Local Government AND PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY! RCTBC

My friends and fellow Rhonddaites.

I only have one reason for posting the following and that is my love for this area and my heritage. I was born and bred here, and consequently my concerns are for the long term future of our children and their children’s children!

I sincerely feel that the borough, like most of the UK, is under the direction of total incompetents! However, regrettably there is little an individual can do about that, as they have it all pretty much sewn up! Of course the exception is to use one’s legal right to freedom of expression, while it lasts, as they are doing their best to stifle that as well!

However, should any at Rhondda Cynon Taff Borough Council (RCTBC) wish to challenge any of the following, I am sure that we can do this in an open council meeting!

My contentions are:

OUTRIGHT LIES, CHEATING AND DECEPTION, AND POSSIBLY MORE FROM RCTBC.

ALSO A WHITE WASH FROM THE OMBUDSMAN FOR WALES WHO SUPPOSEDLY EXISTS IN ORDER TO UPHOLD PUBLIC STANDARDS!

The following, after much research, is what I have discovered. Therefore, I exercise my constitutional and Human Rights in the best public interest in order to express what I feel about the outright fraud on the public purse committed by RCTBC.

I genuinely believe that the public has a right to know of the abuses committed by those who are there to serve them, as indeed the law says that they must dutifully serve!

You, the people can decide, if you wish, upon the merits of what I have found, and the merits of what I claim!

Realistically, I have had my day, its now future of our children, and grandchild, and beyond that deeply concerns me!

Undoubtedly, our area is in social and economic decline, and equally undoubtedly there does not exist the expertise within RCTBC to create innovated programs and policies to halt it! Consequently the rot continues!

In order to deliver a quality service to the public, then obviously we must have quality, motivated, innovated personnel as council officials, and equitably, quality in our elected representative as well.

IT IS HIGHLY REGRETABLE THAT WE DO NOT!

I was professionally trained in the principles of Total Quality Management where the constant quest for higher standards of EXCELLENCE is taken to be the “Norm!” There is no doubt in my mind that the executives of RCTBC does not even know what I am talking about!

I have known and number of RCTBC employees none, without exception, that I have met have the slightest interest in the long term future of our community. Most can't wait for either lunch time, or home time or early retirement!!

Lord Help Us All, for such are the times that we are forced to live in, that at least we can expect a commitment to duty from those we pay to look after the public’s best interests.

DEMOCRACY EQUALS TOTAL ACCOUNTABILITY!

Accountability from RCTBC!…Try and get it!.........It simply does not exist!

You will get more sense talking to a brick wall, but at least a brick wall does not cheat you, and then lie to cover up!

You see my friends that without a full accountability to the people of the Nation from the officialdom that supposedly exists solely to serve the public, we the people have nothing!

Certainly, we do not have the democracy that we are currently being fooled into thinking that we live under by RCTBC!.

With respect to all please never forget that our forefathers fought very hard and long in order for us to enjoy the standards that we do today, although due to the incompetence of a succession of wasteful governments, much of the social amenities that we have become used to are being withdrawn under the sham of austerity cuts.

Each generation should build upon the best efforts of the last, and not the worse. Today we seem to be going backwards!

I will present here a brief synopsis of the issues involved, fuller details are available by email from me, Garf_davidgarfield@yahoo.co.uk

Firstly, I wish to deal with how RCTBC has failed the public yet again in its duties. This time, duties concerning Building Regulations. It is the Council’s legal duty to ensure compliance with the law!

Building Regulations came into being in order to ensure high standards of public health and public safety.

It is a serious criminal offence to proceed with a construction development without complying with Building Regulations.

Due to a dampness and mould problem in the flat I rent at Montana Park Hirwaun, Aberdare, CF44 9HY, and the initial reluctance of the landlord to rectify the problem, I was advised to engage an independent surveyor. His report indicated that there was no damp proofing as is required under Building laws!

Therefore, the fact that there was no DPC proofing, it should not have been possible under Building Regulations Law, and of course the mandatory council site inspections!

This was somewhat odd as planning permission was relatively recent, granted as it was, for the conversion of the property at Bryn Rhos Farm. Montana Park to 3 flats in 1997. And before the council could start collecting council taxes, check should have been made in order to ensure the legal conformity and habitability of the new created flats!

For you own safety and protection, and that of your children, please understand that Damp and mould is a serious health matter! There is one case of a young lady actually dying from the ingestion of mould spores! So severe is the problem on human health, that damp and mould are now registered as a class one health hazard, the same as Asbestos is, under the Environment Protect Act 1990.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1297862/Brittany-Murphy-Mould-...

In fact so serious is the mould danger to the public that Mould is now classed as a statutory nuisance ….. Consequently,( AND THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT) there is a duty of care, incumbent upon Central Government, upon every Westminster or Local Government Politician, (YOUR COUNCILLORS), upon every Local Authority Housing Director, Environmental Health Officer, Architect, Surveyor or Technical Officer, upon every Landlord and Managing Agent, to ensure that people do not have to live in damp polluted homes!

The main responsibility rests with every Environmental Health Officer, because they have the power to ensure that any property affected by dampness, condensation and mould growth is declared unfit for habitation. Indeed under the Environmental Protection Act, on the grounds of Statutory Nuisance, and under the fitness guidelines of other current Housing Acts, he has an absolute duty of care to do so.

However, RTCBC decided differently, AND WENT AGAINST THE LAW!

Naturally, given the serious nature of the issues involved, plus the fact that RCTBC initially appeared to be very distant to my request for advice on the matter, i.e. Senior Environmental Health Officer Ian Lester really did not want to know and started passing the buck around! His negativity really made me wonder why!

Subsequently, I did not have to wonder for long! After further inquiries, I discovered that not only did the three new flats at Bryn Rhos Farm not have the legally required Building Regulations conformity, but the whole of development at Montana Park, Hirwaun, Aberdare, some 30 odd permanent homes, has no Building Regulation compliance, None, none whatsoever!

It was never even applied for!

The site owners and developers never even bothered to apply for Building Regulations as the law states that they must, and the law makes it a criminal offence not to do so!

My surveyor, being the genuine highly suspicious person that he is, contacted 6 other council planning authorities, and came back with a fully concurring reply that it was not possible on a development of this size for there to be no Building Regulations in force! …………………………unless of course?????

Furthermore, it gets worse, for Montana Park sits right upon a nature mountain water drainage course and floods on times with Mountain water breaking surface on the site and flooding the lower part including private gardens!.

A surveyor pointed out to me that the problem was that there was no provision of proper legally required drainage, and therefore no provision for storm drainage. The surveyor suggested the reason for this may have been COST!

It appears that the cost of complying with Building Regulations for underwater and surface water drainage would have been…… …..Very, very expensive, in fact as the surveyor said “ Probably Prohibitively So”, and could have meant digging up the whole of Montana Park in order to install drains that complied with the law!

However, without adequate drainage, I have been reliably informed that there is a real serious danger of subsidence.

RCTBC PLANNING, HAVE BEEN MADE AWARE OF THIS FACT AND HAVE TOTALLY IGNORE IT, AND CONSEQUENTLY, THE SAFETY OF THOSE LIVING THERE!

Deception and possible corruption!

When we consider the overall size of the development of Montana Park, it is absolutely inconceivable that those responsible for Planning and Building Regulations at RCTBC could not have been aware that Building Regulations were not applied for! Indeed they have a duty to the public to ensure Building Regulations are in force!

Where were the checks that the council is supposed to make in order to ensure that public Health and Safety is fully protected under the Building Code? And who were the individuals responsible for such checks?

The question being asked now is one of……Were certain people in RCTBC corruptly paid off to look the other way? You see, before this development could have been declared fit for Human Habitation and people allowed to move on to it, any qualified person, or persons in the RCTBC planning department should have signed it off as being in full compliance with Building Regulations! In fact they are legally required to do so! No one did…why not?

There is obviously something very wrong here. Firstly, the owners of the site, Mr and Mrs Cunningham, are experienced property developers, as such they knew that they should have applied for Building Regulations.

Subsequently, it has been suggested that probably, as experienced property developers, they knew the costs involved in obtaining full legal compliance with Building Regulations!

The question is how has this matter gone on for so long undetected, especially given that now there needs to be compliance with EU law?

It has been put to me that the site owners may well have bribed someone in the council in order to get away with this. I don’t know!

I AM NOT MAKING A COMMENT EITHER WAY, BUT IT IS A RATHER PECULIAR SITUATION!

You the public will have to decide!

There is also the question of why the damp and mould infested property was not immediately declared unfit for human habitation as the law say that it must be!

I suggested to the CEO of RCTBC that he carried out a full investigation, and that I be able to question those concerned, as it is my legal right to do so under the UN Declaration of Human Rights. My request was refused.

However, and ironically so, the CEO did say that he had thoroughly investigated the matter and had found that there was nothing to be concerned about.!

Well then folks………..So much for Public Protection, and an already closed shop demonstrating an even firmer closing of ranks!

Naturally as a concerned residen I disagreed, and challenged Keith Griffiths the Chief Executive of RCTBC, and his council to a full public forum in order to air these issues….My request was refused!

Yet, under The Environment Protection Act 1990. s.79(1). every local authority is placed under a duty to ensure their area is inspected from time to time to detect any statutory nuisance.

They are also legally required to take such steps that are reasonably practicable to investigate a complaint of statutory nuisance made by a person living in its area.

There are many serious considerable constitutional dangers involved here in that according to Keith Griffiths, Chief Executive of RCTBC, who appears to think that he is above the law, a British citizen only has the Human Rights that people such as Keith Griffiths …….want you to have!……..Is this really the face of Britain in 2013!

I felt that after taking all things into the most serious of consideration, I stated to Keith Griffiths, Chief Executive of RCTBC, that when he abused people’s enshrined rights, he was a complete failure in his office and an insult to the public who have entrusted him with their protection…I further added that his conduct was inexcusable, and surely he must step down as public service deserves a better, more competent motivated professional person in his office!

Next the Ombudsman. CBC - 201203326.

I contacted the Ombudsman’s office for some help and guidance. I was told to copy all my emails to RCTBC to their office This I did. I also spoke, by telephone with an Ombudsman investigator Ms Joanne Smith, whom initially indicated that there certainly appeared to be something “not quite right!”

After many months the Ombudsman came back stating that they found that there was nothing to investigate, and the RCTBC had done no wrong!.

I disagreed as I felt that Ms Smith’s decision was not based upon the facts of the matter, but rather based upon covering up and whitewashing!.

I then asked what were the qualifications of Ms Joanne Smith, in order to carry out such investigations into matters of public safety and a local authority’s failure to comply with the law?

She refused to tell me what her professional qualifications are.

At the moment there is a Freedom of Information Request pending to ascertain the qualifications of Ombudsman’s investigators!.

Surely the public has a right to know the qualifications, and indeed the commitment, of those who are there to investigate their complaints.

Is the Ombudsman for Wales failing the people? Is the Ombudsman for Wales just another white washing farce? If asked, and based on my experiences, I would have to say yes!

Also I got the impression from the councillors that I contacted that they did not want to get involved!

I wonder how many other incidents involving illegal building developments there are there are?

As stated above: Local authorities have a duty to ensure that there is Building Regulation compliance, the passage of time does not remove this duty! Contravention of the Building Regulations is a criminal offence and action can be taken under Section 35 of the Building Act 1984, against a person who contravenes…..yet to date no action has been taken against the site owners, and that adds more than just a hint of smelly fish to the issue!

That said, here is what Claire Gummer of RCTBC wrote to me:

Further to your Freedom of Information Request, we can inform you that it is the Authority's policy and the Building Control Department's policy to apply and enforce all parts of the Building Regulations including Part E, of the approved documents to all works where they are applicable.

As has been previously explained, we have checked our building regulations records back to 1995, and are unable to find any record of an application being submitted for the above works.

Obviously there is a serious level of misinformation here. Methinks a spring cleaning in RCTBC is sadly long over due!

How badly we the people have allowed ourselves to be served when your local council can break the law and expect to get away with it as they are accountable to none!

The Audit Office for Wales has been advised... No reply as yet!