Current Councillors

[Username]

There is a lot of hostility within the town for some of our councillors, some of them long serving. I'm aware of and agree with some of the causes of this but of other things I'm completely uninformed. I would appreciate any help you can offer in providing information, preferably with the support of meeting minutes etc but anything is appreciated.

The reason I'm asking is this: I agree completely that being allowed to serve our town as councillor is a privillage not many get and the duties should be carried out respect and care. Anyone who falls short of the expected standard should rightly be held to account.

I have two examples of this so far:
Cllr Angie Wilcox was sentenced to prison for theft and fraud.
Cllr Shane Robert Moore was convicted of drink driving and sentenced to a 2 year ban, 60 hours of community work and to pay costs.

In both of these examples an elected official has fallen far short of what we would all expect.

[mk1]

Private Eye Issue 1311  April 6th-19th 2012


  STRANGE goings-on in Hartlepool,
  where a website set up by community activists critical of the council has been crippled by a cyber attack. "High Tax Hartlepoo1" has been a thorn in the side of Independent elected mayor Stuart Drummond and the otherwise Labour-dominated council. Its latest campaign investigated the award of a council contract to an organisation run by two councillors that wasn't put out to tender. Cllr Angela Wilcox and her boyfriend Ray Harriman are both managers of the Manor residents association and its offshoots which, according to High Tax Hartlepool, have received over the last two years, either directly from the council or channelled through the local authority, more than £lm in funding for community projects. The website has also raised the issue of family and friends of Cllr Wilcox and Mr Harriman being employed by their organisation in jobs which were not advertised or open to the general public. The main concem has been a council contract worth £640,000 that went in 2010 to Who Cares (NE), an offshoot of the residents association, which has Wilcox and Harriman as directors. It was not put out to tender. Another director at Who Cares is Labour councillor Kevin Cratmey. In 2000 he was banned from holding company directorships for a period of five years after the Department of Trade and Industry labelled him "incompetent". Newcastle crown court heard that Cranney had carried on trading with a security firm, Mutual Securities, months after he knew it was insolvent. He failed to pay off creditors and ran up huge debts. The firm was wound up in February 1996, owing £305,6l5. High Tax Hartlepool had just announced it was following up its story about Manor residents  with fresh allegations when it came
under a sophisticated cyber attack. From whom, it does not know.

[mk1]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3034489/Mayor-sacked-funeral-fib-Shameless-Hartlepool-council-leader-given-compassionate-leave-visited-warship-instead.html

[Inspector Knacker]

There is a lot of hostility within the town for some of our councillors, some of them long serving. I'm aware of and agree with some of the causes of this but of other things I'm completely uninformed. I would appreciate any help you can offer in providing information, preferably with the support of meeting minutes etc but anything is appreciated.

The reason I'm asking is this: I agree completely that being allowed to serve our town as councillor is a privillage not many get and the duties should be carried out respect and care. Anyone who falls short of the expected standard should rightly be held to account.

I have two examples of this so far:
Cllr Angie Wilcox was sentenced to prison for theft and fraud.
Cllr Shane Robert Moore was convicted of drink driving and sentenced to a 2 year ban, 60 hours of community work and to pay costs.

In both of these examples an elected official has fallen far short of what we would all expect.

Any more names you'd care to mention?

[mk1]

Private Eye 1371 25 July-7 Aug 2014

page 11.

Unholy Alliance

Meanwhile in Hartlepool, the Labour councills leadership has also put up two fingers to an independent remuneration panel. It had suggested too much was being paid in special `responsibility allowance (SRA) to Jim Ainslie and Kevin Cranney, councillors who chair its twoneighbourhood forums. They each get £3,495 a year. As the forums only meet four times in 12 months, they pocket more than £870 per meeting.
The panel suggested the annual SRA should behalved to £l,747, but Labour ignored this, with the support of its Conservative allies.
Eh? Although Labour holds 19 of 33 council seats, to get the annual budget through it needs the help of the Tories (three seats) to achieve a two-thirds majority. Nothing bridges the political divide better than money! The panel had not called for any change in an allowance of £3,400 to the leader
of the largest opposition party, Putting HartlepoolFirst (PHF), which has four seats. But that has now been changed for the benetit of the Tories.
The £3,400 is now split three ways between PHF (50 percent), Tories (33 percent) and Ukip (17 percent), which has two seats.
Tory group leader Cllr Ray Martin-Wells gets to pocket £1,130 from that deal, but in a move that recognises his help in pushing through Labour policies he has also been made chair of the audit and governance committee, which gives him a further £6,267 on top of his basic allowance of the same amount. His job will be to scrutinise and challenge decisions made by Labour leader Christopher Akers-Belcher, who chairs finance and policy. No doubt the six grand will help him be all the more rigorous!



Private Eye 1373 22 Aug- 4 Sept 2014

Page 16

FATAL LABOUR COMPLACENCY #2:
lt is, obviously, a mark of honour to appear in Rotten Boroughs - but there's no need to be smug about it. In Eye 1371 we wrote about two Hartlepool councillors who were each a trousering £870 every time they attended neighbourhood forum meetings, which last barely two hours. When asked at a council meeting about whether his £435-an-hour sinecure was good value for taxpayers, Cllr Jim Ainslie ignored the question and thanked the "Hartlepool ,Post", a local website, for contacting the Eye with the story (it didn't). He then told the meeting that days after the story appeared he had been contacted by a long-lost friend he had not heard from for more than 45 years, who had read about him in the Eye -earning him a round of applause from Labour and Tory councillors. With councillors of such a high calibre, no wonder Labour can feel secure in its old northern strongholds.



Nov 11 2014

MORE fun and games in Hartlepool involving the
mayor, Cllr Stephen Akers-Belcher.
He is fighting off repeated attempts in the
council chamber to have him suspended while
his appeal against being sacked by Newcastle
city council is heard. It leaked out that in the
summer he had been fired from his job as a
care home manager. He claims he got the push
for whistleblowing, which Newcastle strongly
denies.
At the last council meeting this was raised
again and he left the chamber, declaring an interest.
In his absence, business moved on. Councillors
wanted to know what former trustees Akers-
Belcher and Cllr Paul Beck had to say about
former Labour councillor Angie Wilcox being
charged with fraud in connection with her time as
manager of the town's Manor Residents
Association.
Cllr Beck stood and read a prepared statement
in which he denied he and Akers—Belcher had ever
been trustees of the charity. But the opposition had
done its homework. It has copies of their register
of interests lodged with Hartlepool council, which
show they were both on the board of the residents
association (Eyes passim). There is also a copy of
an email from Beck, dated 7 July 2013, notifying
the council's chief solicitor, Peter Devlin, that the
councillor was standing down from the board. The
Charities Commission treats board members as
trustees.
Manor Residents Association is back in the l
news because fonner councillor Wilcox has been
charged with conspiracy to steal, two counts of `
false accounting and ll counts of fraud. A 57-year-
old former staff member and a 27-year-old woman,
understood to be Mrs Wilcox's daughter, have l
also been charged with conspiracy to steal and
fraud. Mrs Wilcox, and her daughter Sarah Stead,
were arrested at the charity's offices in October
last year after Cleveland police's economic crime
unit launched an investigation into complaints of
financial irregularities.

[Username]

These are the two involving criminal acts of which I'm aware and like I said I'm unaware of somethings which is why I've created this thread for people to share.

[mk1]

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/business-ban-for-former-councillor-1-989048


BUSINESS BAN FOR FORMER COUNCILLOR

FORMER councillor who ran up debts of more than £300,000 at a security firm has been banned from running a business for five years. Kevin Cranney, who represented the Rift House ward in Hartlepool until 1997, carried on trading with Mutual Securities months after he knew it was insolvent. He failed to pay off creditors and ran up huge debts in the hope a buyer could be found for the failed firm. The company eventually wound up in February 1996 owing 305,615. Yesterday s successful director s disqualification at Newcastle County Court brings to an end a four-year legal battle for 44-year-old Mr Cranney which has seen him cleared of theft but ultimately fail as a businessman. The hearing was brought by the secretary of state for trade and industry who felt that Mr Cranney was incompetent as a director of Mutual Securities. Prosecutor Jonathan Holmes said Mr Cranney hid behind a series of fraudulent transactions carried out by dishonest staff members that ultimately turned profits into losses. But instead of rectifying the wrongdoing, he turned a blind eye while the debts built up. You should have known what was going on. You re the director, said Mr Holmes. This wasn t even rectified after directors had their fingers burned not once but twice by previous staff. Mr Cranney was invited onto the board of Mutual Securities the trading arm of the Owton Fens Community Association as an unpaid non-executive director in 1992. His knowledge of fundraising and grant applications was seen as useful. The company s aim was to find security guard work for people from areas of high unemployment or decline. Contracts included Hartlepool Borough Council, Mill House Leisure Centre and a nightclub. The company began to do well but the fraudulent activities of two former employees led to its ultimate downfall. Specifically, accounts manager Alan Hart jailed for six months in 1996 for stealing almost 12,000 from the firm to fund a luxury lifestyle. Hart was responsible for paying creditors as well as the monthly Inland Revenue and VAT returns. But he failed to cough up for months on end, instead telling directors, including Mr Cranney, that everything was under control. Mr Cranney, of Stockton Road, Hartlepool, should never have accepted that explanation, argued Mr Holmes. Addressing District Judge John Wilson, Mr Holmes said: Mr Cranney knew what the position was but there was no howl of outrage. Mr Cranney told you that he never trusted Mr Hart, that he thought he was lazy, that he wasn t putting in the returns but he did nothing about it. Defending, barrister Matthew Caswell said the court needed to be satisfied that Mr Cranney was unfit to run a company. He has been an honest, trustworthy and efficient director, he said. But District Judge Wilson disagreed and banned him for five years. He must also pay costs the level of which have yet to be decided. Speaking after the case, Mr Cranney said he felt he had been let down by justice. This has been hanging round me for four years but at least everyone said it was not for self gain it was for people and jobs.

[Inspector Knacker]

These are the two involving criminal acts of which I'm aware and like I said I'm unaware of somethings which is why I've created this thread for people to share.

Really? It looks as though by highlighting these two cases that it's fairly spread across the political spectrum. Do you believe that?

[Username]

I think it's down to individuals. I'm honestly suprised there is no mention of the recent case on the front page of the post. Even the mail had a write up about it.

I'd like to thabk those who have poseted links etc so far I will review once I get home as reading on a small screen if difficult, replying even harder.

What I want to be careful of is not singling out a single person or party but treating them all the same. Exactly as I treat people, each on their own merrit.

[steveL]

I think it's down to individuals. I'm honestly suprised there is no mention of the recent case on the front page of the post. Even the mail had a write up about it.

I'd like to thabk those who have poseted links etc so far I will review once I get home as reading on a small screen if difficult, replying even harder.

What I want to be careful of is not singling out a single person or party but treating them all the same. Exactly as I treat people, each on their own merrit.

I think you're over-egging the pudding, mate. Here's one you made earlier

(sorrry about the language but it is the tourettes-ridden Blackwood and his TOHP mates)

https://youtu.be/lec1y70tvmc

[Username]

Who made ealier? Not me

[steveL]

No, no the language is definitely Blackwood's and the Video was originally entitled 'Steve Latimer is Hacked'

[Riqueti]

I can't believe who ever made this video put me in it!

I did have to laugh when I seen it though. Cheeky sods have me down as a headlander!

[jeffh]

Over the next few weeks I am looking at creating councillor profiles and post them to this site with a new Topic for each councillor.  This it to try to make this information more freely available.

I am looking at the following criteria -

Re-election date
Employment outside of council
Committee Chairs
Committee Membership
Recent voting record
Income from council duties

I will be compiling the information from the Councillor Profiles, the Committee List and the Constitution.

First off are the Administrators OK with this and, if they are, is there any information I've missed?

[Username]

I think that's a decent idea Jeff, a onestop shop for new and existing members alike. I'd like to suggest we include attendance record such as is shown on the council website to go along with committees etc.