A thread: My thoughts on @behindlocalnews conference but particularly about the state of local government coverage. In a word current coverage is appalling and I will offer some reasons.
1: We simply do not have in place local reporters who actually understand the first thing about it. Example? In the 2021 local elections an editor actually told me they could not cover candidates and issues in the run up because of ‘purdah’.
May 6, 2022 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Breach of Covid rules: A long thread
A thread: Covid-19 and breaches of regulations.
It starts with this email from me to @CambsCops in November 2021
2: ‘I have obtained a copy of a redacted letter sent out by Cambridgeshire Police following events at The Angel ph in Wisbech on Christmas Eve last year.
Can you confirm it is authentic and also can you confirm the following
1: How many councillors it was sent to?
Feb 25, 2022 • 25 tweets • 5 min read
A thread from a story I wrote a year ago, based on a whistle blower from 2019 as we investigated #famrgate. I am busy going through today's findings but if anyone thinks this is all over, they are surely wrong. Hickford may have been the transgressor but who allowed it?
“A whistle-blower within Shire Hall, Cambridge, explained to me how they had been shot down whilst querying a farm tenancy being awarded to deputy leader Roger Hickford.
“We all felt awkward when we discovered Roger had applied for the tenancy,” the whistle-blower told me.
Dec 7, 2021 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
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
Nov 17, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
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
Oct 26, 2020 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
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”.
Of two examples quoted one is @spelthorneBC
“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
Jun 18, 2020 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
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).
