A warm weekend ahead & rip-off pedicab riders will be targeting tourists in the West End. However, our cabinet member for enforcement, Cllr Caroline Sargent, is targeting them as she did on this enforcement operation with @CityWestminster officers & @metpoliceuk#SafeStreets
HOW BRITAIN REWARDS PEOPLE WHO TRY TO SAVE TAXPAYER MONEY: FIRE THEM
Mike Kiely spent 22 years inside BT (@BTGroup). He knew how the telecoms industry operated. So when the government hired him as a consultant to oversee the £2.5 billion rural broadband rollout, he knew exactly what he was looking at.
BT had won all 26 government contracts. All of them.
Kiely did the maths. Installing a street cabinet in Northern Ireland cost around £13,000. On the mainland, BT was charging the government between £61,000 and £80,000 per cabinet. Public money covered roughly 77% of every single one.
He suspected BT was simply inventing tasks and inflating charges to absorb as much public funding as possible without doing more work.
So he shared his analysis with local councils. The people whose job it was to negotiate these contracts and spend public money responsibly.
Then his document leaked to a broadband blog.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport trawled his internal emails, found what they needed, and sacked him. The man who tried to protect public money.
Margaret Hodge (@margarethodge), chair of the Public Accounts Committee, told the Guardian (@guardian) she was getting increasingly concerned at the way whistleblowers were being bullied. She pointed out that hiding behind commercial confidentiality was denying the public the right to know how their money was being spent.
Her committee later confirmed what Kiely had warned all along. Taxpayers had been ripped off. £1.2 billion had gone to BT shareholders.
Kiely was eventually vindicated when a community in Oxfordshire paid £28,000 per cabinet. Exactly in line with what his numbers predicted was fair.
He lost his job for telling the truth. BT kept every contract.
This is what accountability looks like in Britain. The consultant who raises the alarm gets sacked. The company he raised the alarm about gets the cheque.
Support whistleblowers. They are the only audit most public spending ever gets.
SOURCES
@BBCNews@TheRegister@guardian@margarethodge
@BELLEGREENWICH@MayorofLondon@SebDance@TfL Good point, people need to know well in advance if need to plan an alternative route and for how long. You would imagine for the demolition itself it will be shut
“After demolition,the site will be fenced off until it is redeveloped”.
I do hope provision is made to access #WoolwichFootTunnel and more importantly, the two lifts are replaced prior to any construction. #ActiveTravel@MayorofLondon@SebDance@TfL
https://t.co/VKD7nVOQok
@Len_Duvall The woolwich foot tunnel has been an issue for nearly 4yrs, no lifts either side now for getting on for 2mths. The lack of info is woeful, were told in july last year work has been agreed and would start soon, since then nothing.
Congratulations to the three councillors #WoolwichArsenal. Will they push for full replacement of the lifts at #WoolwichFootTunnel and support @MayorofLondon own policies on #ActiveTravel? We’ve spoken to several users who feel so let down. Watch this space…..🎥
@LDN_pressoffice@MayorofLondon@willnorman@TfL The 'safety' aspect isn't solved by less cars,don't know anyone who doesn't walk somewhere as they think they might get hit by a car.The 'safety' worries relate to crime, if anything if remove cars you make streets less safe as less people about. Also increase congestion nearby
@Royal_Greenwich Any update on the Woolwich Foot tunnel lifts which have both been out of action for 6wks now, North lift for nearly 4yrs. Announcement in July 2025 that would be completed within the next year @woolwichFT@BELLEGREENWICH
@EscalateCSDLR South lift now been out since early April, is this it now until the works start in the 'summer'?That could be still months away. Can we please get an update, or chase for one @Calum_OBM
@EscalateCSDLR South lift now been out since early April, is this it now until the works start in the 'summer'?That could be still months away. Can we please get an update, or chase for one @Calum_OBM
When he resigned he said it was because he was being prevented from making the changes needed to bring down immigration.
He is now claiming that he made the changes that brought down immigration.
Both can’t be true.
The Arsenal fans didn't boo Palace, the only boos came when the someone announced they were going to do *another* speech/award.
Palace promised us a trophy presentation at 18:30, but the Palace players were still on the pitch at 18:50, obviously our fans got impatient.
@willnorman@Royal_Greenwich@TfL Can you sort out the mess down the road from this that is the woolwich foot tunnel. Lifts broken for nearly 4yrs making it unusable for many cyclists