We do of course have our own incident of COVID breaches last Christmas. The Angel at Wisbech had a small gathering of @Conservatives councillors. An eagerly anticipated FOI from @FenlandCouncil due Thursday will enable me to add further to what I’ve revealed. Stay tuned
@FenlandCouncil declined to answer key questions earlier and have left to the 11th hour their responses. Frustrating I know but within the law - unlike the COVID breaching gathering at the Angel
What will be of interest is the @FenlandCouncil officer who brought the case against the then mayor of Wisbech - and licensee at the Angel
That @FenlandCouncil officer is their most senior Environmental Health official. On Friday I will reveal what happened following his investigation into the COVID breaching assembly
Of course we’re not certain who dobbed in COVID breaching councillors in Wisbech last Christmas Eve. But @CambsCops got a tip off and then raided the pub. I’m nearly there in revealing how @CambsCops knew about the illegal gathering
And apart from @WisbechCouncil Mayor Aigars Balsevics (landlord and dealt with appropriately) there were 3 @WisbechCouncil@FenlandCouncil councillors - from separate households- drinking in his pub on Christmas Eve 2020 when @CambsCops dropped by. All sent letters by @CambsCops
And finally @FenlandCouncil is yet to explain why they insisted on pixelated CCTV of Christmas Eve at Angel in Wisbech ahead of its own licensing hearing. Surely not because it’s own officers recognised three @FenlandCouncil councillors present?
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1/5 Here's more from an audit report prepared for @cambscc
It lists:
*Failure to apply EU procurement law to contracts with values that were, or likely to be based on costs incurred on similar work to date, over the applicable threshold
*• Failure to seek, obtain and document exemptions where Contract
Procedure Rules could not be adhered to • Failure to seek approval of the monitoring officer where contracts
exceeded the four year limit specified in the Contract Procedure Rules
• Failure to maintain adequate documentation to support the process
underlying procurement decisions
• Insufficient reporting to those charged with governance regarding waiver
arrangements and other intended departures from Contract Procedure
Rules.
The 2019/2024 business plan @cambscc offers the reasoning behind decision to “create a commercial investment portfolio to maximise the available return to support the delivery of a balanced budget”.
“Cambridge and Peterborough City Councils, and Huntingdonshire DC, have been undertaking such acquisitions for some time.
“Examples from other local councils include: Spelthorne BC - £200m+ commercial portfolio developed over nine years - £360m investment in BP office park
Spelthorne may not turn out to have been the best example for councillors in Cambridgeshire to look for financial astuteness.
This from @TBIJ (The Bureau of Investigative Journalists) a week or so ago@
1:A short thread on a moment in Fenland politics. Politics, as many of you know, in Fenland can be a challenging issue to report on fairly and accurately.
Wisbech is especially fraught because of the make-up of the local Conservative association.
2:They effectively run politics in the town and decry anyone who opposes them.
Woe betide if you cross the floor, as former mayor Michael Hill did. He’s since been vilified and suddenly has become the laziest councillor ever (well according to his former colleagues that is).
3:It is very difficult reporting on any of this, and I refrained from publishing copies of an email exchange between the Tory leader @fenlandcouncil Chris Boden and Peter Freeman.
The latter has moderate ‘form’ insomuch as he stood as an independent (unsuccessfully)in 2019.