The disingenuous tactics of the Tory and Reform parties and, in particular, those of Cllrs Steve Hassall (Tory) and Alan Graves (Reform – Derby South candidate) demonstrate their transparent attempts to manipulate the outcome of the Derby South election on July 4th. The fearmongering over the £93.9m (Sinfin Incinerator) “invoice” from Derbyshire County Council, and the unseating of the Leader of Derby City Council and Derby South candidate, Cllr Baggy Shanker, is an episode that should be investigated by the Electoral Commission.

Their sole aim was to cast aspersions on the name of Cllr Baggy Shanker, during pre-election purdah, irrespective of their integrity – this marks a new low for Derby City, and for open and fair democracy.

Hassall has stated publicly that the vote of no confidence was proposed, just to remove Shanker as Leader, and not the Labour Group (albeit that they are a minority administration). The Labour Group stood on an election commitment to avoid the opening of the controversial Sinfin Incinerator. All actions by Shanker followed Senior Officer advice, and were legal; all Cllrs knew this prior to the vote of no confidence but continued to vote as “whipped” by their party leaders.

Ironically, the seconder of the No Confidence motion, Cllr Alan Graves, was also against the opening of the Incinerator – his “policy” would, logically, have resulted in the same outcome with a £93.9m sham “invoice” from Derbyshire County Council. Presumably Hassall would also have called for Graves to have been summarily sacked for carrying out an election promise? Hassall stated:

“Had Mr Shanker been honest back in January and informed us all of this massive invoice then, we would have initiated the vote of no confidence motion then just the same as now because we believe his actions have contributed to this invoice being issued” Derbyshire Live

Hassall criticised Shanker for following Officer advice and keeping the “invoice” confidential but then states that had he communicated it to Hassall when it was received, then he would have called for him to have been “sacked” regardless of the circumstances in which the “invoice” was submitted. This shows the true nature of Hassall – a man not to be trusted!

Why is it a sham invoice?

As a general rule, valid invoices result from a contract for a transaction or a service; implicitly, this means that both parties recognise the context in which an invoice can be raised. For complex arrangements, the contract is typically more prescriptive.

The £93.9m “invoice” from Derbyshire County Council does not result from a contractual condition. The dispute with Derby City Council is not over the amount of the “invoice”, per se, but over the fundamental validity of its creation. The “invoice” was not the end result of a series of inter-Council negotiations but an opportunistic action from a County Council which is financially precarious. If the Incinerator doesn’t proceed County will have to write off £57m of, previously capitalised, costs against reserves – further aggravating its fragility.

Derby News asked Derbyshire County Council

“Last week the Derby City Council s151 Officer, confirmed in a public meeting, that its auditor had advised them not to include in its 23/24 Statement of Accounts the invoice from Derbyshire County Council for £93.9m re; Sinfin Incinerator. Can you please confirm whether Derbyshire County Council has received similar advice from its auditor and will be excluding the same invoice from its Statement of Accounts for 2023/24?”

The response was that :

“…reference will be made to the invoice in our statement of accounts for 2023/24.”

“References” implies that it would be excluded from the numbers in the statement. Despite further attempts to clarify the situation, Derbyshire County Council did not unambiguously state the accounting treatment pending the publication of their 2023/24 financial statements – which are now overdue.

Opinion

Cllrs Hassall and Graves were pleased with their achievement to unseat Shanker – and that is all that they have achieved. The toxic environment in the Council Chamber has been exacerbated ; where does their personal bitterness come from? How does this correlate with their obligation to adhere to the Nolan Pinciples of Public Life? How does this help Derby’s residents?

During the Extraordinary Meeting, Graves, in his usual role as pantomime villain, was embarrassingly clutching at straws, in trying to suggest that the budget was illegal, and that untold additional costs would be be incurred by the City Council. He was corrected by the Chief Finance Officer; she reported that the External Auditor had adjudicated that the “invoice” should not be included in the financial accounts and that everything had been conducted legally – in other words it was a “sham invoice” with no legal validity. Perhaps Hassall and Graves should have done a little bit more research before pursuing their personal crusade.

Derby South voters were “sold a lie” by the likes of Hassall and Graves duting the Brexit referendum – hopefully they won’t be fooled again.