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SALFORD COUNCIL LEADER LEAKS E-MAILS |
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Star date: 10th November 2009 A Salford Star Exclusive SALFORD COUNCIL LEADER LEAKS CONFIDENTIAL GOVERNMENT E-MAILS TO PRESS John Merry Outraged Over `Outrage’ Outrage… Council Leader demands apology off Salford Star and leaks e-mails to prove his point…
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Salford Council Leader, John Merry, has demanded an apology off the Salford Star after we accused him of `losing the plot’ over his statements in the aftermath of the St George’s School victory. Mr Merry put the following (unedited) comments on our website… “Its is shabby journalism of the sort you normally accuse others of not to check your facts. You may accuse me of lots of things, you may disagree but to state that I have “lost the plot” is disgraceful without phoneing me to ask me how I came to make such a statement. I would like an apolgy please.” Following the Schools Adjudicator’s report we quoted John Merry saying “I am outraged that his solution is to shut Harrop Fold and give their building to St George’s”. We wrote that the Schools Adjudicator had never said this in his report and therefore that John Merry had `lost the plot’. And we stand by the fact that the report never states this…it merely suggests that an “alternative approach would be the possibility of SG [St George's] being retained and relocated in the adjoining HF premises”. We took this to mean a sharing of the school (see full article here with Mr Merry’s comments underneath) However Mr Merry has now sent us a copy of highly confidential e-mails between Nick Page, Deputy Director of Children’s Services and the Office of the Schools Adjudicator, where Page asks “Is the suggestion from the letter that we would close Harrop Fold high school and move St George’s high school into Harrop Fold’s premises as a Catholic VA school?” and the reply is “Yes”. Please note that this is a “suggestion”, a “possibility” and not, as Mr Merry states, a “solution”. The Schools Adjudicator doesn’t have the power to impose `solutions’. To keep Mr Merry CBE sweet he can have his `apolgy’ but not having access to the Council’s `confidential’ e-mails means that we can only go on what we read that is in the public domain…and, to us, the Adjudicator’s report still doesn’t say that he’s suggesting shutting Harrop Fold and moving in St George’s – his e-mails might but his report doesn’t. In any case, Page has written to all Salford’s Head Teachers that “The Council has confirmed that under no circumstances would this option be considered”…or is that confidential? PS: When we said that John Merry had “lost the plot” we think he might have misinterpreted what we meant – we obviously meant that he had lost the plot of land on which St George’s School stands…that the Council had already suggested as a future development site for 85 houses.
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Strange story from the Salford Star.what is going on?leaking e mails?
November 10, 2009 by mole45
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There has been no leak following consultation with the chief executive and after informing the office of the school adjudicator the decision wasd taken to place the email in the public domain.
I would hope your reply is offered to a wider group than this blog. From the outside and the story i have read it would look differently than the comman sense approace and the rational behind your commment.It concerns me that we are starting to look rather foolish in the eyes of the people who we claim to represent. We all have our views on the programe to rebuild our schools, but my concerns now relate to the cost factors, the problems with delay, and if the comments that seem to be floating around over legal action. what direction as a council will we be taking. As an opposition councillor i for one feel out of any loop, even some form of update would suffice.I would hate to see a flurry of action and activity that we have had no say in. When decisions are made the Press comment on the council i would like to think that i and my colleagues where part of the greater plan.
Regards
We will try to salvage what we can but noone yourselves included came up with a viable alternative the last time this was debated. That’s why the catholic sector supported our proposals. Given that the Tories have said they won’t continue BSF in its current form its possible that an entire generation of the children you represent may miss out on a new school as a result of this decisionM
Are you really telling us, Cllr Merry, there was no ‘Plan B’?
Nobody had thought ‘what if?’ – surely this one decision can’t put the whole Salford BSF plan in jeopardy can it?
I already thought your administration was terrible – but this is just incompetence. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the adjudicators decision, I’m shocked that you hadn’t considered how this would affect the overall BSF plan.
You are quoted as saying “I cannot describe how disappointed I am by the adjudicator’s decision today which will have a devastating impact on the Building Schools for the Future programme for our Catholic schools in Salford.
This was a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Salford’s children and young people and at a stroke the adjudicator has thrown it all into doubt.”
I ask you again, are you that incompetent you allowed this to happen with no thought for what would happen if you lost your battle with regard to St. Georges?
With regards to the ‘leaked email’ – Councillor Merry, you now seem to be saying that both you and Barbara Spicer accessed the emails (which the council’s disclaimer says in unauthorised) and that you and/or Ms. Spicer copied them (which the disclaimer says is prohibited).
The disclaimer further states that the emails may be disclosed under a Freedom of Information Act request.
I can only assume that you and Ms. Spicer were acting on a documented and verified Freedom of Information request when you released the emails into the public domain?
Either that or the disclaimer is wrong?
I’d be most grateful if you could clarify the situation.
If we could do all we were able to do without merging Ambrose Barlow why would we have wanted to take the difficult decision. Plan B as you put it is in place but it means simply the refurbishment of the schools rather than new schools. I would still like to see if there is any chance we can do better. As for the email I am surprised that you don’t seem to understand that it is legal for the council to place an email in the public domain. It contains no personal information the adjudicator had referred to other parts of the correspondence and it was originally marked as confidential when the decision was still to be made.
John,
Steve Middleton’s ignorance [which you refer to "...I am surprised that you don't seem to understand..."] does not surprise me.
Norman Owen’s right hand [i.e. Steve M] recently wrote on his blog that Joe O’Neill (of Pendlebury Road) lives in what will be the new Worsley and Eccles South constituency!
Norman’s right hand doesn’t [or didn't, perhaps now he does] have a clue about the boundaries of the constituency for which his boss is standing! Extremely worrying if this guy aspires to be his boss’s constituency manager!
And btw the original email was written at my reqwest
John. Thank you for your explanation. My background in IT has given me some knowledge in terms of Data Protection Policy and I assumed that the Disclaimer printed at the bottom of council emails would apply to all. It seems to leave little room for doubt.
I have written to the City Solicitor to ask his opinion on the matter and will happily accept whatever answer he supplies.
For the avoidance of any doubt, I am fully aware where the constituency boundaries of Salford & Eccles and Worsley & Eccles South are, and fail to see what that has to do with IT policy or BSF (or should we now call it RSF = Refurbishing Schools for the Future?)
I’ll be truly amazed if, after all this time, Salford’s much trumpeted BSF programme results in a few new schools and the rest simply being re-furbished. This was not what was promised by Salford Labour. What a pity that Labour have led down our schoolkids so badly.