Incompetence or worse? Chapter 4

This is a change from our normal ‘Incompetence or Worse’ series, because this is possibly the most incompetent bunch of people in public service, however if you're patient enough to get to the end, then there is a little video for your delectation and delight.

This chapter concerns a self selecting quango with an appalling history of grabbing taxpayers’ money whilst rewarding themselves with ever more of our hard-earned.

Yep, you’ve guessed it, it’s North Yorkshire police authority (NYPA) once again.

This little band of people are in charge of North Yorkshire police, and are, in their own words,

‘Open and Accountable.’

Oh Yes?

After years when they increased our precept by amounts such as a staggering 42% followed by an eye watering 76% so that we’re now paying around 4 times as much for our policing as a few short years ago, what have we actually got for our money?

Well we DO have a best value team, and they have reported as follows:

The Best Value team has:

• produced an article for the NYP News magazine
• produced posters that have been distributed across the organisation
• updated the intranet sub-site
• put out a “Message of the day” to the whole service publishing details of reviews and seeking contributions
• established a communication strategy as a key part of every review

Producing an article for their news magazine eh?

Well if THAT doesn’t inspire confidence, what could?

Mind you, it’s to be hoped that their news magazine really is news, ‘cos their website is still detailing budget requirements for the year 2004-2005, and indeed the report from the Best Value team is from that year also!

No doubt after their employment of a marketing manager – no, that’s not a misprint, North Yorkshire police have had a marketing manager since 2007 – the news magazine will be even more balanced and objective than in the past.

There are 16 members of this quango, and their work load is so little that the chairman, the Gorgeous and pouting Jane Kenyon, has time to chair the Authority’s Leadership and Strategic Planning Boards; be a Conservative County Councillor for the Mayfield Division of Whitby since 1989; be a Scarborough Borough Councillor, serving as Deputy Mayor of the Borough of Scarborough from 1989 to 1999.

Formerly a Whitby Town Councillor, she served as Mayor of Whitby for three years and Chairman of Scarborough Safer Community Partnership. Jane is also a primary school governor, Chairman of Whitby Regatta and a non-executive director of Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Health Trust. She gained business experience in the health service and property market fields. She is a member of the APA’s Leadership and Community Leadership Police Group and Finance Lobbying Group.

All these and more Jane has done whilst being chairman of NYPA!

Phew!

She certainly earns the miserly £16,000 plus she gets from chairing NYPA, AND she has to attend at least 4 meetings a year.

Unless there’s a reason she can’t.

So onerous is this that the authority reduced the meeting number from 6 a year to 4,

Well done!

There are other small payments of course, up to £217/day for actually attending meetings, plus mileage allowances, meal allowances etc. but these are small beer.

Up to April of last year they had a clerk, one Jeremy Holderness, to take down notes, issue the minutes and so on, but they no longer have a clerk, instead they have a…

Wait for it...

CHIEF EXECUTIVE!

Still the same Jeremy of course, but no doubt on an enhanced salary structure more concomitant with his title.

And his first job in his new position?

Well if you look carefully, you’ll find that he needs an assistant, and so that there is now an…

ASSISTANT CHIEF EXECUTIVE!

Isn’t it easy to spend public money, OUR money?

NYPA has now been lambasted by auditors over its handling of finances.

This bunch of highly rewarded and unelected people which has shown scant respect for the public purse under its stewardship, what with fleets of leather trimmed Discoveries for inspectors’ personal use, and £28,000 showers for Chief Constables, has come under fire again for its lack of financial competence, the local M.P. calling it:

“A level of financial incompetence of classic proportions.”

Their response?

This is from the clerk - sorry - chief executive:

“It shows people that we are exercising strong governance.”

You couldn’t make it up, could you?

But perhaps we'll now see some level of accountability, with some members, or maybe even the chairman, resigning? After all, whilst she has overseen a quadrupling of cost for North Yorkshire taxpayers, it appears that the handling of those finances has been, very much less than satisfactory.

Don't hold your breath.

Would YOU give up such a nice well paid job, where however badly you did, you couldn't get sacked?

We in Craven have two members of that authority,

Polly English and

David Ireton.

Polly and David, as ordinary members, only receive a little over £8,000 for their allowances, and a quick scan of the meetings listed under 2007/8 shows that Polly has attended at least 4 meetings, and David at least 5!

Both of these have been mentioned by Paakwa before, David as the man who used his second vote as chairman of Craven district council to vote for the best person to take over that job for the next year.

Himself.

Yes, David Ireton used both his votes for no other than David Ireton to carry on receiving the chairman's allowance, and Polly is the only person to claim more in household allowances for Information Technology than David.

Most councillors get one allowance which pays for their computer, telephone line etc. but David gets two, once for being an Independent Craven councillor, and once for being a Conservative county councillor.

The English household however tops the poll with no fewer than 3 lots of IT allowances!

That’s the way to do it!

Oink Oink!

Now here's the promised video, which has nothing to do with North Yorkshire police authority, but something to do with Craven.
As always, to watch the video, click on the little arrow at the bottom left hand side, and apologies to Bill Blake, a great poet whose work has now got the inimitable Paakwa touch.