13 January (Part 2) - Hollier than thou
I
am going to try my luck at summarising a three centimetre thick Bexley Council Monitoring Group file. It concerns
a council meeting I attended last June.
As the third to last paragraph of my blog records, at the end of the meeting
Mick Barnbrook asked the council monitoring officer Mr. Akin Alabi a question
which was answered with a reference to a letter Alabi had sent to central government. I heard him clearly,
I wrote about it, it didn’t seem very
remarkable. Little did I know!
When Mick asked for a copy under FOI regulations Mr. Alabi didn’t say he couldn’t
have it nor did he deny it existed. He just ignored the question. The appropriate
government department denied the letter existed
and after it was clear he wasn’t going to be able to see the letter, Mick Barnbrook made an
official complaint - for fibbing I suppose.
Much to his surprise he was invited to the council to put his complaint in
person and John Watson, also of the BCMG and who had been present when Mr. Alabi
referred to the letter that didn’t exist, was called as a witness - at a separate meeting.
I was at BCMG’s meeting when they discussed the invitation from the Head of
Human Resources. I offered my opinion to the BCMG that it was at worst a trap and at best
the council staff would lie and distort the facts. But it wasn’t my show and in
the event John Watson did more or less what he was asked and Mick Barnbrook took
along Elwyn Bryant as his ‘friend’.
John Watson said he wanted to record the meeting but the council kicked up their
usual stink about that. I rather like the HR comment “The Council does not have
a policy that allows meetings to be tape recorded. This has been requested by
reason of accuracy but is not allowed”. Of course it isn’t, accurate records are
the last thing Bexley council wants. So John did not record his meeting, neither
did Mick, and that was their undoing.
Council officers took notes and eventually the official minutes of the meeting
were provided. They put several unfortunate phrases into Mick Barnbrook’s mouth
which he denied and Elwyn, his witness, confirms. I know Elwyn well enough due
to the Craske affair to be sure he would let me know on the quiet if Mick had
opened his mouth and put his foot in it.
The Head of Human Resources, Nick Hollier, says his records are accurate and
implies that is the end of the matter. When asked for copies of the original
hand written notes taken by his minions they are all conveniently destroyed. Except for one set, Hollier’s. And they are not a lot of use.
Mick has been refused a readable translation so is now in the position of being
refused recording facilities and the minutes which he disputes are based on
notes which have been destroyed. Apparently he is supposed to accept without
question that Hollier’s version of events is the correct one and you can begin
to see why Bexley council in general and Human Resources in particular has gone
on the record saying “This [recording] has been requested by (sic)
reason of accuracy but is not allowed”. Accuracy doesn’t suit them. It wouldn’t suit any
professional liar.
And what about the letter that Mr. Akin Alabi said he had sent and didn’t later deny
it? Hollier has ruled that Mick Barnbrook made it up, it was all in his imagination or he
simply got hold of the wrong end of the stick. Which makes me wonder how it was that I
returned from the meeting last year and wrote about Alabi’s letter long before I realised
Mick Barnbrook was going to make an issue of it.
Now he is going to make a complaint about the council officers who falsified and destroyed
their notes. You can see why he has so many fat files and why they aren’t always suitable
for an easy to read blog.