Was sat idly thinking the other day, my reverie was broken by a telephone call from a blog reader, asking for an explanation for something they turned up by searching using Google for the search term; 91 Henley Grove Road Rotherham.
This turns up this interesting document : Decent Homes Works on Properties leased to South Yorkshire Housing Association for Dispered Interim
The same search term also gives a link to Jahangir Akhtar’s interests declaration.
Upon viewing I couldn’t help noticing that 91 Henley Grove Road Rotherham, now forms part of Akhtar’s property portfolio!
What’s the story?
Jahangir Akhtar Interests Declaration 25 May 2010
Does anyone have an earlier copy, be grateful for it!
Rothpol is grateful to our spotter, they ticked the ‘no publicity box’. More contributions always welcome.
Rotherham Politics 
Amazing. I can hear a pin drop!
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Akhtar has declared he owns the property now, but did he own it in 2008 when the decision for decent homes work was sanctioned? I notice the lease expired in 2009, did he purchase it after that date. This point needs clarifying before this issue can progress. The electoral register gives four people living at 91 Henley Grove. Two with slavonic names and two with Asian names. His property at 8 Farm Drive has one woman with a slavonic name registered, so it’s quite possible they could be dispersed asylum seekers provifing a nice,regular income for him, which the taxpayer pays for!
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There is a video on YouTube in which Mr Akhtar claims to still have a stake in the former family shop close to where he lives. He has never declared this fact and it is still undeclared.
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A link to the video would be appreciated!
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This could be very interesting.Time for more research…
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He states that “we still own the property” note the “we” suggesting a personal interest.
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Having been watching hours of Cllr Akhtar’s public speaking on YouTube I came across this gem. Obviously the voting register is available to view but knowing who voted and who didn’t in a particular household, surely that is not available under election rules! “We don’t know who you voted for but we know if you voted because we have the records!” Sounds a bit sinister to me.
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Think you may have a very serous point there. Looks very much to me like admitting to election offences!
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The only person who should know if you voted is the Electoral Registration Officer, Though on election day i have seen party workers looking at the register that the clerks have in front of them to see who has not voted so that they know which doors to knock on and offer the occupants a lift to the polling station.I used to think this was irregular. For a candidate such as Akhtar to claim to have knowledge he should not have, in that he knows who has, or hasn’t voted needs investigating!
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Malcontent, we are talking about RMBC here. Election law obviously does not apply to them, break it and you still get re-nominated. As I’ve said on many occasion, the whole lot of RMBC Labour Group stink and are rotten to the core.
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I’m fully aware of the arrogance of the Labour group in this town, it was amply demonstrated by their selection for Labour candidate recently in Rawmarsh. Anyway a complaint/enquiry as been made to Electoral Services about this matter. I don’t hold out much hope, but we will see what it brings. Whether are not Akhtar should have needed to declare an interest, by being a muslim member of a planning board when a decision to grant retrospective permission for a mosque, also needs looking into.
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Does Akhtar’s Benficial Interest in 91 Henley Grove Road mean he owns it? Not necessarily…any information welcome.
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It is hard to see any other possibility.
After all he also states that:
” [ and ] My spouse is joint owner of all above properties. ” , so the properties are not owned by a Trust or Incorporated entity.
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… but in any case property ownership information only costs £3 from the Land Registry.
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Land Registry details will follow, they have been requested.
There are other properties in Rotherham where the ownership seems to be undeclared.
As councillors have a duty to declare any changes within 28 days, some are definitely in breach of this condition!
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Rothpol, if you want any help with this e-mail me.
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Speculation may be fun, but the information that will clarify ownership of said property, is winging it’s way to us, as I write. Then we should be able to be clear, as to ownership.
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If any person believes that an offence has taken place with regard to Elections, then they should contact the Police Officers at the “Economic Unit” at Snig Hill Police Station Sheffield. If you report any offences to the Election Office at RMBC, they just re-direct you to the Police, because they have no powers to act.
With regard to declaring property, this one has always baffled me, It is quite clear in the rules that if you have an interest in property in the area, that interest MUST be declared. It makes no difference if you own or rent the property or just live there free of charge, you still have an interest in that property. As RothPol quite rightly points out, there are a huge number of Cllrs, (both RMBC and Parish Cllrs) who have not declared interest in properties they own or rent, just check out the registers. The biggest “offenders” seem to be Parish Cllrs, just go through those Parish Councils who have a website, ( and thus by Law have to publish Register of Interests on them) and look who has or has not declared the properties they live in. I suspect (from experience at Anston Parish Council) that there are “a large number” of other Interests that are not being declared, a good example would be a Parish Council Chairman who failed to declare several “clubs”, and positions within those “clubs” , who subsequently went on to be nominated for a position on the Standards Committee by Members of the Labour Party.
The lack of information on the “register of Interest” sheets has been the subject to discussion at the Standards Committee, with several Cllrs being told to “update” the information required, this shows that this issue is not just an “one off”.
The rules are simple, so why cannot so many Cllrs comply with them.
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S Thornton: It is an offence not to reigister to vote, but I was told by an Election Services officer that this breach of the law is never enforced because it is too costly. I understand the whole question of elections and in particular the abuses that occur in postal voting is being investigated by the Electoral Reform Society. We have become far too complacent with our electoral procedure. When we have councillors claiming they know who has voted, the whole process of elections needs tightening up!
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