I am absolutely delighted that we’re going to be forming a partnership between Southern Health and Ridgeway. I believe our combined effort is really going to provide superb world class services for people with a learning disability across the whole of the area we cover.

Katrina Percy, Sloven CEO, March 2012 

What Katrina Percy forgot to add to this ‘welcome to my empire’ speech was… and if we cock it up, we’ll flog the Slade House site and other Oxfordshire land for a massive profit and buggar off back down south.

Yep. For some reason [piss up/brewery/Oxfordshire County Council?] there was no penalty type clause in the contract awarding the tender to Sloven. Gifting them land and property worth millions. Rumour is the Slade House site will be used to develop student accommodation.

Astonishing.

Andrew Smith, our bloody brilliant MP, and our equally fab local BBC Oxford news team are all over this. As Andrew Smith said in an interview last week; “This is unacceptable to the public, unacceptable to LB’s family and unacceptable to me. I will fight it.” Good.

Sloven – any thought of providing ‘superb world class services’ for learning disabled people long gone – issued a statement saying ‘We are carefully considering our options. No decision has been made’. ££££££Kerching££££££££. The Department of Health issued a statement saying something like “er, none of our business, piss off and sort out your mess locally.” A teensy bit shortsighted really.

Hmmm.

If Sloven think they are going to profit from LB’s death and parasite this money out of the county, their reputation management indicators will be flashing London bus red for some time. As simple as. It’s just wrong.

Of course they may do the right thing without a fight. That would be priceless.

LB’s buses at the end of yesterday