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June 1 - 7 2011

News

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The Telegraph

The Telegraph

μNews

PAGES 2-14

μWorld News PAGES 15-17

μComment PAGES 18-21

μ Letters

PAGE 20

μObituaries PAGES 22-23

μ Features

PAGES 24-26

μCulture

PAGES 27-29

μExpat Life PAGES 30-32

μBusiness

μClassified

μPuzzles

μSport

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PAGES 40-48

NEWS P4

Shoesmith victory Baby P boss in line for £1m after her sacking is ruled illegal

BUSINESS P33

Jaguar’s back with £1.1bn Record profits for the must-have British marque in China

CULTURE P29

Hay Festival David Bailey’s portraits of key people at this year’s Telegraph event

FEATURES P24

Kissinger’s world The 88 year-old is as sharp as ever, discovers Philip Sherwell

LOTTO 25/05

LOTTO 28/05

8 7 17 30 46 48 2 3 17 23 40 43

Bonus Ball 34

Bonus Ball 31

There were two winners of Saturday’s £4.4m jackpot and one winner Wednesday’s £2.4m prize

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Continued from page 1

unsustainable lifestyle bringing the country to the brink of bankruptcy.

“You have to ask why there weren’t the necessary checks and balances in place to curb what looks like a systematic abuse of public money.”

Mr Pickles has blamed Labour ministers for “living the high life” and spreading a culture of wasteful spending through the Civil Service. However, his comments on the conduct of officials now working for him are likely to prove controversial in Whitehall.

Documents obtained by this newspaper show that the councils also spent more than £2million on hotel bills, including stays at the Four Seasons in New York, the fivestar Pan Pacific in Singapore and the Athens Hilton.

Hospitality bills totalling £2.6 million were paid on the cards, including dinners at Claridge’s, hog roasts and champagne receptions, as well as tens of thousands of pounds on booking tables at award ceremonies. Another £500,000 was spent on gifts such as Tiffany jewellery, Gucci products and silk ties, while online shopping sprees racked up bills of more than £300,000 at Argos and £150,000 at Amazon.

One council even bought llamas on its credit card.

This newspaper has obtained details of credit card spending at 186 councils across the country using freedom of information laws.

Over the past three years, documents show these councils have spent more than £40million using the taxpayer-funded cards, which suggests total council spending of about £100million by all 433 local authorities. Councils agreed to release information only disclosing expenditure of over

Eric Pickles: Labour to blame

£500, potentially meaning that there was tens of millions of pounds in additional spending on lower value items or services that was not disclosed.

Last week, Whitehall officials were shocked when shown details of the credit card bills. Senior government sources claimed that a scandal on a par with MPs’ expenses may be emerging. It was not clear whether rules or laws have been broken and whether any public money could be reclaimed.

The documents show that Cornwall council was responsible for the most excessive spending, with a total bill of almost £9million, including £1,145,160 on hotels alone since 2008.

The council used its cards to fund travel to India, Thailand and Japan and spent £81,000 on hospitality and restaurant meals.

Council staff refused to explain their expenditure further when contacted by The Telegraph. In contrast, 48 councils chose not to issue credit cards while several others incurred bills running into only thousands of pounds. The rules on the cards are not clear and each council is thought to have drawn up its own guidelines.

Whitehall officials were understood to be increasingly concerned that there was little oversight on the expenditure, with few checks made on the use of taxpayers’ money.

The disclosures come as councils are shedding more than 170,000 jobs, closing libraries and cutting spending on care for the elderly. Council tax has more than doubled over the past decade as local authorities have insisted that they have struggled to maintain services.

The documents show that officials used council cards to treat themselves to iPads, Macbooks and iPhones, with more than £100,000 spent on Apple products alone. Thousands more went on shopping sprees at John Lewis, Debenhams and Marks & Spencer.

The cards were used to fund leisure activities totalling more than £600,000, including theatre trips, paintballing excursions and visits to theme parks such as Alton Towers and Flamingoland.

Tens of thousands of pounds were spent across several councils on games consoles, including Nintendo Wiis and Xboxes as well as on video games such as Guitar Hero. The documents also disclose how the credit cards were used to buy a bizarre variety of miscellaneous items including beer mats, leather passport covers, dog food, breast examination kits, snow machines and jacket potato ovens.

Lewisham council in south London paid £6,000 to Swedish Body Armour, a Scandinavian company that sells protective clothing including bombproof trousers and stab vests.

Horsham council in West Sussex spent £1,150 on two llamas to graze on communal land along with a small flock of sheep. They also spent £575 on fish for a council pond.

Aberdeenshire council spent more than £3,500 on cheerleading pom-poms and more than £4,000 on professional hair and beauty products for a “hairdressing classroom” at a school.

East Lothian council, near Edinburgh, spent thousands of pounds on mountain biking accessories, which it was unable to explain, and wetsuits as well as a £500 payment for beekeeping.

Essex council spent about £4,000 on “birds for a pet barn”, a chicken run and an “incubator for the new hatchery” at Marsh Farm Country Park.

Despite being ordered by Mr Pickles to publish all spending over £500 by January, 252 of the councils contacted claimed to be unable to disclose their credit card bills when contacted by The Telegraph.

The 186 councils that replied were unable to account for more than £20,000 that had been spent on their cards, where receipts were not provided.

Last week, staff at Cornwall council said it was impossible to explain much of the spending predating April 2009, when the former county council became a unitary authority. They also failed to explain any of the spending after that date.

Accounting at the council appeared to have been so lax that officials were also unclear what currency some bills had actually been paid in.

On being questioned about one hotel bill, apparently for several hundred thousand pounds, the council claimed some of it had been paid in rupees. On the official documents, the bill appears in pounds.

By Tom Whitehead Home Affairs Editor IMMIGRATION has risen to its highest level for six years in a major blow for the Coalition pledge to cut numbers.

The number of people coming into Britain rose by almost half last year and is now close to the record levels of 2005.

It is the fifth quarter in a row that net immigration has risen, signalling a worrying trend.

Two of the main factors were a slump in departures and a sharp rise in Eastern Europeans coming to Britain for work – two areas that will not be affected by an annual cap or other measures. Figures from the Office for National Statistics last week also showed:

ŠThe number of foreign workers increased by 1.7million in the past decade and accounted for all the increase in employment levels over the period. ŠWork visas increased by six per cent in the year to March 2011. ŠAsylum claims increased by 11 per cent. ŠMigrants granted settlement in Britain increased by four per cent.

David Cameron has promised to cut net immigration, the difference between those arriving and those leaving, to the “tens of thousands” by 2015.

The Coalition has already been accused of watering down that pledge after Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, described it only as an “aspiration”.

Figures released last month showed trends were rising in every aspect of the immigration and asylum system. The office said net immigration hit 242,000 in the year to September 2010.

That was a 45 per cent increase on mid-2009 and the highest level since June 2005, when it reached 260,000.

In total, 344,000 people left Britain over the period while 586,000 arrived. The number of departures was 20 per cent lower than its peak in 2008.

The number of Eastern Europeans returning to Britain for work is rising.

Over the period, a total of 43,000 EU workers, such as Poles and Lithuanians, arrived. But in 2009, the flow was in the opposite direction, with 12,000 leaving.

Other figures showed the number of work visas granted in the year to last March increased by six per cent to 161,815. In the first three months of this year, asylum claims rose by 11 per cent, with 4,845 applications, compared with the same quarter last year.

A separate review by the office found that, between 2002 and 2011, the number of workers born overseas increased by 1.7million while the number of British workers fell by 223,000.

Over the period, employment levels rose by 1.5 million to 29.1million workers. The increase was accounted for by migrants.

The study found that one in five low-skilled jobs is now filled by foreign staff.

The Government introduced a cap on the number of migrants coming to Britain from outside the EU in April. telegraph.co.uk/expat

1036

T Going places? Hire a car in 175 countries with our online booking tool telegraph.co.uk/carhire

JULIANSIMMONDS

June 1 - 7 2011

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News

By Steven Swinford TWITTER has handed over personal information about a British politician after a local council spent £75,000 on a landmark international court case against the social networking website.

South Tyneside council, which is in one of Britain’s most deprived areas, employed McDermott, Will & Emery, a leading American law firm, in an attempt to unmask an anonymous blogger who has allegedly defamed local councillors and officials.

It embarked on the costly legal challenge despite facing cuts of £32million and 600 jobs over the next four years. It is believed to be the first time the social networking website has given out information after court action by people in Britain.

The landmark ruling could have a significant impact on the hundreds of thousands of Twitter users who have used the website to breach privacy injunctions.

Ryan Giggs, the Manchester United footballer, is suing Twitter for details of individuals who revealed he had taken out an injunction to hide an alleged extra-marital affair with Imogen Thomas, a reality television contestant.

Tony Wang, Twitter’s head of European operations, admitted last week that the website would hand over information if it was “legally required” to do so.

South Tyneside council took the action after a blogger called Mr Monkey made a series of allegations including ballot-rigging, drug-taking and fiddling expenses. The councillors and officials all deny the allegations. In its attempt to unmask the blogger, the council went to court in California, where Twitter is based.

It obtained a ruling ordering the company to release contact details, email addresses and information about the locations of individuals behind four Twitter accounts. Cllr David Potts, one of the four people behind the action, said: “I’m a politician and I don’t mind people criticising me but this was filthy, tawdry and perverted. I was accused of being a cocaine addict, which I am not, I was accused of illicit business practices, which is completely untrue. When we find out who this is then both I and the council will use every resource at our disposal to destroy this individual and to bankrupt him.”

According to court documents filed in California, South Tyneside council alleged: “The defendant unlawfully posted false and defamatory statements about the plaintiffs on several weblogs, more commonly called blogs.”

The subpoena required Twitter to release names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses of four individuals on Twitter, including Ahmed Khan, an independent South Shields councillor.

Mr Khan is suspected of being the author of the blog, which he strongly denies. He was given the opportunity by Twitter of hiring a lawyer to oppose the order, but opted not to.

Mr Khan said on Sunday he was told by Twitter in May that his account details had been disclosed after the subpoena was lodged with the Californian court.

“I don’t fully understand it but it all relates to my Twitter account and it not only breaches my human rights, but it potentially breaches the human rights of anyone who has ever sent me a message on Twitter,” he said. “This is Orwellian. It is like something out of Nineteen Eighty-Four.”

A spokesman for South Tyneside council said: “This legal action was initiated by the council’s previous chief executive and has continued with the full support of the council’s current chief executive. The council has a duty of care to protect its employees and, as this blog contains damaging claims about council officers, legal action is being taken to identify those responsible.”

A spokesman for Twitter said: “We cannot comment on any specific order or request. As noted in our law enforcement guidelines, it is our policy to notify our users before disclosure of account information.”

Reports: Pages 8-9

Peeking at penguins London Zoo’s huge new pool

ENGLAND’S largest penguin pool has been unveiled at London Zoo.

The zoo’s first penguin building, dating from 1934, was replaced by a small, more natural pool eight years ago, but now a

1,200 sq metre pool, four times bigger and three times deeper has opened.

Some 65 humboldt, macaroni, blackfooted and rockhopper penguins — all of which are at risk in the wild — have already moved in and the Zoological Society of London hopes there will eventually be a 200-strong breeding colony. A hand-rearing unit is included.

By Robert Winnett and Christopher Hope WEEKLY bin collections are to be restored across the country, The Telegraph can disclose.

The Government is to announce a deal under which councils will be offered financial incentives to collect household rubbish every week.

A similar plan using government grants was successfully introduced to encourage local authorities to freeze council tax this year.

The policy is expected to be announced as the centrepiece of a review of waste policy being conducted by the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra).

A source close to the review said the funding plans for councils to restore weekly bin collections – estimated to be about £100 million a year – had been agreed and the scheme will be unveiled within the next fortnight. More than half of councils are thought to have abandoned weekly bin collections over the past few years, depriving more than 18million people of the service.

Labour ministers effectively ordered local authorities to scale back collections to once a fortnight, in an attempt to force households to do more recycling.

The scheme has backfired and led to an increase in rat and insect infestations along with a rise in fly-tipping. The fortnightly bin rounds are unpopular with residents and have become a contentious issue at local elections.

Last year, Eric Pickles, the Local Government Secretary, ordered the Audit Commission to scrap guidance to councils which he said allowed them to reduce collections.

The move is understood to have had little impact and ministers want to go further. The return to weekly bin rounds is being masterminded by Caroline Spelman, the Environment Secretary, and Mr Pickles.

It is thought to have been opposed initially by some officials in Mrs Spelman’s department who are concerned it may undermine legal requirements to reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfills.

The Defra waste review is expected to back schemes being introduced to reward people who recycle more. Private companies – which can make money from recycling because of the current high costs of raw materials – may be encouraged to take a more active role in the system.

The source close to the Defra review said: “Restoring weekly bin collections was something that the Prime Minister has personally said is essential.”

By Richard Savill THE boyfriend suspected of killing a Red Cross worker has been found dead, police disclosed on Sunday.

Martin Collett threw himself in front of a train last Friday night, less than a mile from the murder scene.

Police hunting the killer of Angela Hoyt had been searching the grounds of Hatfield House stately home near the couple’s home in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

But his body was found on the track near Hatfield station at 11.30pm last Friday. It took

Martin Collett died near where his girlfriend Angela Hoyt was murdered in Hatfield police two days to identify the body.

Miss Hoyt, 34, went to her local police station four days before she was killed to accuse Mr Collett, 35, of harassment.

She is understood to have given him until last Monday to move out of the house.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has begun an inquiry into Hertfordshire Police’s response to Canadian-born Miss Hoyt’s appeals for protection from Mr Collett.

It emerged that Mr Collett and Miss Hoyt had previously worked for the Home Office. Mr Collett served in the home secretary’s private office and as a crime adviser when David Blunkett and Charles Clarke were in the post. Miss Hoyt had previously worked

By Adrian Blomfield Middle East correspondent AL-QAEDA fighters have taken control of a provincial capital in southern Yemen, heightening fears that the national crisis is playing into the hands of terrorists.

Residents of Zinjibar, a coastal town of about 18,000 people, said 200 masked Islamist militants, some of them members of al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, or AQAP, attacked the settlement last Friday, leaving 21 dead.

The fighters were accused of pillaging the town, burning down buildings and launching violent reprisals that left corpses in the dusty streets. Witnesses say the militants have taken the town largely unopposed after most government troops stationed there were withdrawn.

However, battles have been reported on the outskirts of the town as the fighters surrounded the headquarters of the 25th Mechanised Brigade. Thousands of civilians fled the town, despite appeals broadcast through loudhailers urging residents to return to work.

Meanwhile in Sana’a, seven large explosions were heard to the north of the city on Sunday night, after nearly a week of intense fighting. At least four protesters were shot dead in Taez, south of the capital.

Aides of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, under pressure to resign after months of protests, sought to present the fall of Zinjibar as evidence of how al-Qaeda could emerge as a major force in Yemen if he were forced to step down. But dissident generals who have defected to the opposition accused the president of deliberately allowing the town to fall. ÞSyrian security forces shot dead at least 11 people and wounded more than 100 others in Talbisa and Rastan on Sunday after tanks encircled the towns near the central city of Homs.

in the Home Office as a press officer before joining the Red Cross in a media relations role in February 2008.

She was said to have taken Mr Blunkett’s guide dog Sadie for walks.

Her identical twin Ami Watanabe called British police last week from her home in Ontario, Canada, to raise concerns after her sister returned from a three-month trip to Pakistan with the International Red Cross. She said Mr Collett had a “terrible temper”.

Miss Hoyt is reported to have been strangled.