Topic: A one-off response to Simon Anderson (Boredom Warning - for interested parties and anoraks only!) Forum Home Posted by: Phil Andrews Date/Time: 11/03/08 12:52:00 As promised I am going to, for once and for once only, respond to the various allegations made in your letter to Ruth Cadbury (gee, you do get about don't you?) and emphasised in your posting this morning. Everything you need to know is here if only you could be bothered to read it and take it in. Beyond this I don't intend to engage in a dialogue with you.My responses are in bold:"Then IVYTAG was set up by andrews with Mr B in charge then at the end of 2003 i was thrown of NITA because i did not like what was happening on that group and i themn got involve with Andrews to my regret now..he asked me to take over IVYTAG and told Mr B to hand it to me..." Not true as well you know. Ivytag was in existence for some considerable time before you were kicked out of NITA and subsequently joined the organisation which you had previously spent most of your waking hours attacking.Ivytag was always supported by the ward councillors as it was clear that a large body of residents had no confidence in NITA as a representative body for all the residents on the estate. Its launch was even covered in the ICG newsletter Village News, so the insinuation that you have made in the past in the manner of a blackmail threat - that the ICG's involvement in the project was some kind of secret - is absurd and way off the mark. However Ivytag was in actual fact not set up by me, but by George Burrell (Chair), the late Tom Reader (Vice Chair) and Gareth Evans (Secretary).Far from "telling" Mr. Burrell to hand the chair over to you, I implored him not to (a) because you were not a resident of the estate and I felt it was tactically wrong for a non-resident to be the focus of attention, and (b) because it was already clear to me that you were a loose cannon with an agenda of your own and a man of questionable honour, honesty and integrity. Sadly Mr. Burrell did not take my advice, and as I had no power to overrule him the transition took place."...when i took over there was about 4 members when i resigned last year there was nearly 300 members with a large number of Ethnic Residents."I don't know where on Earth you have got this from. Ivytag never operated a card-carrying membership arrangement as you must surely know, having been its Chair. It was always taken as read that all residents of the estate who considered themselves to be a part of it were a part of it. This was the case when you assumed the top job just as it was when you left. There were no indicators of "membership" at either time, although I am prepared to concede that you leant the group a huge amount of energy and drive, and raised its profile on the estate considerably.You seem to forget that I have attended meetings with you at which there have been, maybe, eight or ten people present and which you later announced through various internet forums had been attended by 50 or 100 residents. When I pulled you on this on one occasion you countered my public correction by claiming that the remaining 90 people had arrived after I had left (which was a good thirty minutes after the conclusion of business), then e-mailed me privately to tell me that the lie had been a "clever trick" (!).I presume by "ethnic residents" you mean people from minority communities? Other than your somewhat clumsy reference, any specific point which you might be making eludes me."andrews promised residents on the estate that there would be a new R.A that every resident could be part off and it would be un political but this is not whats happened:"The current Chair is, I believe, a Labour Party supporter/member. A number of her fellow committee members are supporters or members of the ICG, and others still have no allegiances that I am aware of. The person whose self-induced exclusion you complain of was a committee member of the ICG. So which political agenda is it being claimed that I am following by supporting the new association?"The Ex Nita members were holding secrets meetings behind the Ex IVYTAG members backs..."So how do you know about them?"...they did not have a constitution or bank Account and when the Vice Chair of the URA and Ex IVYTAG member Mr Ayoby raised all this it went ignored he then raised these issues with Andrews who did nothing about it..."I chaired the Extraordinary General Meeting at which the Hounslow Homes Model Constitution was formally adopted, with one minor alteration to allow for a larger committee membership than the model allowed for. I have no idea whether the new association has managed to set up a bank account yet - these things take time to organise - but what precisely has that got to do with the rules to which the association operates and how does it justify your conduct?"i also raised things with him and i was called a liar."Wrong Simon, the one occasion when I have called you a liar was when you doctored the minutes of a meeting of Ivytag at which I had been present to include fabricated quotes from me urging Ivytag members to attend the EGM in large numbers to "vote off" former NITA members, when you knew full I had said no such thing and would not say such a thing as it ran contrary to everything I had always stood for.Only a liar would do this. Only a real dumbass would then give me the doctored minutes and ask me to photocopy them for him!!!"In December 2007 Mr ayoby was verbally attacked by the Secretary of the URA and ex NITA member in front of the Whole group, it was so bad it ended Mr Ayoby having a minor Heart attack 4wks later, Andrews knew about this and did Nothing when Mr Ayoby spoke to him again."If Mr. Ayoby's experience made him ill then I am truly sorry to hear this and I hope he is very much on the mend. I have no knowledge of this alleged incident as I wasn't there, however if Mr. Ayoby had a complaint about the way he claims he was treated then there are channels through which to pursue it. To my knowledge he hasn't availed himself of these procedures.You say I "did nothing". What do you propose I should have done, exactly? One moment you accuse me of controlling the new TA, the next you seem to feel I should intervene every time there is a disagreement at a Committee meeting. This is Committee business, not mine. As long as due process is being followed it is not my concern. "Another long term resident of Ivybridge, Ex IVYTAg member Resigned from the URA over what happened she informed Andrews (whom she has been friends for for years) and he did nothing."I spoke to the lady only recently. She resigned because she is "fed up with all the aggro", and feels compromised because she considers Mr. Ayoby to be a friend. She reserves judgement on Mr. Ayoby's behaviour and is only interested in doing good things on the estate rather than taking part in bickering.It is anybody's right to resign. Again, what is it exactly that you expect me to do?"Then in January Mr Ayoby went to the URA meeting and submitted 8 applications from Ethnic Residents and Ex IVYTAG members to join the URA, the Chairwoman refussed to accept them and 3mths now they have not responded to those letters because they dont want them so to say all is welcome is wrong."Oh Buddha, I really wish that one of you two could hire a brain cell from somewhere and try to get your heads around this one.The meeting to which Mr. Ayoby took his gang was A COMMITTEE MEETING. The people he took along were NOT MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE.As residents of the estate the people concerned are ALREADY members of the new association. There are two methods by which one can join the Committee, one is by being elected at an Annual General Meeting, the other is by co-option.You cannot just take a group of people to a Committee meeting who are not members of that Committee and insist that they be admitted. Would you come to a meeting of Borough Council, sit in the Chamber and insist on the right to take part and vote in the debate?This is not the first time that Mr. Ayoby has pulled this stunt. The original Working Group, as you will remember, comprised ten pre-agreed members. At the first meeting Mr. Ayoby arrived with another resident in tow, an elderly lady who is a personal friend of mine and a member of my Church. It was my embarrassing duty to have to ask her to leave. I don't know whether Mr. Ayoby engages in this behaviour to be deliberately obstructive or whether he genuinely doesn't understand what a committee is, but for you to be encouraging him in this behaviour is pure mischief."In Febuary Mr Burrell had told Mr Ayoby and myself that they were having a EGM but they did NOT invite any EX IVYTAG member"Errr....Mr. Burrell is a former Ivytag member, indeed he is a former Chair. At least least one other former Chair of Ivytag was also present, I believe, as well as several other ex-Ivytag members. What I presume you mean is that no ex-Ivytag members who were NOT ON THE COMMITTEE were invited. This is because it was an EGM of the COMMITTEE, not of the association. Give me strength, I know this will get through in the end!"In Febuarys meetings Mr Ayoby was voted off the URA started by Mr Burrell, there was no constituion in place so this was Un Constitional and Un Democratic as it was not put on the Agenda and some of the Ex Ivytag members who did not att the meeting ave now stated if they knew what was going to happen they would of gone."I have been given a full account of this meeting by several Committee members and also by a Tenant Participation Officer at Hounslow Homes. Mr. Ayoby was not voted off the Committee. Mr. Burrell proposed a vote of No Confidence in Mr. Ayoby, as anybody is entitled to do at any time without notice. Mr. Ayoby announced that if the vote went against him he would walk. It went against him, and he walked.The other ex-Ivytag members would not have been able to attend because they are NOT MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE (I'm starting to tear chunks of hair out now. Heck Simon, everyone has a right to be obtuse but you have begun to abuse the privilege)."Mr Ayoby was thrown off because he spoke out about what was happening, at the EGM Cllr Andrews was present at this secret meeting and knew this was going to happen."Mr. Ayoby was not thrown off, as explained above. I was not present at the meeting."The problem i see is that Cllr Andrews is controlling the URA and pulling all the strings and he has let down all the residents of Ivybridge down and residents are seeing this.I want ALL residents on Ivybridge to no what is going on with the URA and that Cllr Andrews is running things.This weeks article in the Chronicle was a publicity stunt to make Andrews happy.remember he started IVYTAG because NITA wouldnt play ball with him.. . . now he has power he has everything sewn up and shouldnt get away with it and i am here to excist your group in any way or form against this man."Having failed to use me and the ICG as a vehicle through which to pursue your vendetta to your desired conclusion, you now run back to the arms of New Labour, where I am sure your excistence will be gratefully received. Any port in a storm, where those people are concerned."He states i should not get involved with Issues on Ivybridge as i dont live there fair enough but it was ok for me to be involved when i was doing his Dirty work over there..i will not sit back and see residents over there be treated and lied to in this way.He blames the Labour group for what happened in the past on the Estate, i admit that when NITA was running it had to much interference from The Labour Group (this is me being honest) but he is a hippocrit as he is doing it now."No, I stated that it would be unreasonable for you to expect to chair any new association as you do not live on the estate (Google "Basil Fawlty" and "the bleeding obvious" for an explanation of why this should be). This was something I had made clear to you from the very beginning. But of course you had other ideas and assumed, for some strange reason known only to yourself, that you would outflank me and most of your Ivytag colleagues on this. When it dawned on you that you couldn't you threw a hissy fit, hence these latest outbursts and your relentless manipulation of the pathetically gullible Mr. Ayoby.Simon this is the first and last response you will get from me on this. The good people who use this forum deserve better than to have their facility dominated by this rubbish, which is of limited interest to 99% of users. You have ended up with precisely the result that your devious behaviour has deserved throughout. I wish you all the very best with your new colleagues, whom you may find more appreciative of your trickery, manipulation and underhandedness.
Terry Watson ● 4305d