Leader of Southampton City Council Satvir Kaur Denies Bankruptcy - Just Like Labour Councillors Did in Bankrupt Croydon Council

 

Councillor Satvir Kaur Bankruptcy "Lie" Claim
Daily Echo Website, 20th May 2023

The Labour Leader of Southampton City Council, Councillor Satvir Kaur, has told the Daily Echo that:

"Unlike Hampshire County Council we are not facing bankruptcy. To say otherwise is a lie and political opportunism."

As confirmed by local investigative reporters Inside Croydon, when we asked them about Satvir Kaur's claim:

"Funny. That’s what @CroydonLabour leader Tony Newman said in Oct 2020"

Like Councillor Kaur, Tony Newman, the former Labour Leader of Croydon Borough Council in London, also repeatedly denied a financial crisis. Newman shortly after resigned in October 2020, having plunged the Council into bankruptcy, later with the councillors left having to call Government commissioners in. Labour councillors were voted out. 

Now Croydon councillors want to put the Council Tax up by 15%! And the Tory Government - with the help of Croydon Labour councillors caving in - is going to let them do it! 

Residents are being robbed by Labour and Tory councillors, yet it was no fault of the local residents.

Labour or Tory, same old story? You bet it is!

The Dead Labour Rose of Southampton

Did you know that Southampton Council is in such a dire financial situation? Labour councillors including the Leader of the Council are in denial, but financial experts have repeatedly warned them.

Labour councillors don't want you to know. So we are telling you.

Did Councillor Kaur know? She should, shouldn't she, in her role? 

As well as calling the bankruptcy claims by her own Chief Financial Officer a "lie", Satvir Kaur also denied to the Daily Echo knowing about a report by the External Auditor, Kevin Suter of Ernst and Young. Mr Suter's report issued a warning to councillors that the Council is running out of money, at a public meeting of councillors on 24th April 2023 called the Governance Committee.

Satvir Kaur told the Daily Echo: 

"she was 'not aware' of the report".

Yet somehow, the Leader of the Council did not know about this worrying independent auditor's report to councillors. How can that be? She is supposed to be the Leader!

The Council auditor's warning follows another financial expert, the Council's former Chief Financial Officer warning councillors of a lack of money and then quitting the Council in February. A new Chief Financial Officer was appointed by Councillor Kaur and her Conservative opposition leader.

Does it worry you that this is the same person, Mel Creighton, who resigned last year from Liverpool City Council (another Labour Council) amid controversy over financial management? In its report, the Liverpool Echo cited a £16 million energy contract disaster. 

Does it worry you that prior to joining Liverpool City Council, Ms Creighton was the Chief Financial Officer at Southampton City Council?

Knowing all of the above, do you have confidence in Labour to run the City's finances? As reported by Southampton Independents, an independent report last year told councillors that the council was not being run properly.

Do you think the Council has spent wisely? As investigated and reported by Southampton Independents, we know that it has not, and has wasted millions if not billions over the last decade. 

Residents were shocked and angry when we told them what the Council and its councillors had done. They voted for our Independent candidates in the local elections and General Election, which we were grateful for.

Did you know that Labour has been in control of the Council for 10 out of the last 11 years? The other year was the Conservatives running the Council, whose national Government, now with Rishi Sunak as its latest Prime Minister, has slashed funding for councils and in May's local elections, lost over 1,000 seats.

Residents tell us very often that it's another case of Labour or Tory and the same old story. Do you agree?

Are you happy that the Labour-run Council has put up council tax again this year, when the cost of living is so high? Are you struggling to pay your bills? Do you get value for money for your council tax? Do you get value for money for your income tax that goes to the Conservative Government?

Contact us at the link here to tell us your views. You can also comment below.

This is why Southampton needs Independent councillors, like it used to have a few years ago.

UPDATE (9/6/23): "Trust in police hanging by a thread" says Inspector - Lies, Damned Lies and Police Commissioner Statistics

 

Southampton People's Decreased Trust in Police
2021 to 2023

UPDATE (9th June 2023)

"I can't recall a time when the relationship between the police and the public was more strained than it is now," Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Andy Cooke has told BBC News.

Under the headline

"Trust in police hanging by a thread, inspectorate says"

the Inspector said that:

"Time is running out if the police and the government are to restore public trust in policing".

The credibility of Donna Jones, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), is also hanging by a thread, given what she has told Southampton Independents:

"I have not seen a dip in trust & confidence of local officers in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Constabulary"

Donna Jones Election Leaflet May 2021

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by Andrew D Pope, 12th May 2023

Now that the local elections are over and the Conservatives have received another beating, we can reveal more facts about the public's views of the Police and the desperate tactics employed by PR people to hide the truth.

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones - for brevity's sake let's just use "PCC" - has denied when questioned by us that there is a trust and confidence problem in our local Police.

This is despite people here in Southampton, in Hampshire and nationally telling survey after survey that they have decreased trust and confidence in the Police. This is not a new thing, it is a long-term trend. Yet Ms Jones and her staff want you to think otherwise.

Their false PR and spin is despite the view of the Police sinking further in the public eye following the false arrests made of anti-Monarchist protesters and Monarchy supporters alike.

When the PCC's public relations officers responded to questions about this topic, they have resorted to very dubious tactics.

But now the Head of Communications of the Office of the PCC has made claims that are possibly even more laughable and lacking credibility than those made by their employer, Ms Jones the PCC.

Under pressure to justify the untruths written by the PCC, the officer has pointed us to Yougov surveys specific to Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

The officer has laughably pointed to an increase in trust - not over the period of time that Ms Jones has been PCC - to now since May 2021, but during just two months in late 2022 when there was a brief and very small uptick in trust. 

As you can see from the graph above, the overall trend from 2021 to 2023 is a marked decrease.

Be in no doubt that the overall trend is a decrease. The Yougov statistics prove it. And what residents have told us backs it up.

People have decreased trust in the Police over the time that Donna Jones has been the PCC.

This is why we asked Ms Jones about it, but it seems that Ms Jones is in denial.

We wonder what the Deputy PCC thinks about this. Former Portsmouth Tory Councillor Terry Norton was very outspoken when he was a councillor, including accusing other councillors of being hypocrites (e.g. Full Council on 9th November 2021, shortly before Norton was appointed and announced that he would step down as a councillor).

Perhaps he will have something to say about Ms Jones' claims and the desperate tactics of her PR staff to defend her?

Mr Norton was appointed as a colleague of Ms Jones. As people elsewhere in England have discovered to their shock and annoyance, there is no proper procedure for appointing Deputy PCCs.

It has tended to mean mates from the same political party being appointed, and it appears that Mr Norton's elevation to this publicly-funded role was no different to elsewhere. 

Competence is not relevant. The public being served is not relevant. What matters to party politicians like Norton and Jones is access to public money and spending it in the wrong ways, all to assuage their egos and their party, instead of what they are supposed to do, which is public service.

We will continue to bring the truth, instead of PR spin by officers who are paid for by public money, and the guff spouted by councillors or other elected representatives.