“On the morning of Tuesday 27 January around 90 officers from the National Crime Agency executed warrants at six locations in the Sussex area.

“They arrested four men and a woman at five different addresses on suspicion of importation, money laundering and offences under the Forgery Act.

“Searches were also carried out at a business premises in the Burgess Hill area.

“Accompanying NCA investigators were officers from the Dutch fraud investigation service FIOD and an expert from the Royal Mint.

“A number of items have been seized and the investigation continues.”

National Crime Agency senior investigating officer Steve McIntyre said: “These arrests and searches were the latest phase of an ongoing international investigation looking into the supply of fake currency from the Netherlands to the UK.

“This investigation follows the closure of a Dutch mint suspected of manufacturing counterfeit coins in November 2013.

“This element of the inquiry is focused on the alleged importation and laundering of coins worth around £1.2 million and we will continue to work closely with our colleagues in the Netherlands and the Royal Mint.”

You couldn't make this up if you tried!

I have no doubt that this sort of bollocks is going on the length and breadth of the country.

Councils are quick to blame central government for funding problems, yet it is quite clear that when it comes to money councils are farking clueless, incompetent and on occasions corrupt!

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Prats of The Week - University of East Anglia Student Union

Well knock me down with a feather, it is time to award another prestigious Prats of The Week Award.

This time it goes to the University of East Anglia Student Union.

For why?

For banning students from getting free sombreros from a local Tex-Mex restaurant.

For why?

Seemingly sombreros are "racist"!

Students were being given free sombreros at a freshers' fair by a local Tex-Mex restaurant, in a bid to drum up business, before they were ordered to stop; because it violated cultural appropriation rules.

Not content with merely banning the distribution of the sombreros, University of East Anglia student union officials also requisitioned (ie stole) the big floppy hats from students at the Freshers' Fair.

It is somewhat ironic that sombreros offered by a restaurant that sells Mexican food are deemed to be racist. Maybe the hapless restaurant should have handed out bowler hats instead?

Campaigns and Democracy officer (whatever that means?) Chris Jarvis is quoted by the Telegraph:

"We know that when it comes to cultural appropriation the issues can sometimes be difficult to understand and many don't realise that they may be about to cause offence or break a policy. 

So we're discussing internally how we can improve our briefing to both external organisations and our own members so that people aren't caught out at the last minute.

At the SU we want all members feel safe and accepted, so at all events we try to ensure that there is no behaviour, language or imagery which could be considered racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic or ableist."

I assume that all Speedy Gonzales films are banned by the union too?

The University of East Anglia Student Union, well deserving Prats of The Week!

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Fuckwits - Anarchists Attack Cafe

 

As per the Guardian:

"Hundreds of protesters attacked a cereal cafe in east London on Saturday night, daubing the word “scum” on the shop window and setting fire to an effigy of a police officer.

Riot police were called in to defend the Cereal Killer Cafe in Shoreditch after it was targeted by a large crowd of anti-gentrification activists carrying pigs’ heads and torches.

The owners of the cafe, which has been seen by some as a symbol of inequality in east London, said on Sunday that the attack left customers including children “terrified for their lives”.

Gary Keery, 33, who founded the cafe with his twin brother, Alan, said: “It’s senseless violence, isn’t it? We’ve had some letters through the letterbox saying ‘die hipsters’ and stuff but nothing to this extreme. It just doesn’t make sense.” 

Footage of the attack filmed from inside the shop and obtained by the Guardian shows masked protesters shouting outside the shopfront. One man daubs graffiti on the window while another is seen holding a burning stick."

How exactly trying to burn down a cafe resolves the housing crisis is beyond my limited intelligence.

Maybe someone can explain it to me?

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Knobhead of The Millennium - Kerry McCarthy

Kudos to Corbyn for appointing Knobhead of The Millennium, Kerry McCarthy, as Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

McCarthy is a vegan and recently told Viva!life, a magazine for vegans:

"I really believe that meat should be treated in exactly the same way as tobacco, with public campaigns to stop people eating it. 

Progress on animal welfare is being made at EU level … but in the end it comes down to not eating meat or dairy.

The constant challenging of the environmental impact of livestock farming is making me more and more militant, not least that CAP payments are available for grouse shooting, controlling buzzards and forestry."

FFS!

These people shouldn't be allowed out in public on their own, let alone be placed in positions of responsibility.

Kerry McCarthy, well deserving Knobhead of The Millennium!

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#VWGate - EU Commission Knew Results Were Rigged

Did @EU_Commission know @VW was cheating on emissions tests for months? The scandal broadens http://t.co/nKo3Km2CfI pic.twitter.com/C9JAZqrnqf

— Peter Spiegel (@SpiegelPeter) September 23, 2015

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The Fallout From #VWGate

As loyal readers know, there have been many discussions on this site about pollution, and Nanny's obsession with certain types of pollution whilst ignoring others (eg trails from airplanes that quite clearly cause a haze in the skies above our heads).

Anyhoo, returning swiftly to terra firma, it cannot have escaped your notice that Volkswagon is undergoing a rather torrid time at he moment wrt its global emissions fraud affecting at least 11 million diesel cars (and possibly petrol ones as well).

This scandal does also relate to another issue that we have often discussed on this site, namely dodgy scientific "research" and data.

Given the scale and wholesale deception here, one wonders what other products/modes of transport/drugs etc etc have been given Nanny's "all clear" on the basis of falsified test results/data?

The lawyers and claims industry are going to have a field day with this!

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