Philip Grant received the following message a few minutes ago:
Philip has sent the following reply:
Dear Mr GrantFull marks to Philip for trying and for his polite persistence on this issue.
This being my first day at work in Brent I am afraid that have only just got round to answering your email of yesterday.
The Council’s Monitoring Officer has ruled on this matter and her word is final.
I am sorry that this is not the response you wished to receive.
Yours sincerely
Carolyn Down
Philip has sent the following reply:
Dear Ms Downs,
Thank you for the courtesy of a reply. I realise that as this is your first day at Brent, it will have been a very busy one.I can confirm that this is not the response I wished to receive. I had hoped to receive a response from Ms Alderman, after I asked her last Wednesday to reconsider her original decision.I accept that under Standing Order 39 'her word is final', but that should not mean she cannot change her mind, when it has been explained to her why her original decision was based on a misunderstanding of the true position, and there is plenty of time for her to put that error right.I will still attend this evening's Full Council meeting, and will bring my Deputation with me, so that I will be ready to present it, if allowed by Ms Alderman to do so. Best wishes,Philip Grant
Despite everything, my 'polite persistence' continues [an old Anthony Newley song comes to mind - "What kind of fool am I?"]. Here is my reply to Brent's new Chief Executive, copied to Fiona Alderman, Chief Legal Officer:-
ReplyDeleteDear Ms Downs,
Thank you for the courtesy of a reply. I realise that as this is your first day at Brent, it will have been a very busy one.
I can confirm that this is not the response I wished to receive. I had hoped to receive a response from Ms Alderman, after I asked her last Wednesday to reconsider her original decision.
I accept that under Standing Order 39 'her word is final', but that should not mean she cannot change her mind, when it has been explained to her why her original decision was based on a misunderstanding of the true position, and there is plenty of time for her to put that error right.
I will still attend this evening's Full Council meeting, and will bring my Deputation with me, so that I will be ready to present it, if allowed by Ms Alderman to do so. Best wishes,
Philip Grant.
Well done Mr Grant on going for the full Andy Dufresne on them:
ReplyDelete"Write a letter a week, they can't ignore me forever". From Shawshank Redemption.
That they're having to have these discussions over allowing you to speak is making a strong point and should at the very least induce some narcissistic injury.
At a later point it will make an interesting Freedom of Information request to find out their email discussions or if thats declined a subject access request under your name.
Bw,
Scott
Dear Scott,
DeleteInterestingly enough, I did try an FoI request to get hold of the email discussions between the then Legal Director (Fiona Ledden), Christine Gilbert, Muhammed Butt and the then Mayor, over the decision not to allow Martin Francis to make his Deputation to Full Council (on the appointment of a permanent Chief Executive for Brent Council) a year ago.
I had written to the Mayor, asking him to use his right, as chair of the Full Council meeting, to allow martin to present his Deputation, when Ms Ledden had unfairly ruled that he had submitted his notice to make a Deputation outside the time limit (but inside the time limit set out in a "tweet" issued by the Council inviting people to submit Deputations!). The Mayor emailed me to say that he had passed my request to Ms Ledden to consider.
Cllr. Butt told Martin in the Civic Centre, just before the meeting, that he would not be allowed to present his Deputation. The Mayor, when the item came up, simply said 'There are no Deputations', and when this was queried by Cllr. Warren, Ms Ledden advised the meeting that the matter had been dealt with by correspondence.
My FoI request was dealt with by Ms Ledden herself, and her response, three weeks late, did not actually deal with the request itself, merely restating the argument she had made that the details in the "tweet" were 'in error'. I asked for an internal review, and when the reply to that was given (by the Assistant Chief Executive, just before he was made redundant) stated that there were no such emails or other communications. That's the trouble with electronic communications (its easy to delete or not save them), you can pretend that they never existed.
On past experience, I won't be making an FoI request this time. But if you or anyone else wants to take it up, be my guest, but don't expect too much from the Council, other than hassle, in reply.
Philip.