London Rates Relief Based Talk

London Rates Relief Based Talk

Section 52, Equalities Act 2006 - Long post

Section 57 Equality Act 2006 Another long post

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Re: London Rates Relief based talk

Bunch of mixed links (also posted on the FOI thread.)

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Re: London Rates Relief based talk

lLetter to CoL rates department.

Anonymous reply to Letter post

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Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

WTF is this?

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

Bluebell,your med's,take them.

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

delete.

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

If you've stuff to post coming, start a thread when you've got it - we all hate this kinda teasing.

Re: London Rates Relief based talk

==================

Yea have now, thanks lol


Ok think I've pull out the main stuff from this HUGE mash of stuff.

Scn Business rates relief UK

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

FOI Request 5814‏

Mr Rashleigh-Berry

Thank you for your request for information. I can confirm that the original application and supporting documentation are no longer held by the City Council. This information was deleted in accordance with our retention schedules and is therefore no longer held in accordance with section 1 (4) of the Freedom of Information Act.

However, the Assistant Director (Revenues and Benefits) recalls that the application included a list of evidence in support of the ‘beneficial to the community’ criteria. This list included a number of drug related projects which were undertaken by the Church of Scientology.

I am sorry that I have been unable to provide you with the information that you have requested but if you do require any additional information in the future then please do not hesitate to contact me.


Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxx
Deputy Contracts Performance Manager
Finance and Resources Department
Westminster City Council
Contracts Performance Team
City Hall, 16th Floor
64 Victoria Street
London SW1E 6QP
TEL: 0207 641 xxxx
FAX: 0207 641 xxxx


In other words they are thumbing their nose at any and all FOI requests using the excuse that they threw away all the documents.

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

You owe me a new scroll wheel for my mouse!

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

Reads to me like they are doing their best to answer the question in the absence of supporting docs. It's not an 'excuse' if it's per policy - Why don't you FOI them for a copy of their document retention policy if you think they're lying?

At the moment, I seriously suspect CoL are trying to cover their collective arses, but I see no evidence of WCC doing anything remotely wrong outside following procedures without engaging critical thinking.

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

I think they are following policy correctly but this also means we will never get anywhere down the path of making them change their minds through FOI requests. So what is the next step?

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

I think the tactic of focussing on the 'celebrity' purpose of the building is good. But more focus on the new CC location - force a rethink now, while it's fresh, rather than an automatic rollover of the previous rates relief to the new site.

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

Should point out I did mess up with the Title.

Title should be 'London Rates Relief based talk'

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

Who can get the email address of the District Auditor?


Mr Mike Haworth-Maden, Engagement Lead
0844 798 1212

Got it. Will email the guy.

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Dear Sir,

as I believe you are the District Auditor for Westminster City Council then I would like to bring to your attention perhaps the most wasteful and unfair example of the granting of charitable (mandatory) relief for the use of a commercial property in that borough. That is the granting of mandatory rates relief on the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre at 42 Leinster Gardens. This is a Church of Scientology for celebrities only. The public are not allowed in. It is for the rich and famous only.

I do not think it is just and is perhaps even unlawful to give charitable grants to the rich and famous at a cost to the public.

I hope you can look into this case and get this insane decision reversed.

I have written a document about this that may be of help.

http://www.xenu-directory.net/opinions/20100622-rashleighberry-roland.html

Roland Rashleigh-Berry

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

So do a different one for the London Ideal Org and leave this one as it is.

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

can oyu give us a tl:dr?

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

I think just keep the London bits in this thread for now ok?

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

Just a reminder, if you're the OP and not posting anonymously, you have the permissions to edit that post's title.

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

Yea I HAVE changed the title, yet is still says 'London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk'

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

Wow... if I weren't me that'd be an epic tl;dr.
I'll send letters and write emails etc but don't hold your breath.

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

I think that only works if it's done before there are any subsequent posts.

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

But in any case - I think it's better to have a thread per billing authority - so this should be the 'City of Westminster' thread perhaps?

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

Well if all this gets a situation room then 'we' can do more treads.

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

Dear Mr Rashleigh-Berry

I acknowledge receipt of your email. I will write to you again in the next week or so with a fuller response.

Yours sincerely


Michael Haworth-Maden
Head of Audit (London Region) and District Auditor
Audit Commission
1st Floor
Millbank Tower
London
SW1P 4HQ

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

reply dated 2 September 2010

68 Tottenham Court Rd - Scientology rates exemption?


2 September 2010

Dear WT

I refer to your email dated 1 September 2010

It has been accepted as an application for an Internal Review under the
Freedom of Information Act.

The Panel will consider it at its session on 28 September 2010. I will
communicate with you thereafter to let you know their decision.

Yours sincerely

Peter Swingler
On behalf of the Internal Review Panel

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

You got me, sugartits. Must be some goofy permissions set because normally that change would affect the entire thread.

I tried editing it as well and got the same result.

Re: London Celeb Centre Rates Relief based talk

I was hoping somebody would comment on the above response. To me, it seems very encouraging regarding this investigation idea. To me it translates as "It's being dealt with. Talk to you later.".

Re: London Rates Relief Based Talk

It may just mean "very busy now, have to wait to actually reading what you say", but I think your interpretation is a tad more likely.

Re: London Rates Relief Based Talk

Does anyone know who handles all the legal for Co$ in London?

Re: London Rates Relief Based Talk

I'd also like to know what firm of scumbag lawyers they are using and the techniques used to bully local authorities into giving their client mandatory rates relief.

Re: London Rates Relief Based Talk

I am trying to make sense of the signals we have been getting. There are other curious incidents of the dog that didn't bark. I never heard anything back from the CIS (Companies Investigation Branch) where I basically claimed COSRECI were doing false accounting and fraud. I never heard anything back from my FOI request sent to HMR&C concerning the investigation into $87,160,000 going into COSRECI accounts and disappearing. Other things such as WT gets a response from Camden refusing information as it would prejudice any ongoing investigations. I get a response from the Audit Commission's Head Auditor for the London region that reads very much like "It's being dealt with - talk to you later" and remember that they have studied my document quite intently. And I've been thinking about whether the local authorities are obliged to closely inspect applications for mandatory relief. I am thinking at the moment they they do not have this obligation and that it is up to the claimant to make sure their application is in order. And if the claimant claims it when it is not due to them then it is fraud and that local councils are there to rubber stamp these applications.

COSRECI knew for sure that auditing and training were not of public benefit due to the Charity Commission decision of 1999. They know that every Church of Scientology and Celebrity Centre will mostly be used for auditing and training so applying for mandatory rates relief for these as a charity is fraud. The team of legal bullies they hired to put pressure on the City of London Corporation will have also known this so they were actively helping in perpetrating this fraud.

To me this adds up to one of the biggest raids in history about to happen. Not only Co$ premises but the law firm that helped them as well. I think there will be a few people going to jail. COSRECI will have to pay back all the rates relief they got with interest. Their doors will be closed. HMR&C will join in the fraud investigation and ask for their cut of the $87,160,000. They will seize their property to discover the liens on it held by the offshore trust. The offshore trust will be investigated. Then this will spread to other countries including the US. Again, the doors will be closed in the UK during all of this.

I think all hell is about to break loose in the UK and it is going to happen either this coming week or the week after.

Then I guess Anon UK will have to hang their masks up and they will be forgotten about by the public in two years time. I'll go back to my little software projects and updating my web site for SAS macros and shell scripts. And there will be no more Church of Scientology in the UK ever again and the UK public will have forgotten about them in five years time. And all of us here will become the insignificant nothings that we were before.

I think I want to cry..... :-:::::::::::::::::

Re: London Rates Relief Based Talk

I would say "tinfoil" and that while it would be nice if you are right - it's far more likely to be wishful thinking. Be careful you don't set yourself up for disappointment. There is a reason why "Hope" was included with all the other evils of the world in Pandora's Box.

Re: London Rates Relief Based Talk

Sure, a few random signals will sometimes appear significant and connected when they are nothing of the sort. It will either happen during the next two weeks or not at all. It's what should happen if everybody did their jobs properly so the chances are against it happening.

There's one more thing worth mentioning. The Audit Commission is going to be disbanded as part of government cuts so maybe they want to go out with a bang.
http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1688109

Another thing worth mentioning is the Australian thing with Senator Xenophon. UK officials have been over to Australia by invite of the Australian government. So UK officials know about things the Co$ gets up to. They also know about the missing $87,160,000 that went into COSRECI accounts and never came out. Trust me on that one. So NOW is the time for something major to happen in the UK. My feeling is it WILL happen and in the next two weeks. And if you hear of raids in the UK then from that point of time onwards there will be no more Church of Scientology in the UK ever again. It is finished.

Re: London Rates Relief Based Talk

Mandatory rates relief responsibilities

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/mandatory_rates_relief_responsib
-------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Local Government Ombudsmen,

Please tell me where the responsibility lies for a mandatory rates
relief application to ensure that the premises are wholly or mainly
used for charitable purposes. Is this the responsibility of the
trustees of the charity or the responsibility of the local
authority handling the application? Please point me to the relevant
section(s) of the published guidelines.

Yours faithfully,
Roland Rashleigh-Berry
--------------------------------------------------------------

I am guessing it is the responsibility of local government. Take a
look at the following application form. It is very detailed, although
for mandatory rates relief then only sections 1-8 need to be filled
in. If Sunderland had such a form then I don't see how the clams
could have got the 20% top-up. I can't find Sunderland's forms
online though.

http://www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/seb...cret_Rate_Relief_Charities_and_Other-Orgs.pdf

I just emailed Sunderland business rates for copies of their form(s)
for a mandatory rates relief application with 20% discretionary
top-up. Once we can all see it then I will leave it to someone else
to make the obvious FOI request though please do this through WDTK.
You should ask for a copy of the application in electronic format
with personal details redacted.

Edit: I just did this through WDTK so don't bother.
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/church_of_scientology_applicatio

Re: London Rates Relief Based Talk

Roland, my overall impression on the reaction of the multifarious public authorities to your monumental efforts is that is as if there were some deliberate attempt to conceal or obfuscate any and all facts relating to the decisions and the process by which they were arrived at.

If this is open government, I'm a...fucking scilon!

All these myriad Jobsworths, from that prick "Bonkers" Boris Johnson - who is a major mandarin of Government - on down, and we can't find out anything, from anyone, about these decisions? Why isn't there a public record that can be inspected by anyone on the Internet?

You have my deepest respect for not running away screaming long before now, in the face of such unhelpful, endless buck-passing.

If no-one is able to say, in plain English: this decision was taken on this date, approved by these officials, based on these legal authorities and precedents etc, how is anyone in the UK to know if the system isn't totally corrupt? I'm half expecting you to get a response at some point that the whole thing is subject to the Official Secrets Act and that nothing can be divulged.

Any public body who gifted this criminal mob public cash to help them fleece more Celebs and Luvvies deserves a collective arse-kicking. (Via the medium of 'poons and public exposure...not advocating violence, of course).

Re: London Rates Relief Based Talk

To be fair, it's only City of Loldon Corp as far as I'm aware who have been out-and-out obstructionist (so far).

Re: London Rates Relief Based Talk

I don't run away screaming because I want my revenge. Actually, I do it all for altruistic reasons but if I were to allow myself to think that then I would be too much of a good person and I don't feel I could live up to it and I would get too caught up in this whole mess so "revenge" it is.

I still have hope. "Hope" is the single evil that Pandora stopped from getting out of the box.

I have "hope" at the moment because I think there is going to be raids in the next two weeks in the UK not only on Scientology but also on the law firm of legal bullies they used on a par with raids on the mafia in the US. But of course, it won't happen. All those jobsworths will still be sitting on their hands. Then it's back to the drudgery of trying to get information out of those who don't want to give it and will try every trick and obfuscation in the book to not reveal that information. But Sunderland have been very helpful so far. But when it comes to details of the decision about the public benefit of the use of the premises then I am expecting the tricks to start.

But you all have my document for those who need it to give focus to your efforts and to indicate what needs to be done and what can be achieved and I think that will help us battle on, even if we never win.
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Scientology business rates relief in the UK -- 31AUG2010 -- (PDF version)

Notice I have updated the section about auditing and training to clarify what goes on in a Church of Scientology and what the main use of the premises are. I now have indisputable proof and have clearly indicated so. Jump straight to it in the following link.

http://www.xenu-directory.net/opinions/20100622-rashleighberry-roland.html#use_of_premises

Re: London Rates Relief Based Talk

I think Camden have come up with a corker with this "prejudice ongoing investigations" thing unless it really means the clams are being investigated at the moment.

Edit: And this intrigues me because in the past they have never been afraid of the clams.

Re: London Rates Relief Based Talk

They have most of them read my document. They have not indicated to me by email that they disagree with what is in the document or that anything is inaccurate or wrong. If they were doing their jobs and acting with integrity then the document should have already resulted in the removal of both mandatory and discretionary relief across the UK. That it has not done so indicates to me that your observations are accurate.