Sir John cost Cornwall £2,000/day

Here is the reply to last night's email. Although it doesn't quite answer all of my questions (leaving us to assume 22.5 days so far) I have agreed to withdraw my FOI application.

Johnson Matthey has submitted invoices totalling £45,000 in respect of the time Sir John Banham has spent away from the company carrying out preparatory work in relation to the formation of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership.


It had been previously agreed that the selection of initiation chairman would be a decision for the private sector as the LEP is a private sector led partnership. Sir John's name was originally suggested at a meeting of private sector representatives convened by Camborne and Redruth MP George Eustice in November, and was then subsequently endorsed by the board of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Economic Forum.

The payment is based on an agreed daily rate of £2,000 equating to 50% of Sir John Banham's usual Johnson Matthey rate and covers the period from the week beginning 29 November when he attended an initial meeting to discuss his role as initiation chairman to 31 January 2011.

It is anticipated that Sir John will continue to work in his new Ambassadorial role to support the formation of the LEP until the end of March 2011 when the new Board and Chairman are expected to be in place.

How to be a Chief Executive

One of the penalties of my recent holiday was that I missed the launch of Cornwall Council's latest stab at "transparency" - the on-line publication of all expenditure over £500, including details of senior officer salary bands and other tasty morsels.


I'm sure this was a real challenge for the IT and accounts people at County Hall, who deserve our thanks for this service to democracy. There is so much information that, frankly, only the Audit Commission could properly make sense of it. Er...

My own initial cursory glance could find no scandals. I did however think that the expenses claims of chief executive Kevin Lavery would provide good sport, and I wasn't entirely disappointed.

I don't know how long Kevin spends each month filling in his expenses, but you have to admire his attention to detail. No car journey is too short to avoid a claim - even from New County Hall to Truro (one mile.) He also seems to be on a deal which allows him to claim mileage from his home.

On the basis of the four months I examined, he seems to claim more than 6,500 miles per year - which I am sure is 100% genuine, but I wonder why the council doesn't just give him a white van, which under today's tax rules would probably be cheaper.

Taxpayers also cover his domestic BT claims, including broadband. When he needs to go to London, Kevin often flies from Newquay to Gatwick (so do I,) claiming £13.80 for parking at the council-owned airport and then gets the Gatwick Express (standard class) and when necessary stays in £120-a-night hotels (more than I can afford but hardly extravagant.)

As far as I can tell, every single one of the expenses now available for you to read on the council's website is within the rules, and our £200,000/year chief exec is perfectly entitled to claim them.

Personally I am absolutely useless at claiming expenses. The form-filling and authorisations required are so time-consuming that 99 times out of 100 I just can't be bothered, and I know my bank account is much the poorer for it. I would make a terrible bureaucrat.

God give me patience - but hurry!

On 22nd December 2010 I asked Cornwall Council several questions about the Local Enterprise Partnership and its interim chairman, Sir John Banham. For weeks I have been promised an answer "soon" and last week I made repeated calls to see if I could get my answers without recourse to an application under the Freedom of Information Act. Each FOI application costs taxpayers an average of about £250 to deal with. By close of play on Friday - not a squeak. So with a heavy heart, and in the hope that common sense might yet prevail, I have just despatched another email:

Please take this email as an application under Freedom of Information legislation to find out:

(a) The cost to Cornwall Council of Sir John Banham's engagement as interim chairman of the Local Enterprise Partnership
(b) To whom this money is paid (presumably Johnson Matthey - just checking)
(c) Details of any memos of understanding, or contract with Johnson Matthey, outlining the amount of time Sir John was expected to work on the LEP. Specifically I want to know how many days Sir John worked on the LEP project and therefore understand his daily rate.
(d) The date on which Sir John was first asked to work as interim chairman - as his first draft prospectus is dated early December, I expect this date to be sometime in November or possibly even earlier.
(e) The date on which Sir John's role as interim chairman is expected to end.
(f) A list of all correspondence between Cornwall Council and Sir John about the LEP - indeed, unless it is exempt under FOI, I would like to inspect the file.

Many thanks
Bw

Graham

What's it worth to be Cornish?

A couple of years ago Cornwall Council set out to identify those organisations which could broadly be described as both "cultural" and "Cornish" - two words for which precise and exhaustive definitions might still be some way off.

Nevertheless, the challenge has now been met sufficiently to call a conference at County Hall to seek ways of exploiting "Cornwall's inherent characteristics" for commercial gain. Bewnans Kernow is the outfit behind this conference, titled "Cornish Identity - Good for Business."

Speakers include Kevin Lavery (Chief Executive, Cornwall Council), Malcolm Bell (Head of VisitCornwall), Phil Ugalde (Chairman, Proper Cornish Food), Cornwall Cllr Bert Biscoe, Will Coleman (Director, CALIBAN), Julie Russell (Tourism Society, Wales) and David Bailey (Census Area Manager for Cornwall). Proceedings will be opened by the Chairman of Cornwall Council, Mrs Pat Harvey, and the Grand Bard, Mick Paynter.

It all kicks off at 10am on Saturday 12th February. I hope to be there.

Unhatched chickens

The Devonwall Bill is due to start its Report stage in the House of Lords next week. Which makes this extract from a Cornwall Council press release a model of restrained understatement:

"To enable the referendum to be held on 5 May the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill needs to be passed by Parliament by 16 February. While there is still some uncertainty over this being achieved, the Council is launching a recruitment campaign to ensure that it has enough trained staff if the referendum does take place on that day."

Anyone interested in finding out more is being invited to attend one of a series of election recruiting workshops which are being held across Cornwall between Monday, 21 February and Friday, 25 February. Elections service staff will be on hand to provide information and advice or just to have an informal chat about what is involved.

These workshops are taking place on:

Monday 21 Feb St Austell One Stop Shop (OSS) 2.00pm
Tuesday 22 Feb Carrick House OSS, Truro 10.00am
Wed 23 Feb Luxstowe House OSS, Liskeard 10.00am
Thursday 24 Feb Roskear School, Camborne 10.00am
Thursday 24 Feb Wadebridge OSS 2.30pm
Friday 25 Feb Penzance OSS 10.00am

Is there a spin doctor in the house?

I suppose I shouldn't really be in the business of promoting other BBC hacks' blogs, but I congratulate our regional political editor Martyn Oates for this entry about Cornwall Council's approach to the Supporting People budget. Council leader Alec Robertson is a likeable cove who tries earnestly to tell the truth as he sees it. So why was his performance in this TV interview such a train crash? Was it the messenger, or the message?

Back in the groove

Holiday over and my first day back in the office now behind me. Only 392 emails still unread.

Clearly lots of stuff happened while I was away, such as the news that Sir John Banham will not, after all, become chairman of the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership.

This opens up lots of new questions, including details of the "open and transparent" procedure for appointing the LEP board. There are also some old questions still unanswered - such as how much the failed attempt to get Sir John into the LEP chair has cost the Cornwall Council taxpayer.

I have reminded Cornwall Council that I first asked this question on 22nd December. I'm promised an answer by tomorrow.