Donna Hall snubs Court Order

OK some people will be saying another blog post on Donna Hall. Hell yes! What this woman has done to us tax payers, the only person EVER to have made a make a judge say that they have to use EXCEPTIONAL circumstances because of her behaviour in hundreds of years worth of elections. I mean ther ONLY one ever to make a judge stop an illegal eelction.

But it doesn't stop there. Yes there will be always cases where people may not agree how their Local Council's spend tax payers money but that doesn't mean it is illegal. However, below in this blog post is the court order signed by Mr Justice Spencer and it is clear that he ordered Donna Hall to pay for all the legal costs. It is cystal clear! But yet I have confirmation from Wigan Council that she didn't and it was them that paid the bill.

Therefore, Donna Hall has snubed a High Court Judge that sits on the Queens bench and ignore his order where he - correctly - said she had to pay the bill.

Now that she has paid the bill using Wigan Taxpayers money she is incontempt of a High Court Order. I have therefore asked the Leader of Wigan Council and their head of Legal Services to confirm that they will getting the money back of her? If they do not I will make the High Court and the Police that she has ignored a High Court order.

I guess if someone else wanted to pay her liability that would be OK, so long as it is THEIR money to pay with. Wigan Council had no right to use our money for her illegal actions.

Below is the court order and underneath that is the guyide to a fit and proper person needs to be and do as a returning officer. Haave a look at the bottom of page 3 and page 4 where it says the returing officer is personally resonsable. This for me shows contempt of court by her. Also who at the Council authorised the illegal payments her?

Also it shows that yet again she lied. She always said once the election had been called it could not be stopped unless it was done by the Court. At the bottom of Page 3 it says she is allowed under legislation that if she makes a mistake then she is allowed to correct it. So she could have stopped it without even being taken to court.

Once I get  a response from the Council I will update the blog. If I don't get a response I will make the courts and police aware.

Donna Hall to go early....here's why....

Many will know I have said that when it was announced that Donna Hall would be retiring next summer I said that she probably wouldn't make it that far. I had a number of reasons why I said that.

One thing that some, not many knew, was if Donna Hall had stayed on till Summer she would have been the returning officer for the Local elections next year.  But there was no way I was going to let that happen. Paul Maiden, the successful candidate for Hindley Green, said there was discrepancies in his election - which he has evidence off, but given he won why chase it? Also with the mess of the illegal action earlier in the year against Cllr Steve Jones I have been working on whether, and Labour and the Council were aware of this, we could challenge her position as returning officer?

There is a also a number of legislation to cover what they call, "fit and proper" person test. The case where Cllr Steve Jones took the Council and Donna Hall to the High Court, the judge ordered the costs against the Returning Officer. Wigan Council paid the cost, meaning the taxpayers did, which is wrong! They are also meant to have insurance. Therefore, for instances like this case the insurance company would pay the liability and not the taxpayers.

Statue law says," As RO you are subject to breach of official duty provisions. This means that if you or your appointed deputies are, without reasonable cause, guilty of any act or omission in breach of official duty you (and/or your deputies) are liable on summary conviction to an unlimited fine (Section 63 (1) and (3)(b) Representation of the People Act 1983."

Therefore I have said to Wigan Council she has broken the criminal law.

Also the law says, "Your duties as Returning Officer are separate from your duties as a local government officer. As Returning officer you are not responsible to the council but are directly accountable to the courts as an independent statutory office holder. While you can appoint one or more persons to discharge any or all of your functions, you cannot delegate your personal responsibility for delivering the election (Section 35(4), 63(1) and (3) (b) Representation of the People Act 1983 refers)."

So with all this mounting up Wigan Council decided that enough is enough and to dump her quick because if they allowed her to be the returning officer next March when the Local  elections are called and then I took her to court as not as a fit and proper person under legislation mentioned above then that would put a question mark over all the local elections in Wigan. So Labour have decided to get rid of her now, well February next year, just before the local elections are called and have a new returning officer.      

Even though she is going sooner I am still pushing the fact that taxpayers in Wigan do not pay the bill for her illegal actions as the law states - we shouldn't - the returning officer should!

Northern Rail leave disabled man stranded

No you are not getting off the damn train

Many that may follow me on Twitter how much I hate Northern, the rail franchise that run the train service in the North of the UK. Trust me I am neither in the minority nor on my own thousands hate them too. No, let me correct myself there – ten of thousands hate them.

The cock up on a monumental scale each day and then say well we are sorry. Then do the same thing again the day after. For me that makes them not sorry. And all the while that they cock up they are taking millions out of the public service for their German Government owners.

So I wanted to let people know of the most hideous cock up last Friday. The 6.48am from Wigan to Alderley Edge last Friday a lady got on the train at Wigan in a wheelchair. He was put on at Wigan with a pushchair via a ramp they put on between the platform and the train. He is at the mercy of the staff to put the same ramp out at Manchester, so he can get off.

 Anyway last Friday they didn’t do this and he was left on the train to Stockport. Half an hour extra. Then the train was delayed there and a passenger went for the guard. They then had to take him off move him to another platform and get a train back to Manchester Piccadilly. He was over an hour late for work.

Sorry for the language at this point – but what a fuck up! Really leaving a disabled person on the damn train.

If this was an isolated incident you may say damn what a cock up, but these types of things happen all the time including the cancelled, delayed, short forming trains every day. I have read online where people are now getting sacked due to the continuous delays and cancellations as well.

The simple answer is that they should not be allowed to take the millions out of the public service if they run it in this way. We are paying for failure, I am sure the phrase is pay for success – therefore the law needs to be amended.

Taking Wigan Council back to court for mis use of powers

A number of you will have heard that yet again Wigan Council has brought illegal sanctions and misused their powers this last week. This is because a Labour candidate Gina Merrett, who stood for Hindley Green Ward unsuccessfully, claimed that Cllr Bob Brierley broke the law by sending a leaflet out with the independent Candidate Paul Maiden to support him over the Labour Candidate.

It is clear as day that Labour and this woman are spitting their dummy out. First they ran to the police – who said that they are not getting involved as he hadn’t done anything wrong. The Labour Candidate then ran to the Electoral Commission claiming foul play. Yet again they told her to sling her hook. She must have thought where do I turn now? I know let’s get the Labour control Council investigate him for a breach of code of conduct.

For many this means nothing. In a nutshell it means when Bob Brierley sent this letter to support the independents candidate was he acting in his official capacity as a Cllr or as a Private citizen? Anyone with one ounce of sense knows that he was doing it as a Cllr. There are a number if cases that have proven things like this are in fact being done as a private person, including the Former London Mayor, Ken Livingstone who made a nazi slur to a reporter and he was going to be banned for 3 moths from public office. He took the then standards board of England to the high court and won easily.

I am not a big fan of Bob Brierley, in fact I am not a fan of his in any ways but I despise the fact that Labour are using mine and your tax payers money for political slurs on opposition Cllrs they don’t like. Over a million quid so far with all these slurs. Add that on to the half a million quid for the attempt at trying to meddle with democracy by trying to illegally sack Steve Jones. Enough is enough!

So with that I, along with others are going to form a new group that will take Wigan Council back to the high court and ask for a judicial review and ask if the Council has over stepped it’s power. We believe it is easily evident that it has.

First, we have already written to Wigan Council legal dept to put them on notice and ask them to sort this mess out and if they don’t we will not hesitate to go to the high court.

Should you want to get involved with the new group let us know. There is an email address at the side of the blog to email me. It is one thing to have political differences but it is another to bully, intimidate and misuse powers for their own political end.

Shut Shops on Boxing Day ?????

So a petition has been doing the rounds calling for all the shops to be closed for Boxing day. I think I have read that it was to give Rail Workers a day off. They have had enough on strikes...lol.

However, as far as I can remember - i'm in my mid 40's now - boxing day was always a shopping day and also we have a threat - the internet! More and more shops keep closing due to the likes of Amazon and other online retailers so closing for a busy retail shop like Boxing day would hit them hard.

But, there is a strong argument - and one I support to a large degree - that there needs to be family time and I feel Sunday trading should be only allowed for small corner shops and the shopping centre like meadow hall and Trafford Centre. That way there will be more family time because I do believe that families are being hurt by a 24/7 / 365 time. In years gone by you worked at saturday it was time and half. You work Sunday it was double time. I agree with those too because if someone is giving up family time which is very precious then it needs to be rewarded but then if these old style pay deals were back in then there would be less business opening on a Sunday. Now Saturday and Sunday are classed just like and equal as a Monday or Tuesday. No they are not kids are off school at weekends.

Back to special days shutting the shops I believe rather than close for Boxing day shops should be closed on New Years day. I always thought that there were 3 days shops had to be closed New Years day, Easter Sunday and Christmas day. 

Here is a link for the petition if you agree but for me I would swap it to New years day.

Inconsiderate Bar Stools ???

So from the headlines I have toned down the language and changed a word to bar stools but I think you all know what I mean.

One thing that has always, and still does, is inconsiderate bar stools that park and block pavements completely so people with prams or people in wheelchairs cannot pass on the path and have to go into the road.

Whilst many may have parked with a wheel on the kerb - few completely block the footpath. And those that do should be named and shamed. I am unclear if it is the Police or the Council that enforce the policy whereby it is now an offence if a pram or wheelchair cannot pass on the footpath. I believe it is in Tameside - which is in Greater Manchester - who are giving people like the one in the picture tickets, and so they should.

However, this picture was taken today (16/11/2018) at 5pm when they were walking their 4 month old daughter down Adelphi Street in Standish. And when we look we can clearly see the number plate so the employers can see it and find the driver and also it is a van for a contractor that does Wigan and Leigh housing. So what does Wigan Council think to their contractors doing this and endangering lives?

Chadwicks to Leave Standish and retirement village to come in its place

So it has been reported that Noel Chadwicks butchers and restaurant will be closing and leaving Standish. In it's place will be a Retirement Village.

So there are mixed emotions online from people and will a retirement village not be good for Standish? Every person will have their own view. It wasn't long ago they got planning permission for a supermarket on the site. That obviously has gone out the window  but a retirement village next to a pub which is a negative but close the centre is a positive.

So I looked further into the company that wants to do the retirement village and what I will ay any old folk out there don't be getting too excited. Here is a link to another of their sites in Preston. £185,000 for a 1 bedroom apartment and £260,000 for a 2 bedroom apartment. Now just because these are the prices in Preston doesn't mean that this will be the price in Standish - they could be more or less but it is a good indicated and wow you could buy a house for that or a bungalow, although not many of them around granted.

I  am not sure what you think but certainly on the high end and I doubt many pensioners would be able to afford these kind of prices.

Stupid or Great? Update with Cllr Steve Jones Vs Wigan Council and Donna Hall

A number of people have been ringing, emailing, texting and asking where the case is up to and if it has gone away? Simple answer no!

As with any legal case there are protocols and procedures to go through. So when, as you will know, have served legal papers against Donna Hall and Wigan Council. This was due to the fact that in the illegal by election whereby Donna Hall tried to sack a duly elected member of Wigan Council - Cllr Steve Jones after she, nor Wigan Council have said sorry to him for what they did to him. As mentioned before they have even blamed the judge for meddling and removing democracy. Shocking!

So after 9 months they have failed to apologise and/ or try to improve things. One of the conditions we said was that the Council and their staff stop harassing Cllr Steve Jones. They refused!

So Steve had no choice but to put in legal papers to go before a High Court Judge on the Queens Bench. When I say we, I mean Steve and myself as I am his McKenzie Friend - legal terminology for a friend helping with the legal case and supporting the claimant.

When legal papers go in the defendants, in this case, Donna Hall and Wigan Council, failed to respond before the deadline. So this week I went back into the High Court on Steve's behalf to ask the Judge now to give judgement against both Donna Hall and Wigan Council. We have been told this would have happened at the end of this week or beginning of next week. Can you believe that Wigan Council missed the deadline? Stupid or Great strategy? More on this in a bit. I mean they have their own legal team and dept and they miss a simple thing like a deadline.

After the deadline Wigan Council and Donna Hall got a newly appointed London Solicitor to ask for more time. Not like they have not had enough in 9 months and several letters including summons, now they want more time. The time requested is saying they need more time to see if they want to defend it. They haven't even made their minds up. Wow!

So the courts have told us what will happen is the judgement will happen and then it will go back before the judge and he will decide whether the judgement stands or if he wants to set it aside/ defer it.If the judgement stand then Wigan Council and Donna Hall will have to pay it. If the judge decides to set it aside then they will wait for their defence - if one comes in again before the deadline. Then a date will be set for the court case.

At the court case everything will come out about what they did to Steve and trust me the public doesn't know the half of it. I know on the Facebook page - Wigan Council What are you doing to our Town? people are saying the police are also corrupt and complicit in this. I am not sure if it is true that ALL GMP can called be corrupt but one thing we found out yesterday is that we can prove that there is corrupt officer(s) in GMP pulling favours for Donna Hall and Wigan Council. Once this evidence is presented - along with the vast amount of other evidences I am pretty sure the head guys at GMP will want to look further at the this. We will also looking to go for a private prosecution against Donna Hall for misuse of power in public office.  We can easily evidence this now with all this evidence.

But more on the title now Stupid or Great Strategy because as Steve said if Wigan Council and Donna Hall missed the deadline on purpose and the judge decides that he will not set aside the judgement and it stands guess what happens ALL this evidence will not come out in the court case and they can blame an admin failure etc. If that was their idea then it could be a good strategy from them to try and keep the lid on all of this. If it wasn't then they were stupid for missing a very important deadline. 

We also understand that Donna Hall has had to inform the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council missing the deadline and judgement could just now go against them. Deputy Leader Keith Cunliffe is telling people that if this happens he will make sure that Donna pays the bill for her failings. Mind you he has even said go and get her. As I have written before it seems he doesn't like her more than most especially when they had a big argument in MAnchester when Donna called herself the Leader of Wigan Council only for the Deputy Leader to stand up in front of every one there and say no you are not. You are the Chief Executive and Cllr David Molyneux is the Leader. On David when I spoke with him about the matter and I said about we were about to issue legal papers he said Gareth do what you need to do on this one.

We will know more on which way the judge wants to go on this either let the judgement stand or set it aside and this will be later next week or the early part of the week after, but we will keep you informed.

This shows how incompetent Northern Rail is

So on Monday 5 November 2018, there was a broken rail in the Manchester Area and this created massive logistical problems for Northern Rail, they say.

So if the unexpected happens we would all appreciate that there would have to be some work around but below is just one example of how stupidly incompetent Northern Rail are.

So the 06.40 from Appley Bridge to Manchester had 4 carriages and was about 25 Minute late. They then tell due to this broken rail this 4 carriage train will terminate at Wigan Wallgate. Ahhh we all think. We are then informed that when we get to Wigan Wallgate there is another train that will take us into Manchester. With using Northern Rail for years I have come to expect Northern Rail tell you anything knowing that they will hopefully never see you again. So we pull into Wigan Wallgate and all the people on the 4 Train Carriage have to get off and then wait with all the other people on the platform that were hopefully going to use our train. That train is then sent back down the Southport line. We then have to wait for 20 minutes or so and then the the next train in is a 2 Carriage Train which was the the train behind the 4 carriage train on the Southport Line.

So now all the people that were on the previous 4 carriage train along with those already on the platform when the previous 4 carriage train had pulled in have to board the 2 carriage train. Impossible! You guess it we then left people behind at Wigan Wallgate and every station thereafter.

But here is the thing. If Northern had to do a work around why not let the first train which was a 4 Train Carriage wait at Wigan Wallgate for the 2 Train which is the 2 carriage train that we all had to wait for anyway at Wigan and then ask all the people on the 2 carriage train to get off and board the 4 carriage train waiting at the Station? Then send the 2 carriage train back down the line to Southport. That way they would have had double capacity and not leaving as many people on the way to Manchester.

Is it me or is that too simple for these idiots that are running our train service/? Either way the train service is getting worse by the day in both directions with me reading that Northern had put out an announcement to people on a train from Salford to Manchester that the train had been cancelled. They were on the train already, how could it be cancelled?

Yesterday I took a picture of the massive overcrowding and then when the train got into Bolton Northern Staff were shouting to people to move down and let people on. The picture is below. How could anyone move? Where is the space for people to get on to? People are already jammed at the doors and when they were about to leave at Bolton passengers had one foot on the platform one on the train so the train couldn't depart and passengers on the train shouting at them to get off the train because they would be late. Only for the people with one foot on and one foot off shouting back you don't want to be late but it is OK for me to be left at this train station and then late. It will not be long now before there are incidents at Stations or on trains and all this is because of the incompetent of Northern Rail.

Where is the gap for any more people to get on when Northern Rail Staff are shouting at passengers to move down. ! question where too?

There is no accountability with politicians blaming each other and train companies just say, Sorry. |They should be stripped of the franchise if they cannot run a even a basic service so come on Tory Government strip Northern Rail off the franchise.

Labour say they would nationalise the railways but do not say how this would make the service better. All the while us passengers have to suffer twice daily and pay for the privilege.

The Country is going mad - what's going on with our Police?

So I have heard about a 70 Year old lady who was at the Police station at the weekend and she used her horn at someone else - who was delaying unnecessarily and then the other person went inside to the petrol station and asked for the police as they wanted to report a "HATE CRIME". Then the police CAME arrested the 70 year lady and then questioned her under caution for this "so called hate crime".

Yet on Friday yet another teenagaer was stabbed to death in London and to date no action or arrests have been made. And whilst yes I agree the Tories have cut the Police to dangerous levels the Police - for me - cannot complain when they are arresting 70 year old ladies for pipping her horn. Really? Have a word!

Now we know of an alleged hate crime in Wigan that I would imagine is costing close to a million quid now and questions need to ask if this is a hate crime at all? Or is it someone using their mates to pull a favour on bogus "fake" hate crime. Surely the Police have better things to do. Again whilst true hate crimes should be investigated and looked at things have to be put into proportion and ask if so much resource on a fictitious crime, in my eyes, should get so much resources at it? I guess on this one all will become clear when someone is ever charged and a court hearing is in place when I am sure ALL will come out and a jury will decide. If this doesn't happen and no one is ever charged, after all the arrests that we have heard about, then questions need to be asked again on whether it was a true crime or was someone wasting police time? Just a thought! 

Donna Hall is Quitting

So, Donna Hall is to go. First the Wigan Today headline said she was resigning then 20 minutes later it was changed to retiring. Not for one minute do I believe she is doing this out of choice. If she was thinking of retiring she wouldn’t have taken on a new role as well recently. It doesn’t make sense! She was pushed but they are being kind to her by allowing her to say she is resigning in a years’ time.

However, with recent events it is not surprising, 2 high court judges lambasting her for her illegal actions and costing tax payers money half a million and growing every day. Another High Court case coming up for damages. Her actions made the Council pay out £15,000 to ex Cllr Jim Ellis for libelling him. Also, her recent bust up with the new Deputy Leader Keith Cunliffe at a Manchester meeting. Let’s not forget the stupid programme she allowed – Don’t blame the Council. Getting the Police to arrest an independent Cllr for no reason and to get them also to break in to former Cllr peter Franzen house and arrest him too. No charges on either of these cases. How much taxpayers money has that wasted?

What many will not be aware of is a pending private prosecution for misuse of public office. This is with regards her actions towards Cllr Steve Jones. That will still be proceeding.

Many people have contacted me today and asked if this stops the legal action against her? One word No! This is because we are taking her to Court as well as Wigan Council. The reason is not to be awkward but in the first hearing at the High Court the Council’s barrister tried, successfully, to say she was acting outside her remit of the Council. OK, well we will take her to court and many will have seen we have served high court papers on her and the Council and there will be further update on that very soon. But even on the matter of private prosecutions you can still get found guilty after you have left office.

But if she is allowed to say she is resigning then she will get her full pension and a golden handshake. After all she has cost the taxpayer there is no way a golden handshake should be given. Many are taking the positives out of this and saying she is going.

Going forward I hope the new Labour Leader Cllr David Molyneux and Cllr Keith Cunliffe, as his deputy, get a truly professional impartial Chief Executive. Yes, one that will carry out the Cabinet’s wishes, that is their job, but one that also recognise the office of all elected members and stop these witch hunts. One that commands the respect of all and one that is truly one that Wigan will be proud off. For me I hope the former head of Finance Dr David Smith applies or someone like him.

Double standards now proven

So how many times do the opposition say it’s one rule for one and another for Labour and those that don’t challenge Labour like the little puppy dogs called the Tories who vote and praise the Labour budgets and cuts.

Well now we have definite proof. Many will have seen over he years when I called a Donna Hall on this blog for being a liar -  the kangaroo court would call me guilty but yet when Labour Cllr Murray calls a female resident on his Cllrs twitter account the Council says within hours no we are not going to investigate it. They aren’t even going to investigate it. The simplest proof yet this this dictatorship has one rule for Labour and their muppets and another for the real opposition. Shocking but not surprising!

They are as bent as a nine bob note and now we have yet more evidence.

Wigan Councillors waste your money AGAIN

Seriously when will Wigan Council ever learn? I see from their continued harassment and bullying of  Cllrs that they don’t like continues. And who does this? None other than the megalomaniac lying Chief Executive of Wigan council and Wigan Labour Party Donna Hall. On the point of lying loads of very clear evidence like when she has,and still spots out, that Cllr Steve Jones resigned. No he didn’t! Don’t take my word for it, don’t take one high Court Judge  for it.  Take the word of two High Court judges that sit on the Queens bench he didn’t and you don’t get much higher than that.

I hear from a good solid Labour feed I have that at a recent meeting she told the meeting she was the Leader of Wigan Council. Although the real Council Leader Cllr David Molyneux wasn’t there Cllr Keith Cunliffe - the deputy leader was and told her she was not the leader but Cllr David Molyneux was and Donna was just the Chief Executive. Now if she thinks she is the leader of the council then she has some major problems as it is not that hard to figure out the structure and if she can’t or she doesn’t want to believe it then maybe she shouldn’t be in the post.

Anyway back to this latest episodes over the years we have seen how Wigan’s a council have blackened Cllrs names illegally and gotten away with it. I say this because up until the high profile case from Cllr Steve Jones no one had taken them to court. Also there was no test case for sanctions but in another high profile high court case another High Court judge said sanctions are illegal.

So Cllr Bob Brierley has been taken again by Donna Hall to the Standards Committee for so call bad behaviour because a Labour candidate who lost put a compliant in. The Council have no remit - none what’s so ever to meddle in politics. But guess what the Council knew all along they could do nothing to him. But yet they hire top lawyers and private investigators on a case where they say via this quango court we don’t like this Councillor. Now for my part I know a lot of Cllr Bob Brierley good and bad. He’s no friend of mine but still Donna Hall and Labour with a little help from a weasel - which we will get back too later - said this guy is guilty.

I can tell you, and I have seen the evidence, that when Cllr Debbie Fairhurst was leader she told Bob she wanted better behaviour from him. He agreed. The council then agreed with Cllr Debbie Fairhust as Leader of the independent group if his behaviour improves them after 3 months they would give everything back to him and start again. Bob got glowing reports from female officers and said what a delight it was seeing him acting the way he was. Then d-day came, the 3 month period expired with all praise for Bob but guess what ? He was refused all the stuff he was promised. Janet Davies - one of the woman complaining today about him told Cllr Debbie Fairhurst that Bob had held his end of the deal up but as she put it there is a certain person and we both know who, is saying he’s not getting anything back. And before the council say their Officer didn’t say this we have emails and o yeah a tape recording of it. I bet Donna would love to hear that conversation. But it demonstrates and evidently shows that Donna Hall is just out to get vampires. Just google Donna Hall and Sleepwalkers and vampires where the unions attacked her.

So this pointless and meaningless witch hunt continues and this quango court has cost us another £100,000 on top of the millions already wasted and they knew they could do nothing to him. Labour come out and say it’s the independents that cost us this money but yet it is the independents who inform the public that the Council is paying hush money to abuse victims in the 80’s. How they sold 170 acres of land to a developer for £1 and then gave them £10 million. The then head of Legal Services screamed across the council chamber to me don’t you dare say what I was about to or we will sue. Still waiting for that legal letter. O hang they can’t sue because it is true and fact.

Now I’m not saying neither side is perfect but one thing is for sure the independents are working for the residents. Labour and their mates Tory Cllrs are trying to hide their wasteful spending. O yeah I did say we will talk about a weasel. So today Tory Leader Mike Winstandley SAR on this quango court to try and legimise it but this guy put in a complaint on me when I was a Cllr in 2010. I lost my seat and the Council said we are closing the investigation down as he’s not a Cllr no more. He insisted, yes insisted, that it went on. The complaint he said was taking hush money or something off Labour . It wasted £60,000 and then the report said I was a private resident and they couldn’t do anything anyway and I wasn’t guilty because Labour appointed “certain” positions to him which he got money for. Why did Labour do this ? Because he keeps quiet on all the scandals. He even praises Labours budget and their cut to front line services.

So here we have the proof don’t call Labour and the Council and you get some “sweeties” otherwise they get the witch hunt going on you.

The State of Politics in the UK at the minute. Labour Conference

What a mess! With the end of the Labour conference you have to ask yourself what on earth? 

Seriously if that is their best then they are not fit to be anywhere near power.

We have heard that they want to have a General election. Of course they do as they think, note word think, that they will walk in. They say that the UK is ready for socialism. Really Looking up the meaning of the word it says in the Oxford Dictionary, “the set of beliefs that states that all people are equal and should share equally in the Country’s money.

The first part all people are equal I wouldn’t think anyone would go against that as we all enter the world the same and we all exit the same. The second part is a bit subject in the sense that we all share equally in the country’s money. If we are talking about the “Country’s money” again I don’t think there would be too much disagree with because why should someone get more of the Country’s money than someone else?

However, Labour don’t seem to understand that the peoples money is their money. They are coming out with some ridiculous statement like we are going to get the rich people’s money. For the record what is the threshold they class poor and rich? Answer not telling you.

They also want companies to give their employees free shares in the company. If someone wanted to set up a company and risk THEIR money then why do they have to share the rewards? People get paid (their reward) for their work. This crazy idea would force some companies not to employ staff but they will hire contractors rather than employees. This would take some benefits and jobs away.

Labour have said they want to take it back into public ownership and again given the travelling public probably most would say OK as it is clearly not working. But Labour don’t say how they would pay for it and even if they took it back at the end of the franchise contracts end fine but for me the big question is – if they take it back into the public ownership how would they do it differently to make it work? What would they do that is not being done now? It is easy to say it’s not working let’s have it back but if they take it back but don’t change anything then what’s the point?

They also say they can negotiate a better deal on Brexit. Well again what is your plan? They say that they want a General Election and if they don’t get one then they will back a second vote but they won’t say if they did get a General Election and won would they offer a second vote? Silence. That for me would indicate opportunism. They say if they don’t get a General Election they should be a general strike. I guess they won’t be meeting a costa coffee for a chat then or down the pub for a pint? Back to the Winter of discontent then in the 70’s.

They say they would scrap Council tax and bring in rates. Northern Ireland use the old rates system and if you bring them in then the average tax would go up by over £400.

One of the most stupid things I heard was from a so called teacher who said that kids should be educated better and that way they wouldn’t vote Tory. Stupid! Why not teach kids to have their own minds and see the pros and cons and let them make their own minds up? Also this stupid so call teacher say there are no evil kids – well as the conference was in Liverpool I don’t think you would find anyone that wouldn’t say Venables and Thompson who killed James Bulger were evil kids.

On education Labour want to get rid of free schools and School academy’s as they say the owners are getting rich on them. Well let’s look at Standish High. Labour say as that is now a multi academy trust the owners are getting rich of this. Guess who these rich people are? Labour members like Adrian Hardy who was, and may still be, a high ranking official of the Labour Party in Wigan. Just proves that Labour are hypocrites as well.

The truth is Labour don’t want socialism but communism which means that the country owns everything, and you get just what you need back. For this kind of set up look at Venezuela and how that is bankrupt.       

Labour have only delivered hot air and given nothing meaningful and how they would do it differently. Can’t be trusted then!

Lets' talk Rats.......

NO not that one...I know what some people may think this blog post is about but no stop it :-)

Recently a video has been doing the rounds on the Internet whereby  a family were living in a Council house in Leigh but it was infested with Rats and Mice. After months of trying to get the Council to sort the problem the family had had enough and put a video online showing the problem and asking Independent Cllr Paul Maiden and Bob Brierley to help.

They started increasing the traffic and more so got in touch with the Council after they spoke and visited the family. After the video from the family went viral the Council said they would help. At last!

So they said they would put the family up in a Hotel over night. OK Thanks. But the simplest things cannot be organised by Wigan Council. The family of 5 said were told a taxi would be picking them up by the Council. And the Council did get a taxi to pick them up, for a four people when there was 5 of them. Let's put it down to an admin error. So Independent Cllr Bob Brierley gave a lift to one of the family as there was not enough room in the taxi. They get to the Hotel and the Council had organised a room for them. Only thing was it was for a family of 3. (Keeps going down).

For me it demonstrates that very simple things cannot be orgainsused by the Council and they want us to believe they can do more complicated things? Fair play to the great work that Independent Cllr Paul Maiden and Bob Brierley carried out to support the family but it should never have come to this situation. The Council should have helped and supported the family a lot sooner and they only stepped in because they were shamed too.

I have also seen a newspaper article where the Council say the problem of the rats where the fault of the family and not the Council. ( Wigan Council don't blame us it's someone else's fault). The truth was the property was not fit for living in and the drains had broken along with other maintenance issue. The unanswered question is - how many other Council properties are not fit to live in?

Video here

My response to the balony from Wigan Council.

Some of Donna Hall actions, see what you think

So after the announcement that Cllr Steve Jones is suing Wigan Council and Donna Hall and I helped him get the illegal by election stopped she has now come out to try and say to people feel sorry for me because in a private conversation Gareth Fairhurst called me a nasty name ( deserved or not).

So let me just put this out you tell me how you would describe her.

She libelled a number of opposition Cllrs over the years.

1/ Jim Ellis - private settlement was arranged. Cost to tax payers £60K  approx,
2/ Called me a sex pervert on BBC radio 2 and misusing council equipment for access porn. No such case. BBC apologised and settled directly with me, as they were not aware she was going to lie on air and they were genuinely sorry. She has never been invited back on that show since.
3/ Got 5 members of staff to lie and put false statements into the Police about Cllr Bob Brierley assaulting her. Police went and arrested him and for his safety he had the whole meeting recorded on a tape recorder. When the police were saying she had 5 witnesses and he could go down for this he played the tape. Police shocked and dropped everything quickly. What about the lying officers that nearly got an incident man in jail? What about her wasting time. Cost to tax payers over £100K
4/ Got police to raid a pensioners house in Golborne no charges and nothing done about that costing tax payers again about £250,000
5/ Tried to illegally sack Cllr Jones and force him out when he was elected. 2 High court cases - so far - and cost to tax payers £500,000.
6/ Some very very evil things done to Cllr Steve Jones - which will come out in the Court Case.
7/ Number of Standards complaints against opposition Cllrs cost to tax payers over £1 million quid.
8/ Was over the TV programme Don't blame the Council where it saw ridiculous council practises including people stealing. Cost to Wigan Council - irreversible!

Need I go on????

So what would you call someone that acted and did these things? You tell me as I am interested.

Donna Hall - Wigan Council you have been Served!!!!

Many will remember that earlier this year Donna Hall and Wigan Council illegally tried to sack an Elected Member – Cllr Steve Jones – for Bryn Ward. That resulted in me helping him to take both the Council and Donna Hall to the High Court to tell them what everyone else in the world knew that he had not resigned and also the Judge in an unpresented case stopped an illegal By Election with just hours to go before the polls opened.

Many knew the shear lies that both the Council and their Chief Executive pushed out about him. As I was helping him in the legal battled I saw first hand the stress that they were putting on him and also taking anyone to the High Court is not an easy step, nor one that should be taken lightly. We were successful in 2 hearings back at the beginning of the year and with the fact that a High Court Judge on the Queens bench said that Donna Hall had no right to do what she had, and was doing, you would have thought that they would try and move on and resolve the issue and move on. But then again we are talking about Wigan Council here.

Since the by election was stopped and also the judge telling Donna Hall that Cllr Jones had never resigned we asked for an apology to be issued by Donna Hall and Wigan Council. In fact we have given them more than 3 chances to apologise but at the last time they simple and basically said no we are not doing it and when we said we would then after to take them back to the High Court they said do it – in a defiance move.

We then started getting all the evidence together and it is more shocking than what even I was expecting and we have now got so much evidence that moves that Donna Hall personally made things up to suit her and simply ignored the rules. We even have evident that she broke the Council rules and then circumvented the events to make it fit the Council rules – unbelievable. All this will come out. Why? Because on behalf of Steve Jones I have been helping him – at his request – and we have now served both Wigan Council and Donna Hall with High Court papers again and where they tried to call our bluff about going back well we saw no other action after trying to resolve the matter but the Council and Donna Hall were not interested. They still believe they have done nothing wrong and it was the Court who got it wrong at the beginning of the year. The said they did  not appeal the decision because they wanted to save taxpayers money. No, they knew had they gone to the supreme court they would lose again and rather just saying, “Ok we got this wrong we are sorry” they again blame others.

When we get a Court date this will be in public and the evidence that will come out will be so strong that yet again the Council will be yet again taken to task. I mean how many times? First we had the TV programme – Don’t Blame the Council, then illegal by election were by the Chief Executive was getting involved in politics.

In my opinion and seeing the damning evidence we have my opinion is this woman is evil in her actions towards Cllr Steve Jones.

Once we have dates for the hearing we will post them here and keep you update too here too.

Back to court for Wigan Council and their Chief Executive

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It has been a while since I have written on the blog and I have had some time out and for me. Doing some things I love like my koi and golf and time with the family. It is not a big secret that I suffer from depression and battled this for over 5 years now. For the first 2 years when it started no one knew except just one person. Not even my best friend - as I hid it. Recently I have gone to the Priory to try and resolve the issue once and for all. It turns out that I have a PTSD from something that happened to me in my personal life in 2012/2013. Now I have had some excellent help in identifying it I am getting help from top doctors at the priory.

This blog story isn’t about me that will be in another blog post, maybe if I choose to write about it but this blog post is about politics in Wigan. Hell after all it is a political blog after all. Earlier this year I helped and assisted Cllr Steve Jones in fighting the evil force that runs Wigan Council. I say evil and little did I realise how evil up until recently.

We knew that the Chief Executive of Wigan Council said Cllr Steve Jones resigned when even a 3 year old could understand he hadn’t. But that didn’t stop them from trying to stop him and get rid of him. We all hear about stories and theories. When it came to the court case Cllr Steve Jones didn’t only win but thrashed Wigan Council and their Chief Executive. Up to that point and after that point the Chief Executive, the then Leader and Wigan Council harassed, bullied and slandered Cllr Steve Jones to try and discredit him within the community. We learnt from a number of people what the Council and Chief Executive were saying about Cllr Steve Jones, he was a drunk, wife better and also fruit cake. All not true. All evil lies!

So with the Court case resolved all Cllr Steve Jones wanted was an apology for the treatment he had been subjected too by the Chief Executive, the then Leader and the Council. He asked them twice to do this now and just draw a line under the issue. They refused and even to this day they still say they never did anything wrong and in fact it was the High Court and judges that got it wrong. Funny that seeing as they never appealed their verdict.

Since then we have been collating people’s facts and comments and also what the Council had done. What we believe to be happening went well beyond that. After our investigation we have found out that the Council and their Chief Executive have been running a secret file out on Cllr Steve Jones and were saying he was a drunk and had mental issues. Even if it was true, which it isn’t – the Chief Executive could not tittle tattle about elected members of the Council to all and sundry. Very serious very serious indeed.

What we have also learnt is that they have been running a file on Cllr Steve Jones fiancée too. Secret information and pictures of her. All of this was collated why? No comment from the Council. Another question is how many residents do they have secret files on? They even tried to hide some of the files we already had and when we threatened the Council with the Information Commissioner they relented and gave us some of the info. I say some because I seriously doubt they gave us everything. We are now cross checking the files from the Council with the info that we have.

So where do this leave Cllr Steve Jones? No other option because if the Council will not apologise to him and agree to stop harassing and bullying him and now we know about secret files and emails he is now looking to take the Council back to the High Court.

The Council will be issued in the near future and what will be heard in court will send shivers through people’s spine because let’s remember this is Wigan Council and not some far flung dictatorship. But yet it is easily evident that this is how the Council and Chief Executive acted. No more! 

Cllr steve Jones has asked me to help him again with this legal matter, which I am happy to do like I was at the beginning of the year but this kind of treatment should stop!

Why did Peter Smith Resign?

So after 27 Years Cllr Peter Smith resigned as Labour Leader on Wigan Council. It came out the blue for some but with momentum getting rid of Labour Leaders all over the Country maybe it isn't.

So little was said in the public about him going and reason was muted that he was going to spend more time with his family. First bit I knew was true because had that been the reason he would have quit other posts as well, inc the Lords.

So what was it? Well I can exclusively reveal that the Labour members got rid of him and I have seen a number of Labour Emails about the situation inc the one in this post where Peter is attacking and calling his Labour Cllrs for telling lies about him and distorting the truth - trouble in the mill. What I do know about Cllr Smith is he will be out for revenge and those that ousted him had better cover those skeletons because he will be out digging and exposing.

Now this new direction that they talk about - will it be under Cllr Molyneux? Or will momentum get their person in place? Time will tell but form other emails that a Labour Cllr has shown me they are all fighting like rats in a sack. Cllr Collins and Cllr Ronway fighting for Chairman of the Health committee and Cllr Aldred Jr lost his mum on the Council so he is  wanting to have 2 Chairmanships. Each come with extra dosh. Things must be tight in the household. Mind you just like Labour Ex Cllr Crosby Cllr Aldred's mum has been blaming everyone but herself for the lost.

I love Cllr Collins reason why he wants the Health Committee - ready for this because he thinks he is suitable because he has been ill. Christ good jump there is no treasury post otherwise he would go for that on the grounds he has a bank account...lol.

As for Cllr Peter Smith after the email above was sent they all ganged up on him and was going to vote him out so he quit before he was pushed. I cannot see him staying as a Back bencher. Anyway it will be interesting to see it all unfold.

High Court Action averted

After the last 2 High Court action you think Wigan Council would now try and do things more easily and smoothly. After the the last hearing Cllr Steve Jones was to get his Brighter Borough funds back and this was promised to him. But up until this afternoon they wouldn't give him back nor confirm in writing that they would. But last week they verball informed him that he was not going to get his Brighter Borough funds back. Now under their rules - that's Wigan Council there are only a few reasons why a Cllr can't have access to this fund. I think illegally but let's not get into that now. So under their rules they would not give him his funds back so we had to issue another Pre Court Action Letter. These are the formal notices putting the Council on notice that we are going back to the High Court and informing the court and to ask the courts to order the Council. Under the rules we gave the Council till 5pm today to confirm that Cllr Steve Jones has his Brighter Borough funds after that we would issue proceedings against them immediately.

Thankfully at the 11th hour the Council confirmed in writing to Cllr Steve Jones he is getting his BBF back. We shouldn't have to go to these lengths to get what is rightfully his his as a Cllr and for him to be treated equally along with other Cllrs. Keep watching as I am sure their stupid little games have not stopped. My money is we end back in court in the not too distance future.

Bring Morrisons back to the Galleries

And they are off, no not the Grand National horses but the candidates in this years' Local Election. I have been asked and asked to stand again for Wigan Central Ward. I have been a Cllr there before for 6 Yrs and know many of the residents and issues and since I lost my seat back in 2010 no other candidate has beaten Labour.and residents are sick of not seeing the Labour Cllrs. I was talking to one resident on a recent canvasing session who said back in the day they didn't vote for me but he said, " although I didn't vote for you least I knew were around. Now a days I don't have a clue who the Cllrs are which says to me they are doing nothing." Interesting!

So one big issue that has been recently reported in the Wigan Observer and online is the fact that Wigan Council has now bought the Galleries as Wigan has become a ghost town with just low value shops like pawn and loan shops. As well as an abundant number of empty shops. The market has been left to go to ruin as the Council forced high rates which drove the traders away.

So here is my first idea, well one brought to me, the first thing Wigan Council should do is bring back Morrisons in the Town Centre. The amount of people that shopped there from the older generations especially is huge. To be fair I don't have shares in Morrisons or shop there but they could approach other supermarkets as well if they so wished and that would be a start to turning things around in the Town Centre. Because they own the galleries outright now they could offer attractive rent and rates to get them back into the Town Centre.

Vote Gareth Fairhurst

Wigan Independents

May 3rd 2018

Get involved

With so much happening in politics at the moment people are sick of the main parties and are being turned off by them. The Labour Party is, if not already, been taken over by the far left of the party. They are so far left they communists now! The Tory Party, well does anyone know what the Tory stands for these days. In fighting as usual and they are all waiting for the Local Elections to be over so they can do what they do best - sack their leader and get another one in.

The Wigan Independents are made up of local independents from each area, ie Standish Independents and the Shevington Independents. These two groups are all local and want to work for their areas but then feed into something larger when in the Council Chamber. They all know they want the best for the areas but then want to work with other similar mind people when in there. Unlike the main parties who just work for their parties.

So this May why not get involved with your local Independents, whether that be in Standish, Shevington, Wigan, Bryn, Hindley Green are other areas in Wigan.

There are a number of ways to get involved from simply saying you will post a poster in your window in the election in Period in May. Or you can help go out with our teams delivering leaflets. you may even want to stand as a candidate yourself in your area.

So what ever you want to do to help you can. and don't think it is all work as we all have a good time too.

To get in touch email me at garethfairhurst@gmail.com

Standish voice the truth

So lets go back to the beginning when we had all these houses being proposed for Standish and the residents fighting the council's proposals. Where was this so called Standish Voice? No where it hadn't been formed. Where was the guy behind setting up Standish Voice - Paul Ogden? Nowhere. The reason was he lives on Pepper Lane  and he wasn't bothered about all the houses and mess it would cause as he is a Labour support and didn't think he would be effected.

Now then we fast forward to the bit when the housing sites are set and then a link road comes into the frame. This link road comes out at the side of his house on pepper Lane. Mr Ogden now sets up SABLR - Stop Almond Brook Link Rd. You may have seen the signs on Pepper Lane. Then when that didn't work he came up with this idea of a Neighbourhood plan to try and move the road. Reason many said he was only bothered about the link rd and not about Standish. He even told me at the Foresters where we were meeting and he said that this link road would effect the value and sale-ability of his house now. True!

So we have this Labour Quango Standish Voice and here he is saying he wants to stop the houses but it's all a front. If you look at this planning application on Wigan Council Website - A/18/85091/CU -you will see his houses is getting more land and having a bigger garden and also a garage built. Guess who is the applicant -Bloor Homes. Mr Ogden has also just had his drive done by them and a new kitchen has also popped along - so \I am told. Now then if Mr Ogden truly wanted to run this Standish Voice for the benefit of residents of Standish and stop housing developments why his he getting things from a developer? Truth is he is only bothered about himself. In fact this so called neighbourhood plan that they keep harping on about will show more sites for houses to come into Standish - they don't tell you about that.

Mr Ogden and his wife should immediately stand down from Standish Voice and the committee as it is clear they do not have the interest of Standish at heart only themselves.

What is also interesting about this guy is he is some deputy editor or something at the Manchester Evening News and they didn't even cover the Bryn By Election and the dramatic story that stopped it. I am sure he wouldn't have wanted to upset his mates at Labour Wigan Council with the huge embarrassment that it caused them!
  

Shevington Community school to be flattened

I can exclusively reveal that I have been informed that the bulldozers have been booked to come and knock down the old Shevington Community School that Labour closed last year. The date that they have been booked for is 7th April 2018.

They have plans to get the developers in ASAP once they have sold the site off.

80 new homes being proposed on pepper Lane

.....BREAKING NEWS.....

So a few months ago I got an email from a resident of Pepper Lane Standish saying that a developer had bought a house on Pepper Lane and land. I presumed that it was the one next to the new link road into new housing estate. However that same resident has said developer are looking to build on the land when I have looked into it I can EXCLUSIVELY reveal that a developer has bought the house on bend of Hyatt Crescent It used to be Mr and Mrs Marsh bungalow and it is on the corner of Hyatt Crescent.

Now the developer has had talks with the Council about building 80, yes that's right another 80 new houses. That will be at least 160 cars on that bad bend. Plus that will be nearly another hundred on top of the 600 already there on the old line. That will then take the total of housing into Standish to over 2000 houses. Remember what the council said our plan will keep it at 1000 and I said no it won't. Now we have another 80 houses coming.

Standish Independents will be campaigning hard to stop these houses for a number of reasons. |Standish can't cope, ie roads, infrastructure etc. We have been over developed and enough is enough and finally it will be dangerous on that road.

Standish Independent Cllr, Debbie Fairhurst said, "These developer only care for one thing -money. I and Cllr George Fairhurst care for the residents and community of Standish. These new houses will present a very dangerous hazard on the bend. It will over kill that area with houses and we have simply had enough."

Local Tory voting Fraud

Have a look here at the Vblog I have done one the matter.



This is where Local Tory Cllr voted illegally in the Town Hall. How many more illegal scandals do we have to put up with? Opposition Cllrs getting paid out of court settlement to the tune of 00.000's of thousands of poinds for libel by the council, High Court rulings against the council to say their Chief Executive acted illegally and now this. Over £1.5 million pounds on trying to get rid of opposition Cllrs. How much do we have to put up with?

Here is Wigan Council video don't forget 2 hours and 18 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghz3swZH0II

Ombudsman Complaint

Here is an update with the complaint to the Local Ombudsman. Bit different this time as it is a Vlog.

Donna Hall ordered to pay legal cost.

So after last weeks High Court rulings we can look the admin stuff and start looking at issues on costs. I always said right at the beginning in January if the Council went down the path of this illegal election then it would cost the tax payers of Wugan vast sums of money. What we have learnt today is very interesting.

Before I go onto what we have learnt we have to just cover a legal technical point that the council made in the first hearing that as soon as their barrister knew he had lost he then moved on to a technical point. He argued that the Court could not stop the election because it was being run by Donna Hall in her capacity of Returning Officer and we had only named Wigan Council on the summons. They argued that as Returning Officer she doesn't work for the Council.Therefore she could ignore the injunction, if that was ordered on them grounds. The judge said if that was Wigan Council's argument then it was up to them that they add Donna Hall on the summons as an interested party. That is why we went back the following week - we added her on to the summons personally as returning officer. We all know what happened there.

But at the end costs were award to Steve Legal team - another words the losers had to pay his fees. But when - and we got it today - the judge ordered costs he meant the Returning officer to pay Steve's legal bill. We all know that Cllr Peter Smith Labour Leader on Wigan council will tell her don't worry we will pay it for you but then it will bring him and the Council into disrepute again because they will be paying something that the tax payers shouldn't be paying for.As soon as that bill is paid and we have it confirmed an official complaint will be going into Wigan Council asking on what legal grounds have they got to use our money for her liability?

Donna Hall supporters will be saying leave Donna Hall alone. Did she leave Cllr Steve Jones alone when she was leaking false and libellous stories to the local paper? No! Did she leave Cllr Steve Jones when yet again she got her friends in the local cop shop to go and try and get him again? No! Did she leave him alone when he entered the Council chamber and he was kicked out  by her and the Police? No! Cllr Peter Smith says that he wants people to be held accountable - isn't that funny he only want that for opposition Cllrs but not for him, his lot and his Chief Executive who wastes millions on political games. She should be held accountable and that is what we will be doing now, in future including the local elections and after until she is held accountable and I will make no apology for it.

So it is official DONNA HALL is ORDERED to PAY THE BILL so PAY UP DONNA!!!!

And just for Donna Hall here is a song for you

The legal argument and stuff on Steve's case

#I know Steve is now wanting to get on helping residents - which he has always wanted to help over this period. However, I feel it is important to write a blog post on the legal arguments.

So first of all it is fair to say we all know how the Chief Executive has to be - I want to reiterate the phrase "as to be" - non political. That is the law! We all know that Donna Hall has taken steps to, in my opinion, not only be political but break the law over her time as CE (Chief Executive). Many times opposition members have said lets take her to court. Whilst it is easy to say I know how hard it is to get there and then win. But I always said yes she thinks she has gotten away with it but one day she will go so far that I would take action against her. This was in Steve's case! For a number of reasons I like Steve.and also it is was illegal what Donna Hall had done and she was meddling in democracy.

Steve had had some bad press and personal issues which the council had put in the press. On Friday the 8th Jan 18 they got him in a room at the Town Hall and tried to make him quit there and then - he said he wouldn't for a couple of reasons. So the Council officers, inc the head of Legal Services who is meant to be there to also be impartial and help Cllrs not try and stitch them up.

Because Steve would not resign on the day Friday 8th Jan 18 they said well we can sort your concerns out and say lets do it on the 20th February when you have all your issues resolved with the council. They agreed that would be Steve's intention.

That night the head of Legal Services sent Steve an email and confirmed their cosy deal and asked to Steve to put it out on his Facebook with what his intention were. He also said he wanted Steve to confirm that he was intending to resign on the 20th February. He did confirm that it was his intention. A normal person could see he hadn't resigned.

Later that night Steve rang me just before he posted it on his Facebook page what had happened and he was about to do. I told him not to do the FB post until we had spoken. He did it. On Monday the 8th I visited Steve and we discussed this matter and because he had some time over the weekend and spoke with me he said he wouldn't resign on the 20th February. And so the legal bit started - although we didn't realise it at that time.  Steve sent an email to the Council on Monday 8th Jan to say he wouldn't be resigning on the future date 20th Feb. The following day Donna Hall put out a notification of a vacant seat. She had just had the flipping email the night before but he she was giving two fingers to him, the law and also democracy. We had more communication with the Council and Donna and she wrote to Steve and said she had decided that he had resigned when it clearly said that he would not resign on the day. Now it is important to realise since the previous Friday when the cosy deal was in place that Steve remained on the council website and email system. The Tuesday 9th Jan when Donna acted he was immediately removed. It was clear that week that Donna was not prepared to listen and try and resolve the matter. So after discussion with Steve it was agreed that I would act on his behalf to do the Judicial Review.He would concentrate on the by election just in case.

The Sunday 14th Jan I sent Donna Hall and the Council a pre action letter - I had now put them on formal notice that if they continued they would be taken to court. It was quite clearly spelt out. I heard from one of my sources that the council just laughed it off saying Gareth can't do it. They didn't even respond.

We had to go through the court procedure inc moving the hearing from London to Manchester at the Courts request as they like it to be heard locally. We all agreed.

1st Hearing

So last week at the first hearing I had prepared all the papers and arguments for Steve so we argued that what Donna had done was illegal and should be stopped.The Council asked for it to be thrown out as I had not given them notice of my intention and acted swiftly. Mr Hon Justice kerr said that I had done that on the 14th Jan and although it may not be laid out like a lawyer would do it was quite clear and specific that they knew full well what would happen. They then tried to argue that he had resigned but the Judge said no he didn't and this hearing was to ask for permission to get an injunction to stop the By Election and get a JR meeting for Steve. The judge was damning in my opinion because he said as soon as Donna had received Steve's email that he sent on the 8th  she did not only ignore it but "accelerated" the the election process. He was impressed. He said that he would grant Steve permission for the JR Hearing as he had a very strong case against the Council. The Council's barrister said the judge could not stop the election as Donna Hall, whilst the Chief Executive of the council was acting in her role as Returning Officer role and that is separate from the council and because we named Wigan Council on the papers we served then Donna Hall would be bond by any injunction in her role as Chief Executive but not in her role as Returning Officer. To do that we needed to add Donna Hall on personally as Returning Officer. The judge was not happy and said before the hearing the council should have added Donna Hall on as an interested party if that was going to be part of their argument to not stop the by election. He was thinking of adding her there and then and getting her into his court room the following day so she would be bound by the injunction. The Council said she would not have enough time to get her own legal advice. The judge said at the end of the hearing that the Council should work me and Steve to resolve this mess. Yet another opportunity for Donna to resolve the matter. I wrote to her on the following Friday Night and said we should sort this out and if she didn't stop this then we would take her back to court the following week and stop it. I gave her till 5pm on Monday to do this and respond. She said she had taken legal advice ( we will come back to this in a bit ) and then decided that she would continue with the by election. Now over the weekend I was preparing papers to serve on Donna Hall on Tuesday to take her back into the High Court on Wednesday - the day before the by-election. I knew that I had dropped the ball a bit not adding her on the papers personally at the first hearing but then again the Judge could have added her when the \council said she was separate in her role as RO than Chief Executive. So I knew that we only had one more chance and I started to discuss the case with Piers Coleman and his team at K&L Gates over the weekend with what I was doing and if they would be interested in being instructed by Steve and to take the case on because I didn't want any slip ups. When Donna came back and said no they said to be in their offices in London the following day. Serious money now on the table and the stakes are now higher!

2nd Hearing

The second hearing the judge was not happy and said he was going to sort this mess out and hear the injunction application and and also the Judicial Review. The Council argued that when he used the word resignation on his first email on the 8th Jan that was it, but the judge said if you look at the sentence it says it was his intention. The council realised they were going to lose the argument that he had not resigned so they tried to stop the injunction. They claimed that because 2 people had sign the requisition then the election had to go ahead.  The judge disregarded that saying that if he and another person went a signed a requisition and delivered it to their returning officer then the they would have to call an election even though there was no vacant seat which then brought it back to the Donna Hall who never had any power to call the election in the first place and RO can only take and accept 2 signatures if there is a valid seat.

The Council then argued that the election should go ahead and then if Mr Jones didn't win then we would have to go to court and then have a hearing to remove that person first and then we would have to go back again and have a Judicial Review to put Steve back in. I thought that was what the council would say and that would create more court time and waste more money. The Judge said the election petition was not valid because like he keeps saying there was never a seat vacant in the first place. and therefore if there was a court hearing to remove that person then it would be wrong because there was never a seat.

He said that Donna had not taken legal advice after  I sent the email on the Friday before - her barrister said that was not true as she had consulted Wigan council's head of Legal services on the matter but she hadn't taken independent advice. So we can all see who Donna is going to try and sack for this?  As I have said Donna should have seeked outside counsel advice but she refused to do it. All this mess was her doing for one reason she wasn't going to let the opposition stop her and she was going to win and ignore us and it took the extraordinary and highly serious steps of gong to the high court twice.

So we know the legal reasons for the win for Steve but also you can see it always leads back to one person actions - Donna Hall's and for that reason she should be sacked.

Wow what just happened ??

So after last weeks hearing where Steve Jones took the council to the High Court and won the right to have a Judicial Review. For many this means very little but for those that know a little they will know that they are incredibly hard to achieve. We won that but we failed to get the injunction to stop the election on a legal technicality. To you and me it was the fact that Donna Hall wasn’t in the court room and had she been there I have absolutely no doubt that it would have been stopped by Hon Justice Kerr there and then.

So after that hearing Steve asked me can we relook at this? Absolutely. The issue was we took Wigan Council to the High Court. I believed, and I will say I as it was me that completed the forms and thought this, that because Donna Hall was the Chief Executive and created this mess that would be fine. However, what had happened in the previous court hearing was that the Council barrister argued that Donna Hall was acting as a returning Officer – a position that Wigan Council gave her – but it is a stand alone position. For that reason she had to be named personally on the legal papers and not just have Wigan Council name on there.

So back at it I went to work the case and what happened and what needed to happen and how we moved forward. I had previously been discussing the case with the highly respected solicitor Piers Coleman and those talked continued throughout the weekend day and night.

They had some ideas of what I believed on the case and we talked about me and Steve going back to Court for another injunction but this time putting Donna Hall’s name on there so we could get what we should have gotten a few days before.

On Monday the firm that Pier’s worked for K&L Gates agreed to meet us on Tuesday. Because train tickets were so expensive we decided to drive. I woke up at 2.30am and picked Steve up at 4am and off we set to London.  

When we got there was a simple Wow. It is probably too long of a take to put in this blog post but we stayed working with them all day and left their offices at 5.30pm when we finally knew that we had a day in court the following day back in Manchester. We had to get back to the car which took an hour across London via the tube and walking and we got back home at 10.30pm,

After a very long day we got back in Court for 10.15am for the hearing at 11am.

The Hearing

It became very clear to me that the Judge was not impressed that he had this case in front of him and I knew he was going to be ripping into someone. The legal arguments went back and forth very quickly because the Council said if they lost they would be going to London to get an urgent appeal in. The judge was OK with this – if that was what either side wanted but he got things moving quickly. He basically said to the Barristers don’t tell me something that you have written as I have read them over night.

We had not only applied for the Injunction but for him to listen to the Judicial Review at the same time and to wrap it all up. He agreed but the council didn’t like this. It became apparent that he was going to agree with us on the JR and that Steve never had resigned. Both me and Steve picked this up from the beginning because as soon as he walked in and started talking he was addressing Steve as Cllr Jones.  So now that had been resolved what to do with the election? I know the courts do not and I really do mean do not like getting involved with elections. The council’s barrister had said this and tried to use this as their argument but the judge said he could because it was an exceptional case and he was reluctant, but it was a mess that had been created by Donna Hall’s own doing. Discussions went back and forth people that had voted via postal votes would have to be destroyed but then Steve’s barrister said well what about all the people that voted for him 2016 what about their democracy and votes?

So he said that because he had decided the by election should never have been called he said there really was only one thing to do – cancel the By election. What a result!

At the point Steve’s barrister applied for cost against the council – another word for them to pick the bill up for everything as they had been at fault. The answer was yes and for a number of reason including that I had written to Donna Hall last Friday after the last hearing to say call the election off or you will lose and get a big bill. She had been warned as I put her on immediate noticed. She wrote back to me on Monday night and said No. That was the trigger me and Steve had waited for and we knew we would go to London the following morning.

Now since Steve had emailed her back on Monday 8^th January about his intention changing and then the following day Donna Hall ordered the election. Big mistake! I wrote to her and the council saying to stop this before it goes any further. They pretty much dared to try and get them in court and they always ignored every warning – which there were many. These warnings were highlighted throughout the hearings and she ignored them all.

The judge had said yesterday said that Donna Hall should never have called the election and she never had the power to do so. Also that even when I warned her and told her to stop she ignored it and carried on. All these actions plus many others have left the tax payers with a bill that is huge. She is on over £200,000 and I believe that she should be sacked immediately with no golden hand shake pay off. If the Labour Leader Cllr Peter Smith sticks by her then he is condoning her actions and even to his very day the Council and Donna are claiming the judge got it wrong and Steve resigned. 1 judge said in his opinion he did not and then another said he definitely didn’t. I know Steve is getting back to helping residents but also Donna Hall needs to give him a personal and public apology now!

This is just a small amount of detail on the whole case but hopefully it shows you some of what has gone on and what should happen in my opinion now. There is a lot more and maybe in future posts I will cover them.