Tag Archives: eric pickles

Secrecy champions: Eric Pickles’ office stop publishing transparency info

4:38pm Fri May 18th

Readers will be well aware of the transparency crusade launched by Eric Pickles and his sidekick advisers Giles Kenningham and Sheridan Westlake. Having scrapped the Audit Commission, councils have been repeatedly urged to let untrained “arm chair auditors” (the public) cast their eye over the town hall books.

An eagle-eyed reader used our tips contact form to let us know that Messrs Kenningham and Westlake don’t appear to be abiding by their own rules. Data detailing their gifts, hospitality and media meetings has not been updated for nine months.

The gap between rhetoric and reality on transparency is becoming a chasm. This time last year, Eric Pickles wrote to councils last year telling them not to answer embarrassing FOI requests on spending.

Scrapbook will again have to ask: has Eric Pickles ushered in an era of transparency or an era of hypocrisy?

Information Commission: Eric Pickles to blame for increase in FOI requests

11:23am Wed April 11th

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The government aren’t happy to hear that the number of Freedom of Information requests is increasing year on year; so much so that they’re planning to introduce a range of tariffs to restrict Freedom of Information requests. But at least there’s someone to blame: Eric Pickles.

The government’s “transparency agenda” is leading to the rise in pesky FOI requests, claims Deputy Information Commissioner Graham Smith. The Law Society Gazette quotes Smith explaining that Eric Pickles’ plan for local government to declare all expenses over £500 was just too tempting:

“Ironically, one cause [of the increase] was the government’s transparency agenda: the requirement to publish all items of spending over £500 ‘just puts things out there that cause people to ask questions’, he said.”

Smith also hinted at future plans to toughen up restrictions on Freedom of Information requests to discourage people from making “vexatious” FOI requests which seek to embarrass the government.

Another own goal from Pickles.

Eric Pickles’ hypocrisy over Tory council stealth bin taxes

3:49pm Thu February 23rd

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Eric Pickles complained loudly that councils cannot profit from waste collection services in light of concerns that a “small minority” were doing exactly that. But the failure to name and shame the culprits seemed at odds with the DCLG team’s passion for a media row. Could this be because they were all Tory controlled?

Back in April 2011, the DCLG published a letter saying:

“…councils cannot introduce ‘backdoor’ bin charging for mainstream waste collections or waste disposal. Such stealth taxes are not legal…”

Thanks to freedom of information requests, however, we can now examine the full list of offending authorities – and it makes for decidedly blue reading:

Blaby District Council, in Leicestershire, charges £2 per bag, or £38.40 for a second bin.
Eden District Council, in Cumbria, charges £1.25 per bag beyond a free allowance of 2 per week for households of under 6 members- and apparently has done for quite some while.
Broxbourne Borough Council, in Hertfordshire, charges £0.30 per bag, beyond a 52 bag per year basic allowance.
Wokingham Borough Council, one of the Tories’ flagship local authorities in Berkshire who are already planning to privatise library services, will be tonight voting through plans to introduce a £0.40 charge per bag beyond an 80 bag limitation.

Scrapbook wonders what Pickles thinks of his chums’ stealth-taxing ways?

Hypocrite Eric Pickles attempts to defend £580k deal for finance chief

12:04pm Mon December 19th

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In the wake of the astounding revelation that the Department of Communities and Local Government had paid their interim financial chief £580k for 16 months work, the Local Government Chronicle reports that Eric Pickles has been trying to justify his fiscal exuberance.

Pickles told a select committee that the staggering sum was due to the difficulty in finding a new financial chief but was called out by members on the contradiction between his critical attitude towards excessive salaries in local authorities and the apparent free-for-all in his department.

Indeed, here are some of his greatest hits:

“The Prime Minister’s taken a pay cut, I’ve taken a pay cut, so I say to my many chums who are council chief executives – it’s your turn now.” – at the Conservative Party Conference, October 2010
“Councils need to make sure they don’t sully their reputation by taking decision behind closed doors to reward chief executives when they should be focusing resources on protecting frontline services … I think the democratically elected members of any council should make sure they have their say on pay and that £100,000 is the place to start that.” – in a department press release in February.
“Before we see libraries cut and all these kinds of things, I want to see councils merge their back office functions. I would like to see them sharing chief executives…” – to the Birmingham Post last December.
“The figures that are being bandied around are just scaremongering. Councils could cut chief executive pay, share services and get rid of non-jobs.” – in the Da ily Mail last December.
Pickles even used Twitter to respond to a Scrapbook story about a £65k pay hike for a Conservative council chief executive, describing it as “wrong and excessive”.

Pickles time in government could be dramatised as as “How to Lose Chums and Alienate People”.

Eric Pickles paid his finance chief £580,000 for just 16 months work

12:26pm Thu December 8th

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Eric Pickles, for whom lambasting councils for supposedly wasteful spending is a stock in trade, has paid his department’s interim finance chief nearly £600,000 for only 16 months work.

The department’s permanent secretary revealed the shocking figure — more than £36,000 per month — to a committee of MPs described as “speechless” by LGC’s Alistair Hayman. Sir Bob Kerslake attempted to defend the salary of Stephen Park, hired from PFI kings Capita:

“Clearly, however large that figure is – and I don’t want to suggest it isn’t a large figure – the consequence of not running our finances in a sound way would have been far greater”

This will be difficult to swallow for councils across the country, who have frequently been on the end of Pickles’ criticisms of their spending. As recently as May of this year, he was denouncing a “culture of wild overspends” in local authorities.

“Do as I say, not as I do.”

Conservative splits on riots

11:59am Mon August 15th

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The unfortunately worded front page of the Tories’ official site suggests Ed Miliband may not be the only person who disagrees with Cameron on the riots:

Doubtless we will shortly see Eric Pickles distributing free hoodies in deprived London boroughs.

Tory HQ paid investigators to spy on sex lives of supporters

10:20am Fri July 29th

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Today is the day that the hacking and privacy invasion scandal moved inside the Conservative Party. After news broke yesterday that a justice minister faces an official investigation over “blagging”, it has now been revealed that Tory HQ paid private investigators to spy on the private lives of its own supporters.

The 2010 “I’ve never voted Tory before” campaign, widely spoofed on the web, featured members of the public who were new to supporting the party at the general election. But several candidates to be profiled in the adverts were rejected after the the official Conservative election campaign, run from CCHQ in Millbank Tower, paid for information on their sex lives and personal political activity.

The revelations come after months of assurances from David Cameron that the behaviour of staffers with prior links to privacy invasion, such as Andy Coulson, was beyond reproach while they worked for him:

“During his time working for me, Andy has carried out his role with complete professionalism.”

One was man rejected because of an extra-marital affair while another was rebuffed for connections with an insurgent political movement. While the Tories have claimed that the campaign of snooping was carried out “with the full knowledge and consent of the person involved”, one target told the Mirror that she was “astonished” that the party “knew everything” about her.

The developments will prompt yet more awkward questions for David Cameron and Eric Pickles, who was running the Millbank campaign HQ at the time.

Who within CCHQ authorised and funded this outrageous invasion of privacy?

Eric Pickles slams “foreign freebies” before his £12,000 junket to India

3:32pm Wed July 6th

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Back in 2004, Eric Pickles slammed council chief executives for spending taxpayers’ money on expensive trips:

“At a time when pensioners are scrimping and saving to pay their council tax it is outrageous that councillors are going on foreign freebies. They should show some solidarity with taxpayers and pay towards these trips.”

But there seems to be one rule for local government and another for Pickles’ own department. Allister Hayman of the Local Government Chronicle reports that the secretary of state and two officials spent £12,552 on a four-day trip to India in April of this year.

A parliamentary answer by Tory MP Bob Neill reveals “expenditure of £4,060.63 per person for international and internal flights, and £123.42 per person for accommodation”. Pickles tried to deflect criticism by using his catchphrase, talking of the “degree of transparency” that he observed on the trip, but even the right-wing Taxpayers’ Alliance is critical:

“With technology these days there are alternatives to foreign travel and ministers should question whether a trip is necessary.”

It seems Pickles will travel any distance for a good Tandoori.

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