Graham Powell has resigned from the Cabinet!

[Denise Lloyd]

I understand that senior officers at Herefordshire Council are still refusing to release the report which they received several weeks ago from South West Audit Partnership Ltd regarding the £9m error made by the chief executive of Hoople Peter Robinson.

 

The public have a right to know how the guardians of the money have acted.

 

Yet another report that we are being refused sight of - transparency transparency transparency ............................

[twowheelsgood]

Important to keep the distinction between Herefordshire Council and Hoople - despite Robinon's senior role in both.

 

Presumably the SWAP audit was for Herefordshire Council and should be transparent. As Hoople is an arms length company, it can keep all of it's dealings secret, despite being wholly funded from the public purse. Talking of which, I note that Hoople have quietly relocated its Training Centre to a refurbished Churchill Gardens - how much did that cost us to bring it up to 'fit for purpose' standard after many, many years of neglect by the Council?

 

Hoople, despite being IT experts, have yet to update their website reflecting recent departures.

[Denise Lloyd]

The SWAP Audit was for HC.

 

Yes I noticed sometime ago that Hoople were advertising events at Churchill Gardens but did not realise they had moved there nice.

 

HC are not good at changing their address either they are still based at Brockington

[Pete Boggs]

Important to keep the distinction between Herefordshire Council and Hoople - despite Robinon's senior role in both.

 

Presumably the SWAP audit was for Herefordshire Council and should be transparent. As Hoople is an arms length company, it can keep all of it's dealings secret, despite being wholly funded from the public purse. Talking of which, I note that Hoople have quietly relocated its Training Centre to a refurbished Churchill Gardens - how much did that cost us to bring it up to 'fit for purpose' standard after many, many years of neglect by the Council?

 

Hoople, despite being IT experts, have yet to update their website reflecting recent departures.

Hoople are not an arm's length company, they are a Teckal company i.e. the Council (and whatever its health partner is called these days) is supposed to exert the same control over it as one of its departments. I'm no expert on Freedom of Information but as I understand it the company's immunity to FOI derives from its joint ownership. If it was solely owned by the Council it would be subject to FOI legislation.  I don't know why being owned by more than one authority should be grounds to make the company exempt. It seems a strange anomaly.

 

Interesting, if unsurprising, that the website hasn't been updated to reflect the departures of Messrs Powell and Robinson. According to Companies House, the latter was never there in the first place.  Couldn't find any record of his appointment being filed and he doesn't appear in the list of officers past or present.  Keeping their paperwork up to date obviously not Hoople's forte. Rather ironic for an organisation with pretentions to provide "excellent business support services".

[Denise Lloyd]

Note to HC and I know you guys keep an eye on this -

 

Please reassure me that there is ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE WHATSOEVER  that Robinson might get a payout from HC or Hoople 

[twowheelsgood]

Interesting, if unsurprising, that the website hasn't been updated to reflect the departures of Messrs Powell and Robinson. According to Companies House, the latter was never there in the first place.  Couldn't find any record of his appointment being filed and he doesn't appear in the list of officers past or present.  Keeping their paperwork up to date obviously not Hoople's forte. Rather ironic for an organisation with pretentions to provide "excellent business support services".

 

Looking at that Companies House link, the auditors resigned in March of this year followed by the Director of Finance a month later. Perhaps Robinson calling himself Managing Director Designate might explain why he doesn't appear in the Companies House filing.

[Pete Boggs]

He seems to have been designated an awful long time - since Oct 2015 according to the Hoople website. Time enough I'd have thought for him to have been formally appointed and the relevant paper work filed with Companies House. Still, this is Herefordshire Council we're talking about.

 

Or maybe he was told he could have the top job at Hoople once he'd got his sums to add up properly?

[Denise Lloyd]

I have been out to day doing my bit for Queen and country and upon my return I have 2 messages thus:-

 

 

 " Have been told that Neill and Hughes are preparing a case to exonerate their fellow mason Robinson

 

and

 

Have been told that PR has been diaried into meetings in a few weeks time , so I guess his masonic friends , ie Tony Johnson and Alistair Neill think they have found a way of exonerating him"

 

To confirm the Robinson is Peter Robinson who had a problem with his adding up.  This must not be allowed to happen.

[twowheelsgood]

Good grief - so is Herefordshire Council run by and for the masons then?

[Denise Lloyd]

Looks like it and if you are going to play politics you have to make absolutely sure that there is absolutely no chance of a leak or two.

[Pete Boggs]

If they exonerate Robinson does that mean he gets his job back, or will they just do him a nice reference for when he applies for other posts? No  mention of the strange case of the missing nine million naturally.

[Aylestone Voice]

Is there any prospect that this thread will get back to its title?

[Pete Boggs]

Is there any prospect that this thread will get back to its title?

 

 

Somebody appointed you Mod then have they?

[Denise Lloyd]

Well it is hard to separate out of this forum now and I am quite sure the GrahamPowell/Peter Robinson thing is sheer coincidence so I don't quite know how it became so mixed.  

 

Talking to somebody today about various things the name NPS Group t/a NPS Property Consultants came up.  I am absolutely certain we had a short discussion on this company sometime ago on HV it could be another one of those arms length companies.   Herefordshire Council were dealing with them at one time I wonder if they still are.

[Pete Boggs]

Well it is hard to separate out of this forum now and I am quite sure the GrahamPowell/Peter Robinson thing is sheer coincidence so I don't quite know how it became so mixed.  

 

 

Because in Herefordshire everything is connected to everything else (possibly via a funny handshake)?

 

NPS seem to be a public authority owned company. I'd hazard a guess that they've evolved into what's referred to as a trading company although they might not have started out as one. They can make profits and  some local authorities are looking at setting them up to  create revenue as central government funding falls away.  Weren't Herefordshire going to use NPS for property management? Certainly the Council's capability in that field has become quite degraded in the last few years.

[Denise Lloyd]

Good opinion in HT of this week hope this now works

 

https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?ui=2&ik=470d858353&view=att&th=155591306ecb14e4&attid=0.1&disp=safe&realattid=f_ipi95bck0&zw&saddbat=ANGjdJ9zD0pmAOjhF5-MXNFYYobeVBZfboF3UnJUeoX5z9ZGEE-dHoFkmTIleEmKQh1_nDmAzxPLP-CQdBDqBlb3qCfxYthKzlAp5xCOrbLTOReLZ12zHOlf32RZFzHeRPPBA2MIaoc3SNhJ9FRbji3D9bl8OObQYdu_lWaSxNURFyu7Huw697wZb6wPnnoyiFYE4ygEJbr72n9HI1PgAKB6Px_J91hX19E_BeIYQiwpQVODsphxu-77okSFj-EKmNZoQSnmE-V4_7Ap9OkkgO7dO4pvVpa4jzfuIVmxE0SiMShA0tjzQj3h9E71LTzpyB5wzZTW0AQ3YFvq80Nrb-eT_pmajVtHPGspiheuz8ngM3mQH56WM_oASms1gvUU1DWKIpTwMZhiajDUJybUqeFucsGuqQfNCAPMWB4dHsSC1qpDZN5-xBLO9QE1AQdEGl9b_4nMLyeOgclnulrraYfFRmJ4Zm57UparCYPT64WExtIHhxJKEGczI_J6FhxZtCPXX3yg_BK8Xc6KWZTrJcCPHdi9QD-CxGthHqSr_jm4blFrBq5dFEaz1j6DVkXAxLO8tO-J655RdEoWVYwbcEBX9FxAX5H2QwVN4w8bVxY89Uw1Lz9b4T4qfdX2WMnVDrkpvWjr63uBMUtxitpG

 

 

Good seems to work ok

[Denise Lloyd]

No doubt NPS are some of Robinson's cronies and used to going massively over budget safe in the knowledge they will still be paid and thank you very much.

 

I do feel very sorry for the genuine hard working staff at HC it must be very demoralising to see all this going on and remain helpless to do anything - a job is a job.

 

However the vote goes next week I hope beyond hope that Councils are put back in order with salaries in line with the county's average and honest people without hidden agendas are employed but that is fairy tale world isn't it? 

 

The opposition parties really do need to start getting their acts together and challenge challenge challenge