The review into a restaurant that repeatedly hired illegal workers has been delayed...
Oh..?
...because of the possibility of it having traded for years without a licence.
/facepalm
Police asked Kingston Council to revoke the licence that allows Lal Akash in New Malden to sell alcohol and serve food until late at night, after they visited three times with immigration officials in the last five years.
On each occasion, the first in 2015 and the most recent in February this year, they found staff without legal permission to work in the UK – a total of five across the three visits.
Home Office records show that some of the workers were being paid cash in hand, and were living upstairs in return for a few hours of work several days a week.
At least one of them, at the most recent visit, was in the country illegally.
Only one!?
The High Street restaurant owner, Jomirul Hoque, went to the Guildhall on May 1 for councillors to decide whether or not to revoke his licence.
But the meeting had to be postponed because Mr Hoque might not in fact be the licence holder for Lal Akash – the council cannot find any record of his application form.
He bought the business in 2001, and his name appears on a licence in 2007, but council staff could not work out whether proper procedures had been followed.
That's the highly trained and businesslike local public services we've come to expect!
The meeting was adjourned for two weeks while staff search their files – there were a lot of changes to the rules and the way the council kept its records in the mid-1990s – and they promised a full audit of all licences from this period, to ensure the confusion does not happen again.
Yes, they are always going to be 'learning those lessons', aren't they?
Let me guess - if his name was Bill Smith he wouldn't be getting such a lenient response to trading without an alcohol licence for over a decade?
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw it was Kingston council, all became clear. I would suggest there is a high percentage of council officials not a million miles from the same sect, clan or tribe, or even family. Still, our political masters continue to insist that unlimited immigration can only enrich the cultural diversity of the country. Plus, what Sobers said.
ReplyDeletePenseivat
Most frontline council staff I've met are unsuitable for anything but menial tasks. Perhaps the competent ones work behind the scenes?
ReplyDeleteBut judging by the all-too-familiar incompetence described above, I doubt it.
Whereas the private sector motivates staff via pay & promotion prospects, the public sector is like a Soviet: no incentives to try harder, no reward for achievement (but plenty of rewards for basically doing no more than turning up), inflated pensions, jollies at our expense, etc, etc. Why do I have to pay these parasites over £200 per month for little more than refuse collection?
This is how government runs things. When everything is nationalised everything will be run as efficiently as this.
ReplyDelete#SocialistUtopia.
OT but related have you seen this story:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-48555889
Lesbian couple assaulted on London bus by assailants of no description.
"Let me guess - if his name was Bill Smith he wouldn't be getting such a lenient response..."
ReplyDeleteGot it in one!
"When I saw it was Kingston council, all became clear."
Sadly, you could say that about a lot of councils...
"Whereas the private sector motivates staff via pay & promotion prospects, the public sector is like a Soviet: no incentives to try harder, no reward for achievement..."
Because no matter how much they call themselves 'a business', they simply aren't one. They never, ever go bust.
"#SocialistUtopia."
Remember Chernobyl!
"OT but related have you seen this story"
Oh yes! It should now read: "Self-publicist couple use claim of assault on London bus bfor political campaign"!