Where has the Four Hundred Thousand Gone From Shepway District Council’s Data?

The data Shepway District Council (SDC) “accidentally” released prior to the weekend of 12th August 2017 totalled £2,237,457. In version two released by SDC on Monday 14th August, the total amount is £1,835,721, a difference of £401,737. So at the press of a few buttons SDC have made 18% of the total disappear.

In total 27 names of companies and/or individuals disappeared at the press of a button. These be the names. (Where they are individuals there names have been redacted).

Now the name Hags SMP Ltd appear on the list as having received in total £294,254. Hags SMP Ltd are the company who SDC paid to install the play equipment at Radnor Park (pictured) ; which opened too much fanfare on the 22 July 2017. Now Hags SMP Ltd were contracted to do the job within £184,000 as is made clear on contract finder . So how come they received £110,254 more than what the contract value states? Were there over runs due to “unforeseen circumstances“?

Also in the data were payments totalling £7,713 paid to Three Hills Sports Park – Shepway Sports Trust . Damian Collins MP is a director, as is Sir Roger De Hann‘s right hand man, Trevor “Ming the Merciless” Minter (pictured). Anyway, we digress. SDC paid them the seven thousand in part for “Fitness Sessions for SDC staff at Three Hills“.

Why are SDC paying for staff to keep fit, when surely staff should pay for this themselves? And what’s wrong with using Folkestone Sports Centre, like the vast majority of the population do. Does your employer pay for you to keep fit?

SDC received from Kent County Council the sum of £73,574. This relates to planning application Y15/0806/SH which relates to  “(outline application for 48 houses and 8 home /worker houses (live work) including retention of an existing dwelling (Greenacres) and off site highway works to Rolfe Lane) in order to reflect the withdrawal of the Code for Sustainable Homes | Romney Marsh Potato Co Ltd Cockreed Lane New Romney Kent TN28 8TN”

SDC have placed version two of the data into the public domain, without explaining that this version is different. According to the Local Government Transparency Code 2015, para 23 and 24 it states

So why haven’t SDC made it clear that version two is revised information and why haven’t they made it clear there has been amendments, as they have removed £401,736. The data they have published needs to have these amendments in them so the public know that the data has been changed. Also it begs the question what else SDC are removing from the Payment to Supplier data each month, are they lying to us the people – surely not.

If we use £400,000 as the average that means close to £5 million could be disappearing from the payment data each year, when it should not. Anyway people, we’ll leave you to dwell on that.

The Shepwayvox Team