ChippyGlory Archives - The Stray Ferret

No.11: Investigations reveal council payments – and a secret Twitter account

In this article, which is part of a series on the 12 stories in the Harrogate district that shaped 2022, we look back at the significant news broken by the Stray Ferret as part of our commitment to hold those in control of public money to account.

Throughout 2022, the Stray Ferret has continued to report on stories affecting readers across the Harrogate district.

From revealing the latest planning applications for major developments to recording cases going through local courts, we have ensured matters of public record are shared with our readers.

Among our most-read stories this year was the live blog delivering the results from the elections to the new North Yorkshire Council. It was a significant day for the Harrogate district, with the Conservatives’ hold on power slipping in favour of the Liberal Democrats, who won 10 seats in the area to the Tories’ nine, along with one Green and an independent.

Across the county, the Conservatives’ majority slipped to just four, having previously secured 76% of the vote at the last county-wide election.

Investigations

Next year, Harrogate Borough Council will be no more as a new unitary authority comes into effect on April 1, but in its final days, it is still being held to account by our journalists.

This autumn, we revealed the results of a two-year investigation into the identity of the person behind an anonymous Twitter account.

As @ChippyGlory, parking enforcement manager Steve Rogers had been posting abusive, misogynistic and obscene messages. He targeted high-profile people, including the then-Prime Minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, as well as local individuals.

Among his victims was Cllr Matthew Webber, who said he was offended by what Mr Rogers had posted about him and would be contacting the chief executive about the way the council had been brought into disrepute by the tweets.

Mr Rogers apologised, and resigned later that week, though not before another row began.

After Liberal Democrat leader Pat Marsh called publicly for Mr Rogers to be dismissed, Conservative council leader Richard Cooper sent an email to all councillors calling for an apology – from Cllr Webber, for following Twitter accounts which were insulting towards Cllr Cooper.

Cllr Cooper wrote:

“Clearly if, as you state, Mr Rogers’ actions on his Twitter account bring the council into disrepute then the same could apply to your actions in following accounts clearly and specifically designed to insult and degrade me.

“I hope you will considering apologising and stop following those accounts and any others that I haven’t spotted that seek to demean, ridicule and insult local politicians.”

The council leader also copied the email to Mr Rogers, “for transparency’s sake”, and to chief executive Wallace Sampson.

Cllr Richard Cooper and Wallace Sampson

Mr Sampson was then forced to issue an instruction to all councillors to remain silent on the issue. He told them:

“Any further public comment or communication regarding this matter must cease with immediate effect, as such actions could be prejudicial to ensuring a fair and transparent process as the investigation takes its course.”

Contracts

This year, the Stray Ferret also reported on major contracts awarded by both Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council.

In January, a request under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that HBC had paid Bristol-based travel blogger Heather Cowper £700 plus VAT to promote its Christmas offerings.

Gemma Rio, the head of the council’s tourism marketing body Destination Harrogate, defended the spend, saying:

“Social media advertising and the use of influencers to increase brand awareness looks like it will continue to be one of the most beneficial marketing tools.

“We’re keen to continue using it to showcase what the Harrogate district has to offer and stand out amongst competitor destinations.”

However, the project led to a further clash between councillors and the chief executive after Cllr Matthew Webber publicly criticised what he saw as an “appalling waste of money”. Mr Sampson said Cllr Webber’s comment had caused “a great deal of hurt” to council staff.

Harrogate Spring Water

After a two-year fight, the Stray Ferret finally obtained details of how much income Harrogate Borough Council receives from Harrogate Spring Water.

As well as its £13,000 ground rent per annum, the authority receives a percentage of annual turnover from the business – but it had refused to reveal how much this amounted to after requests from this website.

An appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office led to the authority being told to reconsider its decision – and the numbers were finally revealed.

Since 2017, HBC has received almost £500,000 from Harrogate Spring Water.

Harrogate Spring Water, Harlow Moor Road in Harrogate.

Meanwhile, a further request under the Freedom of Information Act showed that HBC had told the water company it would consider selling Rotary Wood – the piece of land controversially earmarked for expansion of the bottling plant.

And in October, we revealed that Harrogate Spring Water had been given permission to test water in a borehole at HBC’s Harlow Hill nursery, which is currently allocated for a new housing development.

The company said the results “weren’t what [it was] looking for” but it continued to try to understand the local groundwater in more detail.

The latest plans to expand the bottling plant were said to be being “finalised” in September but have not yet been submitted to the council.

In Ripon, an £85,000 contract looking at the renewal of the city centre was paused in August, more than a year after it was announced.

Bauman Lyons Architects had been commissioned in February 2021 to draw up plans to create a vision for the city, which would help it to win funding for infrastructure, planning and community projects.

However, the one-year deadline for the project was missed and, in August, HBC’s director of economy and culture Trevor Watson admitted he did not know when it would be finished. He said it was the council’s “intention” that it would conclude before HBC is abolished in April 2023.

Kex Gill

Meanwhile, at NYCC, a contract worth more than £50m was awarded to Irish firm John Sisk & Son (Holdings) Ltd for work on the rerouting of the A59 at Kex Gill.

The total amount allocated to the project now stands at £68.8m along with an £11m contingency for bad weather and ground conditions – but work has been delayed until early 2023 and is expected to take more than two years.

Also this year, a £5m contract was awarded to four national consultancy firms as part of the process of transferring to the new unitary authority.

KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, PA Consulting Ltd and Capita Business Service Ltd were all contracted to support the reorganisation – but the move came under fire from both independents and Liberal Democrats, who questioned why the expertise of council officers could not be used.

In November, NYCC commissioned London-based Steer-ED to draw up a strategy for economic growth in North Yorkshire, with a contract worth almost £90,000.

An Oxfordshire company was awarded £200,000 to oversee a review of junctions relating to house building in the west of Harrogate. NYCC selected RPS Consulting Services Ltd to oversee the work, part of the West Harrogate Infrastructure Delivery Strategy, building on the West Harrogate Parameters Plan.

And finally, this year the Stray Ferret continued to monitor the long saga of Harrogate Convention Centre and plans for its refurbishment to the tune of £49m.

The proposal was first publicised more than two years ago but devolution, changes to government policies and shifting goalposts for potential sources of funding have all played a part in its slow progress.

A steering group, consisting of officials from both HBC and NYCC, has been set up to decide how the centre should be run in future and how to fund investment.

The Stray Ferret will continue to report on the way public money is spent across the Harrogate district in what is set to be a year of significant change.

Harrogate council leader asks for apology from victim of employee’s Twitter abuse

The Conservative leader of Harrogate Borough Council has called for an apology from a Liberal Democrat councillor who was a victim of offensive tweets sent by a disgraced council employee.

It follows the Stray Ferret’s revelation that an anonymous Twitter account posting abusive messages about Cllr Matthew Webber, among others, was run by the council’s head of parking services, Steve Rogers.

Mr Rogers resigned this morning with immediate effect – but a hostile email exchange on Wednesday reveals tension at the council as it attempted to deal with his actions.

The extraordinary message, seen by the Stray Ferret, was sent by Cllr Richard Cooper to Cllr Webber, copying in all councillors, the chief executive – and Mr Rogers, the very person who had been responsible for the abuse and was under investigation at the time.

It led to the council’s chief executive being forced to step in and call for silence on the issue.

Cllr Cooper wrote:

“I don’t read the Stray Ferret but a friend highlighted the article yesterday where you were quoted having complained to the chief executive about the Twitter account of a council employee calling for action and describing how a post about you had been upsetting.

“I sympathise. As many know I used to have a Twitter account but I came off because of the endless abuse I received.

“For some reason I find social media abuse far more hurtful than emails or phone calls. It is so easy for these keyboard warriors to type their anonymous bile late at night and cause hurt and upset.”

Cllr Cooper went on to mention he was aware of Cllr Webber’s complaint to the council’s chief executive, Wallace Sampson, and said he would not comment on that because he sits on the HR committee, which would have dealt with Mr Rogers had he not resigned.

Cllr Cooper pointed out in the email that Cllr Webber followed two accounts which he said were “dedicated to abusing” and “ridiculing” him. He appears to draw comparison between Cllr Webber following the accounts and Mr Rogers’ actions on his ChippyGlory account.

He added:

“Clearly if, as you state, Mr Rogers’ actions on his Twitter account bring the council into disrepute then the same could apply to your actions in following accounts clearly and specifically designed to insult and degrade me.

“I hope you will considering apologising and stop following those accounts and any others that I haven’t spotted that seek to demean, ridicule and insult local politicians.”

As well as copying Mr Rogers, Cllr Cooper sent the email to all 38 Harrogate borough councillors and chief executive Wallace Sampson.

Cllr Cooper said he did this “for transparency’s sake”, saying Mr Rogers should be aware of the correspondence. The full email from Cllr Cooper is below.

The Stray Ferret contacted Cllr Webber about Cllr Cooper’s email.

He said he did not want to comment any further on Mr Rogers, but he was considering making a complaint to the council’s standards committee about the council leader’s email.

He said he had never tweeted anything abusive in his life and found the comparison to be “completely inappropriate”.

He added:

“I was shocked and disappointed with the tone and the inference that I’m as bad as Steve Rogers.”

Less than two hours later on Wednesday, the council’s chief executive, Wallace Sampson, sent a firm email instructing councillors to stop all communications about the situation.

Following the article about Mr Rogers’ tweets on the Stray Ferret this week, Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Pat Marsh had called for the council employee to be dismissed, while fellow Lib Dem Cllr Chris Aldred asked for him to have supervision responsibilities for female staff members to be removed, and Conservative Cllr Nick Brown said he should be suspended while an investigation took place.

Referring to these statements and Cllr Cooper’s email, Mr Sampson wrote to all councillors to remind them of the need for the council’s HR processes to be followed. He added:

“I am therefore writing to all councillors to make clear that any further public comment or communication regarding this matter must cease with immediate effect, as such actions could be prejudicial to ensuring a fair and transparent process as the investigation takes its course.

“To be calling for the dismissal of an officer prior to an investigation considering the breach of policy is at risk of pre-determination.”

Mr Rogers has not posted from his Twitter account since the story was published earlier this week. He apologised for what he had previously posted and said he had “changed his persona over recent months”.

The Stray Ferret contact both Harrogate Borough Council and Cllr Richard Cooper for a comment on the situation. Neither has responded to our request.

BREAKING: Council officer resigns after Stray Ferret exposes abusive Twitter account

Harrogate Borough Council said today that it’s parking enforcement manager, Steve Rogers, has resigned with “immediate effect”.

It follows a Stray Ferret investigation that exposed Mr Rogers for being behind the abusive and obscene anonymous Twitter account @ChippyGlory.

Many victims of his abuse were Harrogate councillors and well known people in the town.

The Stray Ferret tracked the @ChippyGlory account for two years after being told from a source that it was run by a council manager.

Following our report on Tuesday, the council launched an investigation into Mr Rogers.

At the same time Liberal Democrat councillors called for Mr Rogers instant dismissal and Conservative councillor Nick Brown called for his immediate suspension during the investigation.

We will be publishing reaction to his resignation as we receive it.

The council has said it will not be making any further comment.

EXCLUSIVE: Senior Harrogate council officer’s abusive and obscene Twitter account

A senior Harrogate Borough Council officer has been using an anonymous Twitter account to insult councillors and send abusive, obscene and misogynistic tweets.

@ChippyGlory is an account with 146 followers. We have established it is run by Steve Rogers, Harrogate Borough Council’s parking enforcement manager.

The Stray Ferret has been tracking the @ChippyGlory account for two years after being told from a source that it was run by a council manager.

Mr Rogers holds a senior position at the council yet his tweets are strongly in breach of the local authority’s own social media policy.

His most offensive tweets are often deleted soon after posting but we have recorded many of them.

In the following section, we have taken the decision to publish a small number of Mr Rogers’ tweets to demonstrate the nature of them. Please be aware the following content is offensive and explicit.

Offensive Tweets

Mr Rogers has published numerous offensive tweets about councillors from across the political spectrum.

Several of Mr Rogers’ tweets have been directed at the Liberal Democrat councillor for New Park, Matthew Webber.

Cllr Webber has given us his consent to show this tweet.

Cllr Webber said it was upsetting to see the tweet about him.

He told us:

“I’m offended and I will be contacting the chief executive asking for action to be taken. It brings disrepute to the council.”

Some of Mr Rogers’ most misogynistic and obscene tweets are targeted at Carrie Johnson, wife of the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Mr Rogers has posted several sexist tweets about Harrogate Residents Association’s Anna McIntee, giving her the nickname ‘Barbie’.

Following the Sarah Everard case last year, Mr Rogers tweeted the following message to a serving police officer:

Attacking councillors:

Despite being a public servant employed by the council, Mr Rogers has frequently published tweets attacking or mocking councillors.

After a council planning committee meeting last year @ChippyGlory tweeted “It’s always great to see Tories kicking Tories” and following the recent council elections he referred to the Conservatives as “Tory scum”.

He recently tweeted about North Yorkshire County Council’s Conservative executive member for highways Cllr Keane Duncan.

Mr Rogers is responsible for parking enforcement which gives him an active role Harrogate. Yet as ChippyGlory he has posted derogatory tweets about many well known figures in the town such as former Christmas market organiser and rail campaigner, Brian Dunsby.

One person who did not want to be named, but had a high profile role in Harrogate and was the subject of Mr Rogers’ abusive tweets, has told the Stray Ferret of the hugely detrimental impact they had on their mental health.

Mr Rogers tweeted this in an exchange on pedestrianisation about William Woods, Robert Ogden and Bob Kennedy – all well known, long-standing independent retailers:

Council’s social media policy

As the anonymous ChippyGlory, Mr Rogers has had regular non-offensive exchanges with the council’s Twitter feed on various issues.

The Stray Ferret has obtained a copy of the council’s social media policy. It applies to all council employees using social media either in a business or personal capacity.

It says:

“Do not post anything (including text, photographs or videos) that your colleagues, councillors, customers, clients, business partners, suppliers, vendors or other stakeholders would find offensive, including discriminatory comments, insults or obscenity.”

It warns that any breach of the policy may result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.

Mr Rogers has said he is sorry for his actions. When contacted by the Stray Ferret he told us:

“I regret any offence that I may have caused. I would like to think I have moderated my persona over recent months.

“I apologise for my previous behaviour.”

We asked the council for a comment and if anyone knew that Mr Rogers was behind the ChippyGlory account.

A council spokesperson said;

“The council will consider any concerns in relation to the conduct of any of its officers and where appropriate investigate the matter in accordance with its policies and procedures.

“The council will not be commenting further at this time.”