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.