More damning evidence of the sleaze at the heart of the LibDem/Independent administration in the run up to last month’s local elections.
Ignore at your own risk, and pay the (council tax) bill later...
Cornwall Council explains why it paid a bonus to the man who builds council houses that cannot be lived in by people waiting for a council house.
By Graham Smith
Cornwall Council has released limited details of the bonus payments it makes to the boss of its wholly-owned private market house-building company, Treveth.
A Freedom of Information answer discloses that the bonus, paid to Tim Mulholland last month, has never been studied by the council’s scrutiny committee system yet was approved by the former Liberal Democrat-Independent cabinet in December 2018, during a discussion about how Treveth should be set up.
The FOI answer says the political decision to include bonus payments was later signed off by the then leader of the council, councillor Adam Paynter, although Mr Mulholland was not recruited until October 2020. He was paid his bonus only seven months later.
Although Treveth is not part of the council’s Corserv group of companies, the FOI answer also reveals that some senior managers within Corserv are also paid bonuses.
Treveth is particularly controversial because it builds and buys houses which cannot be lived in by council tenants who are on the Homechoice waiting list register. Instead, its properties are sold and rented on the open market to make money for the council. Critics say Treveth is part of Cornwall’s housing problem, not a solution.
The size of the bonus paid to Mr Mulholland remains confidential, but the decision to make the payment caught the eye because it was taken by chief executive Kate Kennally immediately before the change in political control at last month’s elections.
The FOI answer says:
The remuneration package including the bonus element, has been benchmarked against similar relevant roles in the same industry sector.
The recommendation for the remuneration package for the managing director of Treveth was prepared by the chair of the Treveth Project Committee on advice from an external specialist consultancy firm.
In a cabinet paper on 18 December 2018 cabinet approved a recommendations for the set-up of Treveth as the delivery vehicle for the council’s Investment Programme. This included a recommendation referring to the remuneration for the managing director and approval to recruit. The remuneration of the managing director post was then signed off by the shareholder representative which is a delegation from the leader of the council.
The Overview and Scrutiny Committees determine their own work programme with the main scrutiny function for the council owned entities falling under the Customer and Support Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
They have not reviewed this proposal specifically but each year review the business plans of all of the council owned entities and have an opportunity to directly question the executive teams plus senior responsible council officers in relation to anything in the business plan, including financial information.
The timing of this approval was not related to the political calendar and the local elections. This element of the remuneration package was delayed in being approved to enable and external report to be produced on the appropriate remuneration for this type of role. The MD was appointed in October 2020. The consent was approved in response to the report and resulting conclusion of the Chair of the Treveth Project Committee.
Treveth Holdings LLP is not part of the Corserv Group of companies. Senior managers within the Corserv Group have a contractual performance related bonus element as part of their remuneration package.
The bonus element is subject to performance targets (targets such as safety, customers, finance, people and strategic objectives) as set by the company.
Something to smile about: Treveth managing director Tim Mulholland (pictured) was paid a performance bonus only seven months after starting work, just a few days before the 6th May council elections.
And if you’ve signed this petition, you’ll sign that one too:
The discredited and toxic LibDem legacy to the people of Cornwall, of which Adam Paynter was the leader...
Here are some of the remarks that have been overheard, presumably from tourists, about Cornwall:
Like Benidorm but more expensive & without the sunshine.
Never coming back.
Toffs’ paradise.
Builders’yard.
Rip off.
Ruined it.
Developed to death.
No different to Bournemouth.
They've screwed it up.
When the tide goes out it might as well take Cornwall with it.
Well done to all those that have over promoted our precious Duchy. I hope you are all now satisfied with your efforts. You really have slaughtered the goose that laid the golden egg! And I think you realise that this monster that you set in motion, now has momentum of its own and you can't stop it hurtling out of control. Did you think for one single second that your actions would lead to Cornish people being left to live on the streets while their communities were decimated? I bet you didn't. But, you bloody well do now!!!
Tragically, hardly anyone listened until they were personally affected but it’s now too late...
If you’re feeling angry, sit back and enjoy wiser words than anything the army of incompetent sleaze balls at Cornwall council all together could ever come up with:
“I sit beside the fire and think
Of all that I have seen
Of meadow flowers and butterflies
In summers that have been
Of yellow leaves and gossamer
In autumns that there were
With morning mist and silver sun
And wind upon my hair
I sit beside the fire and think
Of how the world will be
When winter comes without a spring
That I shall ever see
For still there are so many things
That I have never seen
In every wood in every spring
There is a different green
I sit beside the fire and think
Of people long ago
And people that will see a world
That I shall never know
But all the while I sit and think
Of times there were before
I listen for returning feet
And voices at the door”
J.R.R. Tolkien