9th May 2014

Confidential_memo_tells_shocked_Wirral_councillors_their_emails_are_being_read_by_town_hall_bosses

On 3rd May, with the above Wirral Globe article in mind, I sent the following email to Wirral Council CEO Graham “Mistakes” Burgess, asking whether my own emails to councillors were being filtered / screened / blocked:

From: Paul C
Sent: 03 May 2014 09:13
To: ‘Burgess, Graham’
Cc: (All Wirral Councillors)
Subject: ‘What a load of tosh’

Dear Mr Burgess,

Would you support Councillor Crabtree’s opinion regarding the need to register with the ICO as a data controller in order to secure your constituents’ privacy?

https://wirralinittogether.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/crabtree-what-a-load-of-tosh-email.jpg

I believe it would have been a courtesy for you to advise members of the public beforehand that their attempts to contact elected members were going to be interfered with – regardless of the justification you’ve provided via The Wirral Globe.

I do hope there has been no filter / screen / block placed on my own emails, including this one, particularly having sent nothing on the subject of “Hillsborough”.

Please confirm that this is the case,

Best regards,

Paul Cardin

↓

A response was delegated to Surjit Tour, the council’s monitoring officer, who runs what’s informally known as the legal team.

Here’s that response, which arrived today:

From: Tour, Surjit [mailto:surjittour@wirral.gov.uk]
Sent: 09 May 2014 11:15
To: paul.cardin@ntlworld.com
Cc: Burgess, Graham; Blott, Joe R.
Subject: RE: ‘What a load of tosh’

Dear Mr Cardin

With regards to your email of 6 May, I have been asked to respond to the points you have raised.

For ease of reference, I have set out the response under each point raised in your email. Please see your email below.

Yours sincerely

Surjit Tour

Visit our website: www.wirral.gov.uk

From: Burgess, Graham
Sent: 06 May 2014 17:13
To: Tour, Surjit
Subject: FW: ‘What a load of tosh’

From: Paul C [mailto:paul.cardin@ntlworld.com]

Sent: 03 May 2014 09:13
To: Burgess, Graham
Cc: (All Wirral Councillors)
Subject: ‘What a load of tosh’

Dear Mr Burgess,

Would you support Councillor Crabtree’s opinion regarding the need to register with the ICO as a data controller in order to secure your constituents’ privacy?

https://wirralinittogether.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/crabtree-what-a-load-of-tosh-email.jpg

RESPONSE: All Wirral Councillors are registered Data Controllers with the ICO.

I believe it would have been a courtesy for you to advise members of the public beforehand that their attempts to contact elected members were going to be interfered with – regardless of the justification you’ve provided via The Wirral Globe.

RESPONSE: Your comment has been noted.

I do hope there has been no filter / screen / block placed on my own emails, including this one, particularly having sent nothing on the subject of “Hillsborough”.

Please confirm that this is the case,

RESPONSE: No filter/screen/block has been placed on any of your emails by the Council.

Best regards,

Paul Cardin

And here’s my emailed response, which holds a link to the complete and utter disaster I discovered when trying to find out whether Wirral’s 66 elected members were lawfully registered as “data controllers” with the ICO.

Remember, when you contact your local councillor, he / she holds whatever sensitive information you’re prepared to entrust with them on their PCs at home or ‘in the office’.  Councillor Jim “I say what I like and I like what I bloody well say” Crabtree of the Bidston & St James Ward regards the process as “a load of tosh”.  Is this your councillor?  Will you be voting to grant him your mandate and endorse his fine office in this month’s local election?

Worse still…  I wonder how many people are aware that this individual has since been made Chair of the AUDIT AND RISK MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE !!  Yes, I know.  Hideous isn’t it?

They’ve also removed all committee chairs that weren’t singing from the Torylite hymn sheet i.e. all Tories and Lib Dems.

Please read on…

From: Paul C [mailto:info@easyvirtualassistance.co.uk]
Sent: 09 May 2014 11:51
To: ‘Tour, Surjit’
Cc: ‘Burgess, Graham’; ‘Blott, Joe R.’; ‘Corrin, Jane’
Subject: RE: ‘What a load of tosh’

Dear Mr Tour,

Thank you for your response.

You dodged the first question.  Is that a yes or a no?  Do you support Councillor Crabtree’s “load of tosh” verdict on notifying with the DPA or not?

As you know, I’m fully aware that all Wirral members are now data controllers (begrudged or otherwise) under the ICO – because it was me who discovered the gross illegality and the threat to the local public purse in the first place.  As a result, inveterate, unapologetic, shameless liar (see here, here, here, here, here, and here) Councillor Phil Davies was shamed into firing off a cheque (offensively written out in public money), as set out at the following link:

https://wirralinittogether.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/wirral-councillors-slow-take-up-in-registering-with-the-information-commissioner/

– Many of us still think to ourselves, “Where was this data controller’s legal team during the many years these multiple breaches of the Data Protection Act existed, asleep on the job?”

Please only respond to this email if you have something constructive to contribute.

Attention Ms Corrin.

Please modify your eventual response to the following FoI request that was lodged with you recently, as Mr Tour has kindly answered the first two points that were raised:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/possible_interception_of_public

Many thanks,

Paul Cardin