Blogger’s Note: Just when you thought it was safe! There is an usual amount of local government corruption coming to light in the mainstream UK media lately. When I check the morning new around 5am on a daily basis – these type of stories literally force me to howl with laughter and disturb the pets which – are not yet officially awake. The dogs start howling, the cats, start prowling, and the birds start chirping (I think they think – they are protecting me). Croydon Council recently decided to create a Disabled Parking Space using “telepathy” as a means to inform everyone living in the effected street. A man returned from a two-week holiday to find a white, rectangular box painted around his car – with the words “Disabled Parking” stencilled under it – and “four” Parking Tickets affixed to his window-screen, each representing an ever greater amount in monetary fines! If I had the time to trawl to a greater degree – I am sure far more examples would present themselves. As matters stand, Peterborough City Council sold an educational buiding worth “£4.6 million” – for just “£1” to a charity in 2020 – and then continued to pay that charity around £800,000 in rent and maintenance charges – so that the building could continue to be used by the Council for exactly the same purpose it was used for prior to the sale. “Free Masonry” springs to mind! What is interesting is that this type of corruption is usually allowed to go unnoticed and unpunished. In 2010, when we were looking for a place to live, we considered Mitcham Eastfields, which possessed beautiful Victorian town houses. It turned-out a Sri Lankan slum landlord had bought-up all the properties in a singe street, driven-out all the British people, chopped the two and three-bedroomed houses into tiny, self-contained “boxes” (so that ten or more individuals could legally occupy one house) – and then rented these tiny spaces to EU migrants only. As the UK system was then pre-set to pay all expenses of incoming EU migrants (but not British citizens) – all landlords had to do – was cater to EU migrants only (“No British” in the adverts) and the money-tap would just turn-on. It was a license to print free money at the expense of the British taxpayer (whilst virtually all Socialist institutions were being taken away from them). I hope buildings like this have been returned to their proper use after the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016. ACW (14.12.2025(
Police are investigating after a council sold a college building worth £4.6m for just £1, it has emerged.
Peterborough City Council officers are “concerned” its disposal of the John Mansfield Centre (JMC) – occupied by City College Peterborough – to a charity in 2020 and “associated financial transactions were unlawful”.
After the sale, the council – which owns the college – paid rent of nearly £800,000 to the charity City College Peterborough Foundation (CCPF), but a cabinet report says there is “no evidence of any written lease or agreement for lease”.
Cambridgeshire Police said three people had been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office. CCPF has been contacted by the BBC.
The cabinet report says the decision to transfer the JMC to the foundation was approved in September 2019 and laid out in a “delegated authority form” which was “fundamentally flawed”.
Councils can dispose of land “for less than the best consideration that can reasonably be obtained” without needing consent from the secretary of state if the value is £2m or below.
The book value of the JMC was £4.6m but there is no evidence consent was sought.
The report also states the “decision was taken by an officer not explicitly authorised” and the form incorrectly states the foundation – which started in 2013 – had been “set up specifically for the transfer and ongoing management of the JMC”.
The college provides adult education, and after the transfer in February 2020 the council began paying rent of £17,010 a month to the foundation, rising to £29,010 by February 2021.
The cabinet report states: “The lack of written lease also creates a significant degree of uncertainty as to the terms of the council’s occupation and as to any liability which may have accrued.”
Other payments of nearly £300,000 linked to maintenance were made, which the council considers “unlawful”.
The council cannot foresee being able to buy back the JMC, and now needs to negotiate with the foundation as there is uncertainty over the college’s current occupation from a legal standpoint.
Mohammed Jamil, the council’s Labour cabinet member for finance, said the report’s publication was “proof that where unlawful acts are identified as having taken place, the council’s statutory officers will not shy away from their duty to report that wrongdoing, and we fully support that approach”.
He said. “As part of our improvement journey since 2022, we committed to rapid and far-reaching improvements in relation to governance and financial management.
“Many of the steps we have taken in recent years have led to more robust processes and policies in relation to decision making. However, the recommendations which will go before cabinet next week seek to bolster this further.”
The report recommends the council’s “monitoring officer continues to explore all feasible avenues of legal redress in relation to the unlawful disposal of the JMC”.
Tasha Dalton, principal at City College Peterborough, said: “We are aware of the publication of the report which relates to a historical matter.
“Our priority is to ensure the college learners, supported people and staff are as least affected as possible.”
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 