B&NES Council's ruling Tory junta expose its authoritarian and secretive mindset

bath | local government | news report Sunday March 08, 2009 11:11 by John Doe

The ruling Tory Junta on B&NES Council "BLACKLIST" housing campaigners emails to Labour, Lib Dem and Independent elected members, emails which expose a shocking disregard for the confidential personal data the council holds on members of the public.

Following the independent investigators confidential report of 19th January to B&NES Council's Tory Cabinet regarding the appalling state of its confidential legal archives, unlawful disclosure of my personal data to the District Auditor, the loss of a legal file containing my personal data etc., which I emailed to all 65 elected members on 15th February, the councils Cabinet responded by "BLACKLISTING" my IP address on the 16th February.

The Council's Leader Cllr Francine Haeberling then wrote to me stating "In future you must put all correspondence to elected members in paper letter form to the Chief Executive Mr John Everitt for approval."

Interestingly only 1 of the 22 elected members, a Tory, not on the council's internal email system
has subsequently blocked my emails to them.

There also appears to be some confusion on the part of Cllr Francine Haeberling (Con) (Saltford) Leader of B&NES Council ie:

"I do consider that the matters referred to have been fully dealt with through the Council's published formal complaints procedure. The Council has been dealing with these matters as a formal complaint." (Cllr Haeberling letter 11 February 2009)

"Given the serious nature of the complaints involving the Council's Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer, the Council's published formal complaints procedure was not thought appropriate." (Cllr Haeberling letter 5th March 2009)

Likewise there seems to be some confusion on the part of its Deputy Leader retired international banker Cllr Malcolm Hanney (Con) (Chew Valley) ie:

"I have copied B&NES Council's Chief Executive this email so he is made aware of the defamatory nature of the material that he is distributing" (Cllr Hanney 31 July 2002) which labelled both Cllr Hanney and myself as "persistent and or vexatious complainants."

Lo and behold six years later the Council's Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer have issued an official press statement with the full blessing of Cllr Haeberling and Cllr Hanney labelling me yet again "a persistent and or vexatious complainant."

The stench emanating from the Guildhall in Bath has nothing to do with broken sewers and all to do with a bankrupt and discredited political system which, as the capitalist shit heap crumbles around them, is retreating ever deeper into the bunker which interstingly contains the command and control centre for the Council's ever expanding CCTV spy network.

Regards,

John Doe