Gavin Jones, CEO of Essex County Council is retiring
Good riddance!
He has spent the past 8 years finding ways to cut services to the most vulnerable in Essex while making sure he looks good while doing it. He’s a Tory in every sense except he’s an officer and not an elected member., he has Tory values and has worked hand in hand with them the past 8 years to decimate public services, all why getting paid about £2million to do so.
Here is the press release from Essex County Council:
https://www.essex.gov.uk/news/2024/gavin-jones-announces-retirement#
Gavin leaves a successful legacy in Essex. Under his leadership, the council has, among other things:
· achieved an Outstanding rating for its children’s services
· introduced major infrastructure to the county, including the Chelmsford North rail station
· tackled inequality through the opening of community supermarkets
· encouraged new investment and businesses in some of the county’s most deprived areas
· continued a strong track record of financial management
Nothing says Tory more than bragging about the opening of community supermarkets which are only a thing because Gavin’s Tory paymasters have plunged so many people into poverty so using community supermarkets and foodbanks are a necessity.
ECC bragging about one opening in Harlow
https://www.essex.gov.uk/news/2024/next-community-supermarket-opens-harlow
Celebrating when fellow human’s are forced to use a community supermarket because they haven’t got enough money to feed themselves is odd, but whatever floats your Tory boat.
Fair play to Cllr Louise McKinlay, the girl has balls of steel, ice cold steel. Why not work to ensure that there is no longer a need for community supermarkets or for Foodbanks instead of bragging about how great you are that there is a vital need for such things because the local authority is failing vulnerable people in so many ways.
As part of Gavin’s legacy Essex County Council Children’s Services were rated outstanding by Ofsted. This just shows how ECC are all about glory rather than substance as I haven’t heard of anyone using Ofsted one word gradings since they were dropped at the beginning of September. Even places that were rated Outstanding are no longer displaying it anywhere. Of course ECC is all about the glory, see my last blog post for details.
Gavin Jones sole job for the last 8 years has been to screw over the most vulnerable residents in Essex while making the members look as good as possible. Gavin either believes wholeheartedly that screwing over vulnerable people is fine to do as long as people like him get richer, or he has absolutely no morals, or both.
The following screenshot is taken from an article that Gavin Jones has written, i’ll link it here:
https://www.themj.co.uk/squeeze-trust
Okay mate, we get it, you are a Tory. £800million of ‘savings’. They aren’t savings, you aren’t doing the same things but with less money, you have cut services to the bare bones so they are almost non existent. Wrecking lives, harming people, putting people in danger.
He absolutely sold his soul in return for over £2million.
I am certain that every single person I know would be ashamed and embarrassed that part of their legacy is that more community supermarkets were needed. Some people I know volunteer at Foodbanks which is the other end of the scale to what Gavin Jones has done.
He never once advocated for the most deprived in Essex, I emailed him asking for help, before I started blogging, I never received a reply. I know a few people who have emailed him asking for help, he has never replied to any of them. He didn’t care enough about my family to even reply, he doesn’t care about any family in Essex to bother replying when they ask him for help.
He does not care who suffers as long as he is making money and able to make himself look good, which is easy when you control everything that is written about you
He thinks that everyone sees him as just a friendly neighbourhood approachable CEO. That is how he wants to be seen as. He plays his guitar for all the little people at EEC, I have heard from more than one source that it is a cringefest, with people clapping solely because he’s the best.
Then there is his music. I went for way over a year before I listened to his music as I though my bias against him would mean that I would be unfair about the quality of his music. My fears were unfounded, his music is genuinely terrible, no bias needed, it is genuinely terrible, as evidenced by the extremely low plays his songs get and low interaction he gets on social media when he posts a new song.
It reminds me of the really terrible singers on TV talent shows that cannot sing but have been told by family for many years that they are fantastic. Gavin is surrounded by people who will tell him he’s brilliant at everything. I can imagine it would be very difficult, likely impossible, for someone to tell him that his music is rubbish while he’s in a position of power above them.
He releases music under the name gibsongav at everywhere you would expect music to be. Just remember that all of the equipment he uses to make any song you listen to costs more than you will make in the next 5 years.
Here is one of his songs, to give those who read this blog a chance to make up their minds as to whether he’s any good, or not.
Gavin Jones has been at the forefront of all the cuts that have been made to services in Essex, he’s ignored all requests for help for any resident who has contacted him but has welcomed all the praise because he’s managed to ‘save’ ECC £800million.
In saving ECC £800million he has cost the most vulnerable in Essex £800million. He’s more than happy to oversee the spending of thousands on award ceremonies which bring ECC meaningless awards. In the 8 years he’s been CEO about £400,000 has probably been spent on ECC ‘winning’ awards.
Of course a huge question is “why is he leaving now?”. Is it because of the Kirsty O’Callaghan situation? This would not shock me if it was.
I have never seen anything genuine written by Gavin Jones, i’ve seen a lot where he clearly has no idea about what life is like for those of us who are vulnerable, the same goes for some of his staff members. In an article he portrayed himself as a cool boss because he had lots of guitars hanging in his office. Guitars that members of staff who were needing to use foodbanks to feed their families would have seen.
He has not once spoken out about the cuts to public services, at least not in any useful way, just that he’s managed to balance the books.
He is your typical Tory, happy to get richer while watching the poor get poorer and the vulnerable, well some of them dying. He had a voice, he didn’t use it, apart from singing, and he really should not be using his voice for that. Luckily I have the choice whether or not to listen to his music/singing, the staff at EEC have sometimes not had that choice. My thoughts are of course with them.
Gavin Jones has no morals, if someone with morals had seen what he’s seen, seen the cuts to vital services, read the emails begging for help that I, and plenty of others in desperate situations, have sent him, does not speak out, they have no morals.
He is someone in a position of power, he is someone who has first hand knowledge of some of the desperate situations Essex residents are in due to all those who have sent him emails, he has said nothing and helped nobody.
So good riddance to Gavin Jones. He can spend his retirement, with his cushy pension, laughing about how many vulnerable people he oversaw being harmed by cuts to vital services.
My need for help has a carer has now been marked as urgent. 3 different people have contacted adult social care on my behalf, it’s been bout 2 months and i’m still awaiting for a social worker to contact me. One did call about 10 days ago, I was in the car with two of my children and clearly did not want to go into how bad my mental health is in front of my children. I asked her to call back in 30 minutes or the next day. Nothing.
That £800million you are so smug about saving? That’s why my mental heath is so bad and my children are in such a bad way. That is your legacy, not just me, but hundreds, if not thousands, of others.