Cover up at the Town Hall

http://www.thecnj.co.uk/camden/2008/013108/gulliver013108.html
Camden New Journal - One Week with JOHN GULLIVER

Published: 31 January 2008

Clearing out old folks’ homes is a lot easier than clearing up the scandal
WHY is the Town Hall so desperate to keep a report secret that officials have used the law three times to stop elected councillors and this newspaper from discussing it?

At a late-night meeting on Tuesday, councillors were about to discuss a heavily censored copy of a report behind closed doors when one of my colleagues protested. The ‘Part Two’ exemption – used when councillors have to discuss legally or commercially sensitive material – was invalid and the facts should be heard in the open, he argued.Councillors, including the committee chairman, agreed.

But they were stopped in their tracks by a furious reaction from a senior official in the chief executive’s office, backed up by the duty lawyer.

When the official refused to allow the item to be heard, chairman Chris Philp muttered “We shall not be part of a cover up” and adjourned the hearing.

To understand the full story you need to go back a year, when the New Journal revealed how valuable furniture removed from the council flat of dying 92-year-old Dorothy Robinson ended up on sale in nearby antique shops.

Our investigation showed that out of 1,200 ‘clearances’ carried out on council homes each year, not a penny, not an earring, not a single heirloom, had been recovered from the homes of tenants who had died or been moved into care. Our story prompted a ‘review’, then an ‘investigation’, then a report in August in which the Special Investigations Team – an in-house team – said no crime had been detected. But the August report referred to a second, internal, report “made available to senior managers” – but never seen by councillors.

We applied to see the secret report using the Freedom of Information Act, but were denied. After three months of argument, the cross-party housing and adult social care scrutiny committee won the right to see a heavily censored version of it. So what is in the report?

My sources tell me it reveals that a blind eye was turned at the Town Hall to a suspected racket, and that the internal investigators conclude that because staff were not acting against written rules and no one reported anything as a crime, they can take no action.

Officials would like all this to go away. But it won’t.

_____________________________________________

http://www.thecnj.co.uk/camden/2008/022108/news022108_02.html
CNJ 21 Feb 2008

Flat clearances 'systematic theft from dead residents'

Town Hall staff were cleared by bosses to take from ‘void’ homes
THE removal of valuable possessions from the homes of council tenants was branded “systematic theft from dead Camden residents” when a secret Town Hall report was finally disclosed on Tuesday following months of campaigning by councillors and the New Journal.

A year after this newspaper’s investigation into the clearance of the Gospel Oak flat of dying Dorothy Robinson, 92, prompted allegations that her home had been “looted” by council clearance teams and re­vealed that nothing of value had been recovered from the 1,200 council houses similarly cleared every year, councillors called for “heads to roll”.

The report by the council’s internal audit team revealed for the first time that items were routinely taken by members of the Building and Maintenance Division during clearances of properties that became “void” through the abandonment, death, eviction or relocation of tenants, and that this practice was authorised by managers.

It included evidence that 60 staff may have been involved, and that managers obstructed the investigation of the council’s internal team.It went on to claim the New Journal probe into the abuses had “damaged” and “undermined” the council’s own clandestine investigation, an accusation supported by officers and social care chief Cllr Martin Davies.

Other councillors attacked the claims. “This would never have seen the light had it not been published in the CNJ,” said Cllr Keith Sedgwick.

Although two members of BMD staff face disciplinary charges, the evidence that the practice was widespread and condoned was described as “scandalous” by committee chairman Chris Philp, who forced the disclosure of the report after Town Hall lawyers repeatedly blocked its discussion since he first requested it in September last year.

He said: “This report shows that council staff had been systematically stealing property from dead Camden residents for years. It is totally outrageous. I think that it is good my committee has brought this investigation into the public domain to show that these practices will not be tolerated by Camden Council today.”

In a meeting where tension between the council’s staff and elected councillors frequently threatened to bubble over, assistant chief executive Philip Colligan acknowledged that the conduct of house clearances had been deeply flawed and that wide-ranging changes had been put in place.

Pressed on whether the clearances amounted to stealing, he answered: “I am not saying it is not theft.”

He added that discuss­ing the report in public was dangerous and unprecedented and could jeopardise ongoing disciplinary proceedings. He said: “There have been suggestions that officers wanted to cover up elements of that report. That is not true. We now have an unprec­edented release of internal audit material to you, way beyond what we have considered as normal and way beyond what we have advised to you.”

But his comments were questioned by Cllr Sedgwick, who referred to the first, highly selective, report shown to the committee last year. He said: “When we had this report before us originally there was nothing in it which said managers had told their staff they could take things from dead people’s homes – it only comes out in a report that we had to squeeze out of officers. If you take something that doesn’t belong to you, it’s theft. This is to do with the culture of management of housing. This is shocking. Quite frankly someone’s head should be rolling – someone very high up.”

Cllr Philp asked: “Is there any evidence that a director or assistant director knew about these practices or authorised it?”

Mr Colligan replied: “I can’t answer your question about who knew about what.”

The questioning promp­ted protest from several committee members and led the elected chiefs of both housing and adult social care to make highly unusual formal statements of confidence in the council’s highest managers. Social care chief Cllr Martin Davies said: “I am confident that none of the directors or assistant directors had knowledge of or condoned in any way the particular issues here.”

Update
- London Tonight 21 Feb 2008 "Camden staff 'raid' homes of the dead" http://www.itvlocal.com/london/ type in 'Camden Council'

- council meeting 5 March 2008
AGENDA ITEM NO. 14
LONDON BOROUGH OF CAMDENCOUNCIL MEETING – 5 MARCH 2008

NOTICE OF MOTIONS
3. To consider the following Motion, notice of which was given by Councillor Theo Blackwell and seconded by Councillor Roger Robinson. This Council notes the unprecedented impasse between the Executive and the Housing and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee over the issue of removal of dead tenants belongings. In the light of this, it calls for an independent and external enquiry into this distressing issue so lessons can be learnt.

Update: this motion was not heard due to time restraints but was later dismissed by the executive.

POW Trust

The Charity Commission has published a report (March 2011) HERE into the findings of their investigation into a then registered charity called The Peoples Opportunity to Work (POW) Trust.

The investigation began in 2002 and finished in 2005, but due to a criminal investigation by the police the publishing of the report was delayed until the criminal proceedings finished in 2010, with the conviction and imprisonment of three members of the POW trust. Met Police report HERE. Apparently there where 9 defendants, but reports only mention that 3 where convicted.

The Camden Association of Street Properties (CASP) has connections with this dodgy trust through Terence Patrick Ewing who was (still is?) a 'legal executive' for the trust. Mr Ewing is a vexatious litigant and convicted and imprisoned fraudster.

More about T Ewing HERE

DMC Funding Guidelines

 District Management Committee's Funding Guidelines 2015 HERE

"Annually each District Management Committee (DMC) is given a budget to spend in their area" I think this is linked to the Participatory Budgeting  HERE. Draft Strategy 2008 HERE ,  
Possibly even State Aid

The DMC's (there are 5 of them) used to be sub-committees of the councils then Housing Committee who had council tenant reps on as non voting members, but who used to vote. When the council changed its governance structure back in 2001/2 to the executive (now called cabinet) model the dmc's should have been abolished but cllrs allowed them to continue as tenant groups, still funded and administrated by the council.

Dmc's are business ventures whose members carry out works/goods/services on behalf of Camden council. In effect dmc's have taken on Housing Management roles but without having to apply the Housing [Right to Manage] rules HERE.

Public Liability Claim Forms for Internal Decorating

following on from post from 2015 Damp Patch on interior wall and ceiling of Flat HERE

Update 5 April 2016
Plasterer has done the work to the area's needing the work and when I got back to the landlord about the redecorating have since discovered what the "other process" is to do with internal decorations: being sent a public liability claim form to fill in, sign and send to the councils finance department. huh. Apparently one has to prove negligence on the landlords part.

Spend hours going over emails to and from housing repairs and in general gathering evidence to send in to the finance people - realised after I sent the form in with evidence by email, that I had got confused and emailed finance again about it. Waiting for them to get back to me.

Following on from the post HERE  in August 2015 about the water damage to parts of 2 walls and part ceiling in my flat, the council to give them credit after the negative story HERE,  and when I reported the damp, fixed the source of the water damage (as far as I am aware) and re-plastered  the parts of the walls and ceiling affected.

When I mentioned to housing repairs redecorating the areas damaged  I was informed the internal decorating was a different process.

The  process involves being sent a Public Liability Claim Form to fill in that to me isn't very easy to understand, and which I think is badly wrote written out in general - plus one is required to sign it, like in an actual signature, written in ink from a pen. Plus I don't even know what I'm actually supposed to be claiming for. Then send it to the councils Finance department and then who knows what the outcome will be.

 I think i'm supposed to guess that what I am required to claim for may be one of the below, some, all of, or who the fook knows : 
a) money to buy the materials needed to redecorate
b) money to employ someone to carry out the decorations,
c) money to do I want to do with it as no receipts are needed
d) money to do the councils job maybe on the cheap, who knows


note: this blog won't upload the scanned copies I did of the form.

Update 29 March 2016
After a little delay I sent in scanned copy of filled in claim form, plus photos, plus emails to and from housing repairs about the damp - to the councils finance people. Took me hours to do it all.

Update 30 March 2016
Realised I had got quite confused when filling in the form etc - not had to fill in such a form before and gather up all the info that goes with it just to try and get some redecorating following water damage to flat. Hope other tenants who may have to go through this don't get as confused as I did.

Update 18 April 2016
Councils finance department contacted me to say the council has admitted liability for the water damage. Mentioned compensation and  asked that I provide 2 quotes from reputable decorators.

Yes the email and letter where cause of some confusion on my part.

After making a few polite points to finance person I was then informed the councils in house repairs team would be involved in the re-decorating - huh I though, but I don't want them to do it and plus I was asked for 2 estimates.

Anyway, after the finance bloke clarifying that I'm not being forced to contract with the councils in house team to do the re-decorations, and again the 2 quotes request I asked for clarification as to what exactly can be redecorated, meaning is it only the actual area's that where re-plastered or for continuity sake the wall paper from 2 rooms will need to be stripped and wall painted, plus skirting doors, window frames etc.

Have been sent back to housing repairs who contacted me about coming to flat to assess what works need doing. I was none the wiser at the end of phone call and nowt was sorted.

Update 13 May 2016
Has been quiet on the council front since housing  repairs contacted me, staff may be busy/preoccupied  with the restructuring going on.

Update 22 May 2016
Not heard anything back from councils finance person since being passed on to the housing repairs people (which came to nothing), not even to clarify  whether or not finance still wanted 2 estimates from me.

Update 29 May 2016
All stations are go. Think from now on I might only write in code. 

Non Payment of Council Tax Enforcement Rules

In May 2015 the High Crt ruled in the case of Paul Nicolson v Tottenham Magistrates Crt, HERE with Haringey council as Interested Party,

"relating to the costs sought by local authorities with regard to the enforcement of unpaid council tax"

that


" i) the Magistrates did not have sufficient relevant information before them to reach a proper judicial determination of whether the costs claimed represented costs reasonably incurred by the Council in obtaining the liability order;

ii) the Magistrates erred in law by failing to make further inquiries into how the £125 was computed and what elements it comprised; and

iii) the Claimant was denied a fair opportunity to challenge the lawfulness of the order before it was made, by reason of the failure to answer his requests for the provision of information as to how the sum of £125 was arrived at."


23 December 2015 HERE the same issue of council tax recovery costs and not following the rules, produced the same results in regards to Highbury Corner Magistrates Crt with Camden council as Interested Party.

Yes its the Terence Ewing again and this time it may be a first in that
a) JP ruled not an abuse of process/vexatious and
b) he actually won a case.

I'm guessing many in the TE camp will be jumping up and down in joy at TE's victory and are in further awe of him and his gang/s.

These two court cases where not a  victory in regards to the fairness of council tax demands, or anything like that - only that it showed the magistrates up for not following the proper rules in relation to the issuing of council tax liability orders on behalf of the local councils. It also showed the local councils up for not following the proper rules when starting enforcement action for non payment of council tax with added recovery costs

But I guess at the end of the day it may all be about scoring points, looking good to followers/supporters and creating the illusion that they are a force to reckon with. The authorities may be unintentionally handing them these cases on a plate.

On saying that the bigger issue could well be that both councils and indeed all councils and magistrates crts make sure they take note of the judgements and follow the proper procedures, which in reality may be a problem to regulate.

Tenancy Conditions

2008 HERE 

2016 HERE

Damp Patch on interior wall and ceiling of Flat

On top of the long term noise nuisance problem ie no sound proofing installed when landlord Camden council converted the property in the late 1970,s and the knackered old water pipes that bang, hiss and creak a lot when water is used and cause a nuisance, plus a few leaks (nearly forgot the pressure noise) I have now discovered a damp patch in hallway of flat- see below pics. Notice the white casing which encloses electrical wiring near where the damp is.

The wall paper peeled away very easily.

Have contacted repairs and await their action over the matter. 

Notice I still have that horrible (imo) chip wood paper on some of the walls the council put up because I really can't be arsed to do much to this flat because it has never really felt like a home


NB don't get me wrong that I am not grateful to have a roof over my head, and to have a secure tenancy, because I am grateful, and I don't really ask for much in life, but its now gotten to the point with my added health problems and getting old(er) that I just want somewhere decent to call home and I'm not giving up this time like I have in the past.

I'm not the only one in this situation, lots of people are and i'm sick and tired of people having to fight (if they are able to and not every is able to) land-lords, the gov for a simple decent 'home' to live in.


Some people may think that being a council tenant comes with a whole load of benefits, some yes, but not that many unless of course you're one of the 'chosen ones' or have contacts in the council. And I know some tenants are a pain just as some council people are in my experience, but sometimes it seems like its just a job to some council people, tick this box - there we homed them, doesn't matter though what state the property is in or how suitable or not it is. Peoples environments matter whether they be living, working or play, they all have an effect whether good or bad on people.

Finished me rant - for now.

Update 15 August 2015
Not heard anything from housing repairs team yet about my report to them (via email) last Sunday of damp patch with above pics. Water is rolling down wall on a daily basis. Not a lot of water but enough to keep the wall wet.

19 Aug 2015
Plumber - apprentice and supervisor came to flat this afternoon.


2 September 2015
Plumber came yesterday in the morn(about the noisy pipes)  to try and access all flats but could only access 2. This time the tenant in top flat (most of the noise comes from when top flat water is used) was asked to turn on the hot water and I could hear the noise from pipes quite clearly in my living room.

Plumber came down and I said I can hear the noise from pipes and he went over to pipes and bent forward to listen and asked is this where the noise is coming from or something similar and I said yes and I also mentioned the noise (not then though) along ceiling.

When he went outside to do mains check neighbour next door approached him and I went out as I wondered what it was to do with her - as it turns out and I had not been aware of this was that she could hear the loud banging noise from pipes and something like a bubbling boiler (which worried her) and informed him of what she could hear and that it woke her up at night. That it had been going on for years.

 I said I'm glad you said what you said  as over the years I have gotten the impression that the landlord thinks I'm making up my reports of the noise - or something.

Anyhow, plumber replaced ball cock ( said something about valve) in upstairs loft water tank to see if that fixes the problem and off he went.

Later in early morn I could hear water pressure noise - then the banging pipes, but not as bad as it usually is. Will give it a little while to hear whether usual noise returns.

Also have surveyor coming about water leak in hallway. Discovered that part of wall near my bedroom window is a bit damp as wallpaper bubbling and whole strip came away easily. No water coming down wall though as far as I can see.

Update 22 Sept 2015
Surveyor came the other week to inspect the water damage on the wall in hallway and in bedroom, he said something about condensation and used one of those hand held gadget things against the walls which bleeped and red light and high number read and I asked him did it mean the wall was damp and he said yes. Then something about having to get into flat above and pull up things, then off he went.

Then plumber came today to inspect the walls in flat (and part of ceiling which is crumbling apart) then looked out of b/r window and said the outside wall was wet, which at the time I thought yeah its raining, but later had a proper look and saw what he meant - see below pics

and

Then he went to flat upstairs and I didn't see him again.

Hopefully the having-a-look stage has finished and the work that's needed gets underway soon.

Update 30 Sept 2015
The toilet overflow pipe for flat above which is situated on wall of patio/balcony below toilet window has water coming out of it. I'm guessing the plumber who came to inspect both flats on the 22 Sept 2015 would have seen the water.

No word yet from repairs team since plumber came on 22 Sept 2015  about further appointments.


Update 18 October 2015
Roofer came last Monday to look at upstairs patio - was up there about 5 minutes then left.

Has been 2 months now since I reported the damp patches to landlord - a number of appointments to look at things but little else as far as I am aware.

Update 27 October 2015
Found out from tenant above that she has another appointment this week for plumber or whoever to look at things.

As far as I know water is still coming out of tenant above me toilet overflow pipe which comes down onto the patio roof, which has to be replaced apparently. Am still getting water coming down the wall in hallway, can't really see if it comes down on bedroom wall as much as though it is damp the layer of paint beneath the wallpaper that came off, is still on the wall though some of it is bubbled so can't see the water so obviously as hallway hall. Outside wall below part of patio where the inside damp is, is notably wet.

31 Oct 2015
Plumber came and changed ball cock in upstairs toilet re toilet water overflow pipe and had a look again at the damp walls in my flat and damp wall outside my window.  Said something about moving upstairs water overflow pipe inside. Said something about trying different things to see if its works. Time will tell - so far no noticeable water coming down hallway wall since about Thursday. 

These things can take some time what with making appointments suitable for tenants and whatnot.

3 Nov 2015
It has been 5 days now since plumber came and changed ball cock in upstairs flat loo and I haven't noticed any water on hall way wall. Guessing  the toilet overflow was part of the problem, which has now been fixed. The next test I think is for when it rains heavily to see if water comes down wall and if so then report it to landlord.

Once the problems with the flat above have been sorted out and the water has stopped coming into my flat, I will have to get onto landlord to re- report the damage the damp has done to my walls and part of the hallway ceiling. I will re-report it because the landlord doesn't work in a joined up way in such matters.

Dec 17 2015
A plasterer from the landlord came to look at the damage to the wall in the hallway and bedroom last week. He hadn't been briefed on the problem and wanted to start when he came but I queried whether the walls had dried out as no one from the council has made this clear to me since I reported that the water coming down the hallway wall had stopped following the ballcock change, he went away and an appointment for next month was sent to me.

The landlord doesn't do internal decorating anymore apparently but have some other process one has to go through.

I don't know if its connected but neighbour has had someone in flat for last 2 days doing some work.  I think they have been using white paint which dripped onto lino floor outside flat door (not cleaned up) and newspaper taped down on floor at flat door, inside flat. No noticeable new painting done in communal area.



16 Feb 2016 post update HERE