'The Great Post Office Trial'

Dear Nick

You are doing a brilliant job in exposing this scandal.  My wife and I have just listened to Parts 13 - 17 on BBC Sounds.  It must easily be "the widest miscarriage of justice in UK legal history."  Very well done, indeed.

When you have well and truly done with the Horizon scandal, I would still love your help with what I have discovered by officers, members and senior management teams in local and regional government in the West Midlands where I live.  Some examples,

• Mayor Andy Street ordered a supposed independent review into Metro trams in 2021, I believe was the year.  It has still not been published.
• Concerns arose over delays, premature replacement of railway track in the heart of the shopping centre of Brum and budget overspends.
• The Wolverhampton Pipers Row tram extension took seven years of work on the ground to build 700 m of tram track!
• In 20 years, Centenary Sq has seen three major building, demolition and rebuilding projects.
• There appears to be a far too cosy a relationship between the auditor, Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC) and the Combined Authority (WMCA).​
   How the Nolan Principles are applied by the WMCA
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• PWC staff seem to get on so well with WMCA officers that there is little wonder that over-spending caused three transport projects to be suspended in the spring/summer of 2022.
• One was the enormous new University Station in Edgbaston that is still not open.
• A second was Wednesbury, Brierley Hill Extension (WBHE) tram aka the Dudley Tram was suspended and split into four phases because of a 45% increase in the overall budget.  Work on the ground started in 2019 for this 11 Kms on mainly a former principal mainline railway​
   "of national strategic significance".pdf
  ​The return of freight and passenger trains to the two former mainline railways would have been at a fraction of the price.
• The 1.7 Kms Birmingham Eastside extension has gone up in price to £245 m and cannot be completed until 2027, at the earliest because of HS2 Ltd constructing Curzon St Station.  Why was there no liaison between the tram builders and the Curzon St builders to decide on a sensible, competent programme timetable?  Now a whopping £144 m/Km that perhaps includes public realm 'improvements'.
• COMPARE WITH Second Edinburgh tram project:

• “The Trams to Newhaven project remains on schedule for completion by spring 2023 and within the £207.3m budget.” (March 2023 from UK Tram Ltd)  8 new stops.

  £207.3 m divided by 4.69 Kms length = £44.2 m/Km

WHY THE DISPARITY BETWEEN £144 m/Km for Brum and £44.2 m/Km for Edinburgh - both for tram projects and both this year, 2023? Over 3x more for Brum to construct trams than Edinburgh!​

 The Conservative Group on Edinburgh City Counci...

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​Nick, do you have the contact details for Max Caller, the man appointed to look into Bankrupt Brum and turn it around, a few weeks ago, please?

​Thanks so much for standing up to get justice for the hundreds of postmasters (over 700!).  Keep up the truly magnificent work, please.  Don't help me until you have finished with the Post Office folly, idiocy, incompetence and scandal.

Is there anyone else like you, that I could try, Nick?  'Private Eye' and, even their Dr B Ching, has never shown any interest over the years.

Best wishes