JASON  LONGHURST

Longhorn and associates are currently drafting a formal complaint against North East Lincolnshire Council to the Ombudsman and to the District Auditor.

Enquiries are continuing into whether the engagement of a management consultant, personally known to Longhurst, followed the correct procedures in respect of procurement and value for money. It appears that Council members are unaware of the spending of the Council's scarce resources on such consultants to advise  Longhurst about how to restructure his tiny department.

Balfour Beatty Workplace has taken over the running of the planning, highways staff and the people of Grimsby will be intrigued to observe the ongoing management of the contract, particularly matters of legality, value for money and propriety. It is understood that many staff have been made redundant since Balfour Beatty took over on 1 July 2010, but no redundancies have been announced, yet, on the client (retained) side. Will Longhurst or Cole be the first? Are their roles really necessary now? Marc Cole, as Director, should be able to manage this contract, where most of his former staff have been transferred to Balfour Beatty Workplace? Furthermore, it is argued that there is certainly no role for an assistant (such as Longhurst), on circa £80k per year, over 4 times more than the national average wage!!!

Full details of the complaints and allegationsmade to the Ombudsman and the District Auditor will be published soon .