While  Tory chairman Grant Shapps presides over the party conference in Birmingham – attacking Tory defector to UKIP Mark Reckless- an extraordinary event is going on in his own constituency, Welwyn Hatfield in Hertfordshire.

John Dean, the leader of the Tory Welwyn Hatfield council and a prominent member of his constituency party is on record defending Alan Franey, his deputy leader of the authority – better known now as the former general manager of Broadmoor who gave Jimmy Savile free range in the facility. Franey had known Savile for 20 years.

Political Scrapbook which broke the story on the net have given me permission to reproduce the tale disclosed originally by the Welwyn Hatfield Times but surprisingly not put on the internet.

Mr Franey is definitely a big cheese in the Tories with a Cabinet job controlling the authority’s spending and a close relationship with Hertfordshire police. It beggars belief that nothing has been done about this given the disclosures following Savile’s exposure as a paedophile  – and I am told he  will survive the no confidence motion  tabled by Labour because of the huge majority the Tories enjoy on the council.

This is Political Scrapbook’s report:

A political ally of Tory chairman Grant Shapps is under pressure to resign over allegations linking him to the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal.  The relationship between Savile and Alan Franey — now the deputy leader of Shapps’ local council and a police and crime panel member — was the subject of harsh scrutiny by an official NHS investigation.

The Welwyn Hatfield Times reports that Cllr Franey will now face a no confidence vote from colleagues on Monday.

With paedophile Savile enjoying unfettered access to Broadmoor Hospital in the 1980s,a running partner, Cllr Franey, was appointed as the general manager of the facility in 1988 — apparently at the insistence of Savile. Witnesses told investigators about closeness between the pair, with Franey asking for “the godfather” when he regularly rang Stoke Mandeville hospital to speak with the TV presenter.

Franey — who strongly denies any wrongdoing and claims he has been made a “scapegoat”, is mentioned no less than 86 times in the official report into the Broadmoor abuse.

According to the report, Savile was fond of invoking his relationship with Franey and other “people in high places” in conversation with hospital staff.  Interviewees also told the inquiry that Franey was “seen as having authorised” Savile’s “unrestricted access to secure and clinical areas of the hospital”.

One health executive told investigators that Franey had told him Savile had “a little secret … a liking for young girls, the younger the better”, a claim strongly denied by Cllr Franey, who also denies that any complaints about Savile reached him.

The report raises allegations about Franey’s personal conduct, such as concurrent affairs with female staff, which may have given Savile and others leverage over the health chief. Again, Franey denies the claims:

“Widespread stories about [Cllr Franey’s] personal conduct circulated within the hospital and outside it, damaging his stature and credibility and hampering his ability to lead improvement”

The report then cites a particular incident in which a nurse was sacked for having “had a sexual relationship with a female patient”:

“she lodged an industrial tribunal case, at which she threatened to make public embarrassing revelations about the hospital’s management. Documents from the time show that this was believed to include allegations about Franey’s personal conduct, involving herself and other members of staff.

But investigators couldn’t find anyone who could explain why the nurse withdrew her claim, suggesting that “an irregular payment” may have been made and noting that the nurse“was, like Savile, a close associate of Franey’s”.