Latest news with #MartinGriffiths
BBC News
8 hours ago
- Business
- BBC News
Northants Reform council wants staff in office two days a week
A Reform UK council has said it will refurbish several of its buildings so most of the authority's staff can work in an office at least two days a Northamptonshire Council said a "new hybrid working model" for employees is set to be offices in Haylock House in Kettering would undergo a major refurbishment and other buildings would be worked on as part of the leader Martin Griffiths said the authority would still use hybrid working but "also building team culture through staff working together in offices". The authority said it would "transform workspaces... to bring teams together and support the development of its 'One Council' culture across the organisation".It said work to improve the council's Bowling Green Road, Kettering and Corby Cube offices would take place in the requirement for staff to be in the office at least two days a week would be "averaged over a period of time"."Due to space constraints, it will not be possible for all staff to be in the office at the same time," it Griffiths, who become leader after Reform UK took control after the May elections, said there has been "positive conversations... about the introduction of a more formal hybrid working model".Previously the council, under the Conservatives, said there should be "a mixture of home working, where appropriate, with time spent at office locations" without a target of how many days staff should be in the previous administration also said it would look at other uses for Haylock House which will now be refurbished. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
10-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Titchmarsh warehouses scheme wins approval despite opposition
Campaigners opposed to a 148-acre (60-hectare) warehouse park that has won planning approval say it will "overpower and dominate" a Northamptonshire Council has given the go-ahead for the park to be built on greenfield land north of Halden's Parkway Industrial Estate in decision came despite about 800 local people objecting to the plans, with one objector saying it would "engulf" the nearby village of Reform UK council leader Martin Griffiths said the development had "potential to bring more investment and jobs" into the area. The site is close to another warehousing scheme on Castle Manor Farm, which is set to go before a planning inquiry on 22 Properties said the project would create more than 700 full-time jobs and involve investment of more than £ Titchmarsh parish councillor Sylvia Prestwich said the village would be "ruined by a monstrous warehouse development".She added: "It will be overpowering and dominating, and we will be engulfed."Local resident Julia Fletcher told councillors that campaigners were "the legal protectors of the jewel of the Northants crown and its rich environment".Reform councillor Joseph Garner said the location was not suitable, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service."The local plan is quite clear: developments of this scale are to be sited in towns designated as growth towns. Thrapston is not [one]," he said. However, David Smith, from IM Properties, insisted Thrapston was "absolutely the right location" for the councillor David Brackenbury, who did not vote on the plans so he could speak against them, said they were "nodded through" despite council leader Griffiths stressed most planning committee members were in favour of the described the meeting as "balanced and objective", adding he respected the decision."The officer who presented the item did an exceptional job in doing so and there was a significant period of time for public speakers and committee members to debate the application," Griffiths Town Council, which was not able to speak at the committee meeting, called the decision "a blow to the local community, to the environment and to the integrity of the Upper Nene Valley landscape". Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Telegraph
08-07-2025
- Telegraph
The Post Office victims driven to suicide by the Horizon scandal
The Post Office scandal has been repeatedly described as one of the ' UK's biggest miscarriages of justice in history '. On Tuesday, Sir Wyn Williams' report explicitly links five suicides to wrongful accusations of theft - a figure which underlines the extent of devastation for some victims and their families. In total, 59 people told the inquiry they had contemplated suicide at various points, of whom 10 attempted to take their own lives. Writing in his report, the inquiry chair said: 'I should stress that whilst I cannot make a definitive finding that there is a causal connection between the deaths... I do not rule it out as a real possibility.' Sir Wyn also suggested it is possible that there are more suicides linked to the scandal which 'have not been reported to the Post Office or the inquiry.' The names of only two sub-postmasters who took their own lives - Michael Mann and Martin Griffiths - were made public in evidence given to the inquiry. However, while other victims remained unnamed, reports of suicides linked to the scandal have previously been reported in the media. Martin Griffiths Martin Griffiths took his own life in 2013 aged 59 after being falsely accused of stealing £100,000 from his Ellesmere Port branch. During the inquiry, it was heard that the Post Office sought to 'hush up' the case of Mr Griffiths, a father-of-two, by 'drip feeding' compensation payments of £140,000 to his widow, Gina, getting her to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and lining up a media lawyer to protect its reputation. Mr Griffiths's sister has blamed the Post Office saying that officials have 'blood on their hands'. A letter from the sub-postmaster's daughter was also presented as evidence in which she said she 'solely' blamed the Post Office for her father's death. Mr Griffith's sister, Jayne Caveen, 61, said last year: 'I hope those responsible at the Post Office and Fujitsu are finally prosecuted, as they truly have blood on their hands. I can't move on with my life without these bitter feelings and deep sadness until they are behind bars.' Her brother had run his branch successfully in Great Sutton, Cheshire, for 14 years before the faulty Horizon IT system appeared to show cash going missing in 2009. Over the next four years, he put £100,000 of his own money into the system to balance the books as his mental health deteriorated. In September 2013 he left home early, leaving a note apologising to his family, and took his own life at the age of 59. Ms Caveen claimed that her brother's wife, Gina, was pressured into signing a settlement deal and an NDA with a payout that prevented the full story from emerging until 2022. She said: 'The more weight the story gets, the better, however painful it is for my family to endure. True justice will only be served when those responsible for the cover-up and the subsequent years of torment are held to account. It is they who should have to see what the inside of a prison cell feels like.' Speaking to Panorama on BBC 1 in 2022, Gina Griffiths said: 'They hounded him, they persecuted him, there didn't seem to be any end to it at the time. Martin hit rock bottom. The worst thing was our children seeing their dad die. It was surely down to the Post Office, nobody else, so I blame them.' Michael Mann Former Post Office manager Michael Mann took his own life after being interviewed by the company's internal investigators on suspicion of fraud in 2013. Stephen Bradshaw and Helen Rose, former Post Office investigators, were interviewed as part of an internal probe into his death, and all Post Office employees involved in audit and investigations were later found to have behaved professionally. Peter Huxham Devon-based postmaster Peter Huxham's body was discovered by police in July 2020. Mr Huxham had been a postmaster for 25 years but served a prison term in 2010 after pleading guilty to fraud by misrepresentation over a £16,000 alleged shortfall - on the advice of his lawyers. His 22-year marriage reportedly disintegrated due to his ordeal and he also struggled with alcoholism and mental health issues in the years that followed. Jayakanthan Sivasubramaniam Father-of-two Jayakanthan Sivasubramaniam took his life hours after Post Office investigators raided his branch in Putney, south west London His branch in Putney came under investigation after the Post Office alleged that £179,000 went missing from the cash machine and the safe. According to the account given to the MPs' business committee by his widow, two Post Office investigators raided the store, took files and locked the couple out, just a few hours before he took his own life on March 4, 2005. His wife Gowri, who had been at a family birthday party with their two young children, returned home to find his body in the attic of their home in New Malden. 'My poor husband was not given the chance to prove his side, and took his own life,' his widow, Gowri, told The Times. In the weeks that followed Mr Sivasubramaniam's death, the Post Office continued to send letters chasing her for the 'missing' money, according to her account. She was forced to take out bank loans, remortgage their £350,000 home, and sell a property abroad and £14,000 worth of jewellery to keep the family afloat. Her account was sent to the House of Commons business committee, in formal evidence, in 2020. The Post Office refused to pay Mrs Sivasubramaniam a penny under the flagship compensation scheme despite admitting that the audit resulted in his suicide. The panel that decides claims, which is independent of both the Post Office and government, said that while it was 'sympathetic' to the widow 'regarding the state of affairs that transpired after the audit and untimely death of Mr Jayakanthan in March 2005' it added: 'In light of the panel's conclusions that the discrepancies identified at the audit were not Horizon shortfalls, the panel has concluded that none of the above losses can be considered to have arisen as a result of Horizon shortfalls.' Louise Mann Louise Mann, the wife of a postmaster in Moretonhampstead, Devon, took her own life in 2012 over the shame of being labelled a thief. Her husband Charles, a father-of-one, from Buckfastleigh, Devon, previously told the Mail: 'I lost my job. Then I lost my wife.'
Evening Standard
08-07-2025
- Evening Standard
Post office inquiry: Key points from the report
There had already been stories of two sub-postmasters who had died by suicide due to the Horizon scandal – Michael Mann and Martin Griffiths - but the reports now says that more than 13 people may have killed themselves as a result of the scandal. A further 59 people told the inquiry that they had contemplated suicide at various points.
Times
08-07-2025
- Times
Post Office inquiry: at least 13 were driven to suicide
The Post Office Horizon scandal drove at least 13 people to suicide, a public inquiry has found. The retired judge Sir Wyn Williams found postmasters suffered 'disastrous consequences' from the 'wholly unacceptable behaviour' by the Post Office and Fujitsu. Victims and their families were also driven to serious mental illness, alcohol addiction and marital breakdown by their ordeals, the chairman's report said. Williams said that 'according to their families', 13 people took their own lives after being accused of wrongdoing while a further 59 had contemplated suicide and 10 had attempted it. They included Martin Griffiths, who took his own life in 2013 after being chased for £100,000 of supposed losses, leading his sister to say the Post Office 'had blood on their hands'. Michael Mann, another former Post Office manager named in the report, took his own life after being interviewed by the company's internal investigators on suspicion of fraud in 2013. And Jayakanthan Sivasubramaniam, a father of two, took his own life only hours after Post Office investigators raided his branch.
