Rotten Borough
The Antidote to Local Authority Web Sites.
"Elections are decided by the votes of the uneducated many for the corrupt few."
Tenth Anniversary Supporting victims of the establishment from 2003 to 2013.
This web site is dedicated to victims of the establishment. I will publish their stories as they send them to me.
Victims' Stories
Responsibility for opinions expressed in articles published in this section and for the accuracy of any statements in them rests entirely with the individual contributor.
Readers' Letters
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Personal Experience
Falling Masonry
Extracts from the Hertfordshire Masonic Yearbook of 1999/2000.
Membership Lists
More lodge membership lists will follow.
Mason Illustration
To be continued ...
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Copyright © 2012 - Ian Johnston
George Bernard Shaw.
An 83-year-old woman has multiple disabilities, is unable to communicate and lives in a nursing home. Her son complains about the standard of medical care she is receiving. Instead of improving her care, the authorities ban her son from visiting her.
A Management Systems Specialist sends the Local Government Ombudsman evidence of eleven irregularities committed by East Devon District Council when processing an application for planning consent. The LGO rules that only one of these constitutes "Maladministration".
A frail, 83-year-old woman is defrauded and abused by her elder son and his family. Social services decline to protect her. North Yorkshire Police fail to uphold the law and instead accuse her carer of harassment and try to arrest him.
Fylde Borough Council and property development.
Sheffield City Council encourages local volunteers to set up neighbourhood forums in order to obtain funding from the European Union. Council placemen then oust the volunteers and allow the council to misappropriate the funds.
Tenants in sheltered housing - who are elderly, have physical disabilities or both - suffer anomalies in their electricity, water and service charges. The communal electricity meter was not read for six years. Despite repeated requests from a tenant, no satisfactory explanation is forthcoming from the landlord. Nevertheless, the landlord is accredited by the Tenant Participation Advisory Service.
A dispute between neighbours and Rayden Engineering Limited.
Agrevo's hazardous waste (Organophosphates) causes a truck driver severe health problems. The medical establishment will not help. Then he gets in touch with other victims.
A British Citizen, born in Egypt, lets a flat to a tenant who damages the property and racially abuses his landlord. Dacorum Borough Council prosecutes the landlord for illegal eviction.
A single mother is harassed by her neighbours. Camden Council refuses to help her. The Local Government Ombudsman finds in favour of the council.
A self-employed trader suffers a succession of crimes but finds that his local police force rarely helps him.
Hertfordshire County Council's reorganisation of its Fire and Rescue Service smacks of incompetence and worse. The "Public consultation" is a sham. False information is disseminated. Uncertainty is caused unnecessarily to firefighters and their families.
An employee of Neural Technologies complains to his employer and is summarily dismissed. The Southampton Employment Tribunal finds against him, and he is been unable to obtain redress through the courts ... so far.
The left-wing education establishment obstructs a professional archaeologist's work. Read his excellent new book, "A Question of Balance".
WARNING - this material is not suitable for devotees of Political Correctness ...
A Local Conciliation Officer described this as the worst case of solicitor negligence and misconduct he had ever seen. What made the case more severe was the number of solicitors involved and how some of those solicitors had covered up serious misconduct by others.
A shoemaker uses his shop window to display information about corruption and incompetence at his local council, which tries to force him out of business.
Cobblers to the council!
"Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council brought a private criminal prosecution against me and gained a conviction. My evidence proves this was, in fact, a carefully planned crime planned by the authorities from the very beginning. The council also brought a private criminal prosecution against me for unlawful harassment. This was a Landlord versus Tenant case, but I was not a professional landlord. I was convicted and sentenced to 28 days in prison plus £1000 costs. I did not appeal on the advice of my barrister Mr Walsh, but this was bad advice, as this conviction had been gained with the use of false evidence and perjury. This prosecution had also been brought with the use of Legal Aid when Legal Aid is not available to bring such a prosecution."
A resident is harassed by his neighbours. Camden Council, the Police, the Local Government Ombudsman, a succession of solicitors and the Law Society all let him down.
Dover District Council demolished in 1989 a bungalow which had been in lawful residential use for over sixty years. A councillor admitted that the council had been misled by untrustworthy local government offficers. The victim is still fighting for compensation.
Stinchcombe Hill Golf Club obstructs the Cotswold Way. A walker who uses this public bridleway is repeatedly abused by golfers. Gloucestershire County Council and the Police refuse to intervene.
A 75-year-old complains about anti-social behaviour by tenants of the ACIS Housing Association. Instead of dealing with the complaints, an "Unholy Trinity" of ACIS, West Lindsey District Council and Lincolnshire Police combine to accuse him of anti-social behaviour. He suffers a near-fatal stroke and is then forced to give undertakings to a court.
Manchester City Council repeatedly harasses one of its tenants. The Local Government Ombudsman supports the council. The victim does not obtain justice through the courts.
A 61-year-old man repeatedly abducts a 12-year-old boy, gives him alcohol, cigarettes and money and takes him to a nightclub. The man is sentenced to only six months in prison.
Hounslow Borough Council refuses to re-house members of a family living in overcrowded conditions. When he Department of Social Security muddles their Housing Benefit paperwork, the council threatens to evict them. The Local Government Ombudsman supports the council, until the complainant's persistence brings concessions.
A "Pindown" Child Abuse Survivor Writes.
A solicitors' error causes a house to be reposessed. The legal establishment covers up. The "Assistant Borough Solicitor" is found to have been "Struck off" and imprisoned ten years previously.
Twenty years of harassment by the Masons.
Camden Council Social Services harass a mother and her children while they are mourning the death of her father.
Mr. Salter's daughter is snatched by his ex-wife and taken to a refuge. Gloucestershire County Council fails to follow the required procedures. The Local Government Ombudsman recommends that Mr. Salter be awarded £250 for "Hurt feelings".
"Read how my daughter threw herself out of a window while under the care of Camden Council."
Neighbours erect, without planning consent, a large climbing frame in a paddock in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Members of Patney Parish Council recommend that retrospective planning permission be granted without even having the plans in front of them. Kennet District Council grants permission on the basis of incorrect information. Its successor, the new Wiltshire Unitary Authority, covers up its predecessor's mistakes. The Local Government Ombudsman rules in favour of the council without considering at the evidence.
The responsible authorities fail to act on complaints about the treatment of an eight-year-old boy in the care of Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council. The council then takes the complainant to court in pursuit of Council Tax arrears which she does not owe.
Staff at Walsall Council's Print and Design Unit do little work, waste taxpayers' money and print supplies, fail to recycle and smoke and drink on duty. Drugs and stolen property are offered for sale on the premises. A staff member who complains is victimised and then sacked.
A tenant sub-lets his flat illegally to anti-social people. A neighbour who complains to Camden Council is attacked by means of electronic transmissions. Camden Council and the Local Government Ombudsman protect the offenders.
A World War Two veteran and his wife tried to get the Valuation Office Agency to look at their claims regarding getting on a lower Council Tax banding because of numerous mobile telephone phone masts (at the time liked with cancer) immediately opposite their home, plus proliferation of take-aways resulting in more rubbish. The VOA denied that Mr. and Mrs. Tanner had a case, claiming it was 'invalid'. It took them 16 months to get the VOA decision overturned. The simple appeal was turned into a nightmare with even more 'old pals acts'. Mr. and Mrs. Tanner have forgone the appeal because of ill health, but have continued to pursue the fraudulent and corrupt acts against them.
The Honorary Regional Secretary of the National Federation of Self Employed and Small Businesses Limited uncovers irregularities within the company and is forced from his post.
Derby City Council refuses an application to become a foster carer. Read the applicant's open letter to the Chief Executive.
Residents have been seeking basic improvements to their road for seven years without success. In the meantime, their Council Tax has almost doubled.
Waverley Council repeatedly fails to repair a tenant's home.
A Forestry Officer employed by South Oxfordshire District Council wrongly accuses the owner of a listed building of breaching Town Planning regulations. A Planning Officer working for the same local authority is careless in writing a report on a proposed car port. The council will not admit that the officers made mistakes. The Planning Inspectorate and the Local Government Ombudsman refuse to intervene and cut off communication. As a result, the owner is forced to build something which is out of keeping with his property.
A pub's noisy extractor fan keeps a resident awake at night. Camden Council refuses to intervene. The Local Government Ombudsman finds in favour of the council. The ombudsman's recommendations are not even passed on to the victim.
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E-mail ijjohnston@totalise.co.uk