In line with government requirements on transparency, Newham Council has released details of all payments over £500 in made in January 2011.
You can download the data from here: http://bit.ly/gEXKd1 I have had a quick look and here are some headlines (bear in mind, this was just for the month of January): There were 9,677 payments, totalling £33,931,106 Details of 766 payments, worth £1,644,445, were redacted due to ‘personal data’ or ‘commercial confidentiality. There is no way to find out what these payments were for or who they were made to. The top 10 recipients of Newham’s cash were: NEWHAM HOMES LTD – £2,039,397 (15 payments)RINGWAY JACOBS LTD – £1,774,918 (58 payments)
LOCAL SPACE LTD – £1,549,617
(1 payment)
F M CONWAY LTD – £1,178,547 (48 payments)
BADENOCH & CLARK T/A PPS – £1,088,057 (1,643 payments)
NEWHAM TRANSFORMATION PARTNERSHIP LTD – £999,268 (14 payments)
MOUCHEL LTD – £648,759 (3 payments)
WILLMOTT DIXON CONSTRUCTION LTD – £608,475 (2 payments)
NEWHAM LEARNING PARTNERSHIP (PROJECT CO) LIMITED – £530,893 (8 payments)
LONDON COUNCILS – £507,579 (4 payments) Kingsgate Interim Advisory, “a turnaround business, focused on the implementation of solutions for challenged or failing organisations” received 3 payments, totalling £51,015. Buried near the bottom is a single payment of £500 to the Fabian Society. The payment is from the Chief Executive’s department, for ‘conference expenses’. Given that the Fabian Society is a party political organisation (it is affiliated to the Labour party, though you don’t have to be a member to join), I’m not sure why public money is being spent sending someone to one of its conferences. No doubt there’s a proper explanation, but I’d be curious to hear it. (for the avoidance of doubt, I have no axe to grind with the Fabians – I used to be a member and left when I resigned from the Labour party)
forestgatedotnet 
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