• Rip Off Chiefs –  the Greedy Scoundrels’ Gallery;

• ACO Corcoran;

• CFO Holland;

• CFO McGuirk;

• CFO Stagg;

• Wilkinson a ‘home grown’ Magpie;

• Bugler Comment.

Whilst the Service was struggling with government cuts in every aspect of its operational life the ‘I’m all right Jack’ Brigade at the top were cynically planning for the comfort of their retirement.

Not for them the turning down of the heat; taking the poorer cuts of meat; saving in self respecting pride to pay their community charge; travelling on public transport; wishing for a short holiday beyond their reach and means; and praying that their bills will balance at the month end because they are honourable decent Citizens.

This week in stark contrast Fire Chiefs were accused of ripping off taxpayers by Cabinet Minister Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State for the Department of Communities and Local Government over secret deals that let them retire as young as 50; take huge tax-free pension payments; and then return to their original posts.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: “For years, council taxpayers have been ripped off by fire chiefs retiring and then being re-employed. We are closing down these loopholes, shining the light of transparency into town hall pay, and forcing councillors to adopt a clear policy against such shoddy deals.”.

Perhaps Communities Secretary Eric Pickles needs to look at the shoddy deal he is about to get from his own ‘independent’ fire advisor Mr.Holland in his own department?
The Mail on Sunday investigation published on the 7^th September 2014 identified more than 20 chief fire officers and their deputies who have been rehired by their former Fire Authorities since 2007.

Now commonly known as ‘double dipping’ from the public purse; a questionable amoral practice which we shall see in one notorious case now involves ‘triple dipping’ within the Secretary of State’s own department with his very own ‘independent’ fire adviser Peter Holland.

• A recent Mail on Sunday investigation found that fire chiefs can ask to retire up to up to five years before private sector workers;

•They can receive up to a quarter of their pension pot – more than £300,000 in some cases;

• They have to take a month off to avoid paying tax on the windfall, but can then go back to their former role on the same salary;

• The remainder of their pension pots remain untouched and kept safe until they ‘retire’ later once more;

• At which point they can receive a further £250,000 as ‘compensation for loss of office’;

• Every chief fire officer and their deputy it seems receives the final ‘bonus’ of the inevitable ‘gongs’ and 30 pieces of silver as a reward  for their collective acts of betrayal in allowing the dismantling of the Fire Service without a single voice of protest.

Why does a national Sunday Newspaper find it necessary to have to inform Secretary of State Pickles some 7 years late of these suspicious practices which he has now banned?

One must ask if this practice was going on since 2007 why was Mr.Pickles not made aware of this situation by his civil servants in his Fire and Resilience Directorate who simply cannot have been unaware of this growing dubious practice.

Here are a few examples of these 20 greedy scoundrels…including the one working directly for him as his ‘independent’ Fire Adviser who without the slightest compunction dip into the pension pots which are meant to serve honourable people including disabled FSVs,their  Widows and Beneficiraies .

Published 12th November 2007, Mail On Sunday.By Jaya Narain

 Fire chief retires on £250,000 but is rehired days later for £100,000.

A fire chief received a £250,000 retirement pay-out – only to be given his old job back a few days later at a salary of £100,000.

When Patrick Corcoran, an assistant county fire officer, retired earlier this month after reaching the age of 55, it was claimed there was no one suitable in the fire service to replace him.

So Greater Manchester Fire Service decided to give Mr Corcoran, who has a gold-plated pension pot of around £1million, his job back on a fixed-term contract of 11 months, paying him his old wage while they find a suitable replacement.

Last night, firefighters and union bosses were united in condemnation of the move, asking why the vacancy was not advertised.

Kevin Brown, of the Fire Brigades’ Union, said: “Surely Mr Corcoran’s retirement date will not have come as a surprise to the management.

“Greater Manchester Fire Service used to be one of the top-performing brigades in the country. I am sure that there would not have been a shortage of potential candidates.

“Clearly this deal must have been heard by the Labour-controlled Fire Authority and has been thrashed out behind closed doors.

“You have to question whether it is the best use of financial resources.”

Mr Corcoran has responsibility for brigade performance and his brief includes discipline, sickness and personnel issues.

Mr Brown added: “There are a number of middle management highly specialised jobs like chemical and hazardous material officers, who would be very difficult to replace, and you could argue that in certain circumstances it might be appropriate to re-engage them.

“But Mr Corcoran has a bureaucratic job and I am sure that a replacement could be recruited for it.”

One fireman said: “Mr Corcoran gets his lump sum and a very handsome-wage simply for continuing doing the job he was doing. It hardly looks like an open and transparent situation.

“Surely the position should have been advertised and applicants interviewed for the post.”

The Firefighters’ Pension Scheme is one of the highest-paying in the UK, and Mr Corcoran would have paid in at least 11 per cent of his salary, matched by his employer’s contribution.

As well as the lump sum, Mr Corcoran is entitled to a brigade pension estimated at about £45,000 a year.

However, while he is working on contract he will not be able to draw it.

County fire officer Barry Dixon said: “This decision was based on sound business reasoning providing stability to the senior management team whilst we continue making positive changes and move forward with succession planning.”

Fire chief retires with £425,000 pension… and returns to work in SAME role on £75,000 a year.

A chief fire officer who retired with a pay-out of £425,000 returned to work soon after to do the same job with a salary of £75,000.

Peter Holland, from Lancashire Fire and Rescue, has even claimed that the deal has saved taxpayers a ‘fortune’.

In a bizarre twist the 57-year-old will actually keep his old job but on half the salary.

Mr Holland, who has been chief fire officer since 1999, said the move will save cash and help plan for the future.

‘It’s a fixed-term contract while I am setting out succession planning for my successor in conjunction with the Fire Authority,’ he said.

‘I could have retired six and a half years ago. At that point I was retiring on full pension, I continued to pay 11 per cent contributions, which is what everybody else pays.’

He added: ‘I was quite happy to retire as of March 31, that is what I would have done. It is the authority who wanted me to stay on.

‘It is saving a fortune at a time of austerity. They decided they wanted to save more money and that is what they have done.’

However, a pension expert has branded the move as ‘galling’.

Greg Heath, managing director of Derbyshire Booth Financial Management said: ‘It is typical of what has been going on in the public sector and it needs to be stopped.

When we have got people with senior positions in councils, etc., although they are not breaking any rules, they are very careful about that, the public will find it rather galling.

‘Not only are they getting rather generous gold-plated pension schemes, they are manipulating systems at the public expense.

‘I understand why they are doing it, but the rules need changing to stop it.’

Mr Heath disputed the claim that the payout, combined with a stop to Mr Holland’s employer pension contributions, would save significant amounts of money.

‘I don’t think it is a good deal for the taxpayer. It might turn out to be saving from the budget but it is coming out of somewhere else, it is more number shuffling than a real saving to the taxpayer.’

‘They might save on the wage and payroll but they have moved it over to pension liability.’

It comes back to the argument about perks and benefits that people in the public sector have had for so long.’

‘How can they walk away with almost half a million pounds and come back to work the next day?’

Lancashire County Councillor David O’Toole, the Tory chairman of the fire authority, said the deal as agreed unanimously.

‘It is a massive saving for the authority which is particularly in line with the reduction in the grant.

‘If anybody is making a complaint it is sour grapes(its my Nemesis that Burns again!) because it is in line with the savings we are looking to make, and it gives Mr Holland the opportunity to continue work, while we make succession planning.’

Cllr Frank De Molfetta, from the opposition Labour group, said: ‘When Mr Holland applied for retirement everybody supported the temporary appointment. Obviously we are looking for a successor but at this moment in time it is important we keep him for a short period until we get his successor.

‘Peter Holland is an excellent officer who has been here for many years and has done and excellent job for the authority.

‘He has brought it to excellent status which is the top award which any authority can get – it is the envy of the North West.’

The Fire Brigades Union declined to comment.

One wonders why Mr.Harman Hon. Secretary for the Lancashire FBU refused to comment on a local abuse which his members and FBU Nationally policy condemns as self serving?

Was Mr.Harman’s lack of comment also self serving?

Ironically Mr. Holland is currently the ‘independent’ government fire advisor to Mr.E.Pickles M.P. Secretary of State for the DCLG.

Presumably Mr.Pickles will allow Mr.Holland to take early retirement under the terms of the Contract which no doubt Mr.Holland will have written for the government and Mr. Pickles when he took up his appointment, during which he failed to declare on his application, and to other applicants, that he has a criminal conviction.

Doubtless Mr.Pickles(or that of his political replacement’s) defence, if he is still an MP come next May and Secretary of State at the DCLG which seems highly unlikely, will be that the department is bound by the terms of Mr. Holland’s Contract, when the time comes for Mr.Holland to retire, yet again, thus making him a record breaking ‘triple dipper’.

On Merseyside, Chief Fire Officer Tony McGuirk retired from his £167,989 post in early in August 2011.But he was rehired on a two-year contract a month later.

The announcement that Merseyside’s Chief Fire Officer Tony McGuirk and Deputy Chief Fire Officer Mike Hagen were to retire was published in the Liverpool Echo. Both principal officers had previously agreed last year to stay on beyond their retirement dates to help the transition to a new senior management team.

Councillor Tony Newman, Chair of the Fire and Rescue Authority said:

“Tony McGuirk and Mike Hagen have been two of our longest serving Principal Officers and played a leading role in the Service being recognised as the best in the country.

“I want to thank them on behalf of all the Authority for their commitment to improving the safety of people on Merseyside and making the Service very much a part of our local communities.

“The fire authority is incredibly proud of the achievements of both officers, and we have appreciated them delaying their retirement and helping the authority in a smooth transition to a new and smaller senior management structure”.

Tony McGuirk said, “The fire and rescue service has seen incredible change during in my long service and I’m proud to have been able to take a lead in widening our role in the community.

“My time on Merseyside has been hugely enjoyable, leading a staff committed to contributing more to our local communities.

“When I accepted the post as Chief Fire Officer of Merseyside I said then that after 10 years as a Chief and 35 years in the Service, I would probably be ready for new challenges and opportunities, and that has proven to be the case.

“Receiving the CBE marked a real high point in my career, but it has also been a huge honour to be the Chief of such a great organisation and I wish every member of the Service all the very best for the future. ”

The Fire Authority will be announcing a new management structure in the near future.

A break which was required to avoid paying tax on his windfall, but he then went back to his former role on the same salary.

When this ended,  he was given £200,000 as ‘compensation for loss of office’ but because he was such an asset to Merseyside he was not re-engaged.

Mr. G. Stagg who retired as Cambridgeshire Chief Fire Officer in September  2013 on a salary of £155,106 after an ‘income tax’ break then went straight back to his old job in October.

In October, the Fire Authority said it had agreed 18 months previously to allow Mr Stagg, who was believed to be on a total salary with bonuses and pension of more than £200,000, to continue working after his retirement.

The then Fire Minister, Brandon Lewis M.P. criticised the “re-engagement” of Graham Stagg, saying it looked like a move to get around government pension changes.

This manoeuvre drew criticism from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), which said it created an impression of a “cosy relationship” at the top at a time when firefighters were protesting over working conditions and pensions.

Presumably the FBU meant a ‘cosy’ political relationship between a Conservative Fire Minister; a select few Conservative Fire Authority elected Members; the Minister’s own DCLG Firefighters Pension team; and these unprincipled ‘officers’ ?

Mr Lewis wrote a couple of letters to the service asking it for clarity over the deal, which prompted an internal review. The service said it had since found after (self-examination)

that “all policies were followed correctly” and its temporary ban of allowing staff to leave and be “re-engaged” had been lifted, and that this sleight-of-hand which was all rather convenient but hardly surprising in an already corrupt Fire Service,  “compared well” with other organisations, though it did not make clear which ‘organisations’ or in what respect.

“Re-engagement not only allows us to make pension contribution savings and retain individual skills and knowledge, but particularly in this instance it has allowed us to maintain stability in the senior team,” said Sir Peter Brown, Conservative chairman of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority.

“This allows us to continue the good work currently on-going to meet budget pressures and ultimately provide a better service to the people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.”

More for less – a simply fascinating financial concept.

In an internal blog last year, Mr Stagg denied he was “feathering his nest”, saying his return to the job followed ‘government’ guidance and advice though once more it is unclear which ‘government ‘ department gave this guidance and advice can one presume the discredited DCLG Firefighters’ Pension Team?

Fire Minister Lewis made no further comment.

CC Wilkinson ~ The Firefighter ~ The FBU Representative ~ The Politician ~ The Freemason.

Lancashire Labour’s CC Wilkinson who was never an actual LCC Labour ‘Leader’ and never a ‘leader’ in any sense of his wildest imagining.

He was simply a ‘buggins turn’ Chairman of the LCC at one point which purely amounts to cutting ribbons and using a spade on green field sites, a very stressful role …

The Editor’s first contact with Wilkinson came at Station E77 Heywood(Manchester) a two pump wholetime station when Wilkinson was a Fireman with Lancashire Country Fire Brigade and a member of a Watch under the Sub-Officer Burns’s command(1.10.69-16.3.1970).

He could never be described as a ‘senior hand’, a compliment by the crews of the Watch to those whom they respected in their peer group.

The Editor recalls keeping a suspicious eye on Wilkinson’s less than enthusiastic participation in routine Watch duties. Wilkinson needed constant supervision and ‘watching’ and as history was to record this potential political predator never lost his spots.

Frankly he made a poor ‘hand ‘ at firefighting because he was never there.

It was clear from first-hand experience, even at this early stage of Service life, that Wilkinson exhibited the same ‘qualities’ that Sir Robert Armstrong had in respect of ‘economy of truth’ and unreliability where it was concerned.

Later by his actions and in his own correspondence he was to condemn himself by his own deceit out of his own mouth.

Recollection is that he spent a considerable amount of his ‘duty’ time released to play football for the Brigade team which meant that other Watch personnel had to carry the additional burden of his duties which hardly made him particularly ‘popular’ until, with relief all round, he was eventually transferred to his home ‘turf’ at Ramsbottom.

Later he received a knee injury at football which he was to claim later was a ‘qualifying’ service injury in the line of ‘operational duty’ and when the time came for his early retirement the Chief Fire Officer of the day, to his credit, was having none of it, and he was discharged with an ill health pension though how he acquired even this remains a mystery; a mystery which, as CC Wilkinson, he denied and lied about, but when challenged by his peers of that period he had no other option but to confirm that he did hold an ill-health pension and an ‘economy’ where the truth was concerned.

In the period that followed post 1970 Wilkinson gravitated to the FBU a decade which culminated in the first nine week National Fire Service strike in 1977/78. Wilkinson had sought refuge in FBU activities and was last seen on the picket line in 1977.

Once more Wilkknson was not one of the leaders in Lancashire unlike the Editor who was both Secretary and Chairman of the Officer section(soon to become a Branch) before, during, and after the Strike.

Wilkinson, like many another budding politician, subsequently prostituted his trade union credentials for the most of his political life.

As he rose through the FBU ranks it also brought the usual ‘advantages’ of non operational nights and weekend shifts; and the greatest bonus of all, ‘no accountability’, within Brigade management structures as to his whereabouts or his activities, a continuing practice today which is an abuse of the independent role of a Union Official where they have their free Service provided office though in fact it is the Tax Payer who picks up the actual bill!

De facto this amounts, as it still does today, to taxpayer paid permanent leave which cannot be described as other than an abuse of the ‘system’.

Nor can it be overlooked that all the full time senior officials of the FBU have their FBU pensionable salaries linked to the senior rank structure of the FRS for pay purposes and as serving members of the Service they have, in addition, the added benefits of their Service pensions, so ‘double dipping’ is hardly a novel new concept for them much as they might bleat about it. 

In 2001 Wilkinson in fulfilling his political ambitions was elected as a Labour Lancashire County Councillor and with an increasingly slim majority re-elected once more in 2005 only to be dumped by the electorate in 2009 much to the unbridled glee of his political opponents and his betrayed former colleagues who sent him expletive undeleted emails of ‘congratulation’.

In the interim he rose rapidly within the Labour ranks and by 2007 he was the Chairman of the Combined Fire Authority; by all appearances the fox within the hen house but appearances can be deceptive when in fact it was more akin to a poacher turned enthusiastic gamekeeper.

During this time in the heady politics of the usual Buggin’s turn he became the Chairman of the County Council, a titular head who wields no political power, but which is a grand excuse for taxpayers paid jaunts here, and mostly there, and if common gossip is to believed even his ‘foreign’ jaunting companions deemed his drunken antics unsavoury to say the least.

On one occasion as Chairman of the Council, ever the opportunist, he ran a function at County Hall celebrating the ‘Heroes of Lancashire’ to which the Editor was invited.

The cynical purpose of the evening seemed to be Wilkinson’s self-aggrandisement by ‘heroic association’ during which he created the impression that as an FBU Official and former Firefighter he was instrumental in persuading the then Labour Leader Louise Ellman(M.P.) to send a rescue squad to the Armenian Earthquake in 1988.

Nothing could be further from the truth. He simply played no role whatever in either peripheral events, decision making, or in any official capacity whether FBU or not, before or after.

He simply attempted to short change those FBU Officials who did and who were the actual heroes who travelled as rescuers to Armenia.

This was a distasteful charade but not untypical of Wilkinson who clearly had drunk deep from the elixir of power and was eminently qualified to be a politician.

In 2006 with the advent of the LFRS pension debacle the Editor and others who were long gone from local politics and the Service were of the naive opinion that common sense and comradely loyalty would prevail and this issue could be resolved in a courteous, mature, and mutually respectful manner, and if errors by either party had occurred, then they must be corrected.

But alas Wilkinson showed his true colours and loyalties, and those he was responsible for, right from the start.

Aided and abetted by fellow Freemasons, Winterbottom (the boss), Holland, O’Toole, Warren, and Hamilton he initiated an immediate, punitive, and disloyal cover up which even the usually diffident LEP ran an editorial under two banner headlines ‘Betrayal’ and ‘Sledgehammer to Crack a Nut’ though as events were to illuminate the LEP had its own reasons for supporting some of the FSVs, those more equal than others. Especially those who had been led from the ‘darkness into the light’ by Winterbottom and his fellow LFRS Lamplighters.

As a CC Wilkinson had a primary duty under the LFRS Code of Conduct in avoiding any suspicion of  duplicity,  personal, or pecuniary advantage to declare his ‘Interest’ at all formal CFA Meetings and withdraw which was of course the fact that he was an LFRS pensioner himself who had been compulsorily discharged with an ill health pension ~ the great mystery.

A glance at the LFRS Minutes of that time show, until his secret was unveiled publicly, Wilkinson had never made a declaration of ‘Interest’ at a single meeting which meant that he controlled every single factor which led him to set up a ‘Review’ into the pension debacle.

It is of particular note that this ‘Review’ was not an across the board review of failed pension administration but undoubtedly slanted by his control to exclude any examination of pensioner’s records who had been discharged with an ill health pension including himself.

At that time he denied that he had ever received an ill health pension but when publicly challenged attempted to mislead all those who knew better.

Perhaps he thought he was dealing with politicians?

Wilkinson was, as expected, deceitful from the moment of his renewed contact with the Editor. Archived emails and letters tells this entire sordid story.

It is also noteworthy that the ‘Service’ that each of these creative geniuses served in, ‘is the nation’s leading Fire Authority’. Surely they cannot all be the UK leading Fire Service authority, can they?

One must also question the muted response of the FBU to this appalling greed whilst their Out of Trade retired Members were struggling to make ends meet? Was this because the FBU Officials were caught between a rock and a hard place?

On the one hand they were duty bound to protest whilst harbouring the ‘quiet’ thought that it might not be such a good idea to draw the Public’s attention to this unsavory shoddy business because their own final pensionable salary from the Union was linked to senior ranks pay and they might have a windfall and become inadvertent beneficiaries themselves?

Greed and avarice are fascinating emotions in the two~pension ‘men’, otherwise an emotionless and lazy people…