Money Matters

Meanwhile on Planet Babergh – Job Losses Loom

Brian Riley Money Matters, Political - Local , , ,

Park and RideThe EADT recently carried a report that Headlam Flooring planned to build a distribution centre on land adjacent to the Anglia Retail Park (on the A14 opposite Asda). Headlam are investing £15million and the new facility will include a 125,000 sq ft warehouse with loading and customer collection areas, offices and out-buildings.  The construction and fit-out period is expected to take around a year and the new facility should be up and running by 2018. The building be built on green space adjacent to the former Park and Ride site. The new facility will support the development of Headlam’s regional floorcovering business which includes the Hadleigh-based Faithfull’s Flooring. The existing  80 employees in Hadleigh will be relocated to the new premises. For  Headlam Flooring it all makes good sense – a purpose built facility with access to the A14. For Babergh it is a potential disaster. A significant business and 80 jobs move out of Hadleigh. Headlam had previously sought to build in Hadleigh on land alongside the Persimmon housing development off of Lady Lane. The problem with that proposal was that it was cheek by jowl with housing and the 24/7 operation was unsuitable for that location – on sloping ground with noise that could have been heard across half of Hadleigh. The question we must ask is how have Babergh allowed this development to slip through its fingers. There are plenty of former airfield sites ripe for development. There is even one in Raydon almost within sight of the A12. Ipswich has its own questions to ask. Why are there no existing sites (like the former Park and Rides) which might be suitable? Why isn’t Headlam taking space on the Ransome’s Europark? Once again, I fear Hadleigh is being let down by the people who should be serving it. If local government is not looking after the people it serves and those who pay their wages, who are they looking after?

http://www.eadt.co.uk/business/have_your_say_on_plans_to_build_a_distribution_centre_for_headlam_flooring_company_in_land_next_to_anglia_retail_park_1_4607239
http://www.headlam.com/investor-relations/investor-information/investment-proposition

					

		
		
	




			
				


	

		

					
Conspiracy, Cock Up or Business As Usual?

								

								 Brian Riley
															Money Matters					
												

					


				

			
EoE AmbulanceThe East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust has reportedly rehired six senior managers after spending £922,984 making them redundant. The trust, which covers Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex has been involved in various scandals, including bosses being given Jaguar and BMW cars at a cost of £454,000 a year in lease payments.

The golden question in these situations is who benefits? The six firees make the organisation chart look good. The salary bill goes down and most probably the rehires are via service companies. (At least one of the rehires is in a training post via an agency). Did the Chief Executive get a performance bonus for reducing the head count and the salary bill? Even if  the rehires are valid, the damage to the reputation to the Trust is worthy of heads rolling – especially as the trust’s P.R. team cost £250,000 a year!

					

		
		
	




			
				


	



			
				


	

		

					
Hadleigh Stars Gymnastics

								

								 Brian Riley
															Local Colour, Money Matters, Nice Things, Political - Local					
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GymnasticsToday amidst all the doom and gloom about the Brexit aftermath I received the following e-mail from Kelly Mires, Head Coach at Hadleigh Stars Gymnastics:


Dear Mr Riley

I’m writing  to say thank you so very much for the news I received today that you have awarded Hadleigh Stars Gymnastics a grant of £1000.

This is a huge amount of money for the club and it means we can now look to purchase the safety mats we have been fundraising hard to buy .

Thank you once again from myself and all 285 Children in Hadleigh Stars Gymnastics.

Kelly Mires

Head Coach

The locality monies will help fund the purchase of a tumble run and two safety landing mats.

The Hadleigh Stars Gymnastics are holding a club competition on Saturday 23rd July at the Hadleigh Leisure Centre. This is their biggest annual fundraiser and they will be serving refreshments and holding a raffle. All the coaches volunteer their time so that every penny raised goes into the fundraising pot to buy equipment. So if you have a free moment on the 23rd, please drop in on the Leisure Centre and support the Hadleigh Stars Gymnastics.

The monies came from my County Councillor’s Locality Budget. As readers of this blog may know the Locality Budget amounts to £12,000 a year and is distributed in Hadleigh to promote ways in which Suffolk County Council can make life better for its residents. I like to direct the monies to game changers. So in the past I have given support to (among others)  Hadleigh Diamond Lites (Drum Majorettes), an ecotherapy allotment project for Suffolk Mind and Surviving Winter in Hadleigh whose funding was to cover the initial expenses in establishing the charity and to provide such ongoing support as necessary.

					

		
		
	




			
				


	

		

					
Zero Sum Game

								

								 Brian Riley
															Money Matters					
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Brexit CartoonA Zero Sum Game is a  situation in which a gain by one person or side must be matched by a loss by another person or side. Good examples of this can be found in the following list which was sent to me by email showing losses to the United Kingdom as a result of activities being transferred abroad with EU assistance, often financial.


    

  • Ford Transit moved to Turkey 2013 with EU grant.
    • 

  • Cadbury moved factory to Poland 2011 with EU grant.
    • 

  • Jaguar Land Rover has recently agreed to build a new plant in Slovakia  with EU grant, owned by Tata.
    • 

  • Peugeot closed its Ryton (was Rootes Group) plant and moved production  to Slovakia with EU grant.
    • 

  • British Army’s new Ajax fighting vehicles to be built in SPAIN using  SWEDISH steel at the request of the EU to support jobs in Spain with EU  grant, rather than Wales.
    • 

  • Dyson gone to Malaysia, with an EU loan.
    • 

  • Crown Closures, Bournemouth (Was METAL BOX), gone to Poland with EU  grant, once employed 1,200.
    • 

  • M&S manufacturing gone to the Far East with EU loan.
    • 

  • Hornby models gone. In fact all toys and models now gone from UK along  with the patents all with with EU grants.
    • 

  • Gillette gone to Eastern Europe with EU grant.
    • 

  • Texas Instruments Greenock gone to Germany with EU grant.
    • 

  • Indesit at Bodelwyddan Wales gone with EU grant.
    • 

  • Sekisui Alveo said production at its Merthyr Tydfil Industrial Park  foam plant will relocate production to Roermond in the Netherlands,  with EU funding.
    • 

  • Hoover Merthyr factory moved out of UK to Czech Republic and the Far  East by Italian company Candy with EU backing.
    • 

  • ICI integration into Holland’s AkzoNobel with EU bank loan and within  days of the merger, several factories in the UK, were closed,  eliminating 3,500 jobs.
    • 



I have edited the comments from e-mail and I have only checked the first statement which can be verified from the Daily Telegraph of 3rd October 2007.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/2816921/Cadbury-to-move-jobs-to-Poland.html


Nevertheless the sentiments ring true.


 

					

		
		
	




			
				


	

		

					
Meanwhile on Planet Babergh – East House

								

								 Brian Riley
															Money Matters, Political - Local					
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BureaucracyThe Hadleigh Community News in April contained the report of the Meeting of Hadleigh Town Council held on the 18th February 2016 which included the following gem: “The Clerk reported that an e-mail had been received from Babergh District Council asking who owned East House. The Officer was, of course, advised that they own it.”

The history of East House is simple: According to the Hadleigh Chamber of Commerce web site of 17th June 2013 East House and the Meadows were bought by the former Hadleigh Urban Council from the Styles family in 1960 for about £15,500. It was a straightforward sale with nothing to specify the building should be used for the benefit of Hadleigh people or anyone else. When local government was reorganised in 1974, council held assets had to be reallocated to the new bodies. To begin with the new councils agreed that the town council should take on ownership of East House. It was a town asset and would stay in the hands of the town’s administrators. However, when, under the rules of reorganisation, the district auditor investigated the division of assets it was discovered that because East House had been bought by the former urban council under Housing Act powers it would therefore have to be allocated to the new district council (Babergh) which was responsible for housing. It was thus transferred to ownership of Babergh.

In 1975 Babergh offered to sell East House (though not the meadows) to Hadleigh Town Council at market value. Hadleigh Town Council unanimously decided not to buy the property as they were already financing loans relating to Hadleigh’s Guildhall and was therefore unable to take on another financial commitment of that size.

East House was leased to Suffolk County Council who (in 2006) discovered that it was the second least efficient property on its books. Not surprising then that Suffolk didn’t renew its lease and handed the building back to Babergh paying for the assessed dilapidations. I campaigned in 2007 citing the emptiness of East House and blaming the Lib Dems for their lack of action.

East House was subsequently placed with Strutt Parker for them to market the property. Depending on whom you speak to market conditions were the reason for the lack of progress with potential buyers. So, ten years on it seems that Babergh would like someone else to be responsible for East House – possibly so that the blame game can be renewed! Why is it that the words “Twinings, a tea party, couldn’t organise at” come to mind.

And for this they raise Council Taxes!


Fuller details can be found on: http://www.hadleighcommunitynews.co.uk/content_hcn/town_council.aspx http://www.hadleighchamber.co.uk/our_town/community/east_house_what_really_happened

					

		
		
	




			
				


	

		

					
Meanwhile on Planet Babergh

								

								 Brian Riley
															Local Colour, Money Matters, Political - National and other					
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BureaucracyI sometimes reflect how life in/on Babergh District Council seems how life might be on a distant planet/country where rules and standards as we know them do not apply.

So I was intrigued to read that on Thursday 16th December the Joint Scrutiny Community are to look at Council Grants and External funding and resolve that the following be the subject of further investigation:

(a)    To   include  the   external   funding   offer   in   the   work   of  the   Grants   Review Project to maximise opportunities for our Districts through externals funders  and opportunities locally, regionally and nationally.

(b)    To research the reduction of our Communities Grant spending from 2017 to 2020 and align internal budgets for non-grant allocations.

(c)    To   pay   the  Annual   Revenue Grants   in  interim  stages  to  ensure  robust monitoring, evaluation and meeting of strategic priorities.  (my italics)

My initial thoughts were that this business was ultra vires. Scrutiny is a reactive committee and does not promote policy – that is the purpose of the Strategy Committee. At a stretch you could say that this activity comes under the role and function heading of “undertaking the Council’s responsibilities in relation to financial governance issues”. But it is a stretch and my earlier point stands, Scrutiny does not promote or formulate policy – that is the purpose of the politicians on other committees.

The paper for discussion on Thursday tells us that grants in Babergh total £419,000. We are not told what the criteria are for successful applications, where the money went, who proposes recipients and who approves the applications.

I get concerned when I see that grants will be paid in interim stages. As a former lending banker I am familiar with stage payments in building projects. These are usually predicated upon surveyors’ certificates and let builders (and bankers) access the credit ratings  of the principal parties. There is unlikely to be a valid comparability with District Council grants.

I get concerned when I see that the stage payments are to  ensure  robust monitoring, evaluation and meeting of strategic priorities. How many extra people do we need to employ to robustly monitor and evaluate? Why can’t we be happy with the ability of the recipients to employ the monies properly? If we are that concerned with the  probity and abilities of the applicants, then we do not advance the funds. If we really need to copper bottom the proposals then let the local Councillors recommend the grants and monitor their usage.

I get concerned when I see the  Tory party of smaller government being lead by the officers into the bogs of greater bureaucracy. The Joint Scrutiny Committee has no business in this matter at present and it begs the question as to who is giving leadership in Babergh District Council. When none of Babergh’s political parties had overall control, decisions were (in theory) directed by the Political Leaders  Group. Since there was no overall control, the executive and officers of the Council felt obliged to provide the leadership that was lacking.

Despite the Conservative Party’s successes of May 2015 that position seems to continue.

					

		
		
	




			
				


	

		

					
Squirrel as an Economic Indicator

								

								 Brian Riley
															Food Matters, Money Matters, Uncategorized					
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SquirrelMy UKIP friends in Suffolk talk about the Chihuahua of Doom (see previous blog on 22nd December 2013) but I’m indebted to columnist A.C. Snow of Raleigh’s News & Observer for the comment that he has a friend who assures him that the local economy is in good shape. The barometer of financial well being is the squirrel population.

Apparently during the bad patches people eat squirrel and they are not doing that now! According to chef Georgia Pellegrini squirrel hunting is more American than apple pie…. Few things are more intertwined with American history and tradition.

Squirrel is, in fact, one of the most popular game animals in the eastern United States. Squirrel also features in the 1931 book Joy of Cooking. Our edition dates from 1980 but the recipes are still there.

Please see:

http://www.newsobserver.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/ac-snow/article49250445.html http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/01/22/why-eat-squirrel-really.html

http://www.thejoykitchen.com

					

		
		
	




			
				


	

		

					
Crowdfunding for Frenk Mansor

								

								 Brian Riley
															Money Matters, Nice Things					
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There is a crowdfunding exercise for an orphan called Frenk Mansor

(https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/ChristmasforFrenk).

Blessing_genie_Dur_SharrukinFrenk is, a ten-year-old Christian boy who lost his parents last month (November) when the boat he was travelling in capsized in the waters between Turkey and Greece. Frenk fled from northern Iraq with his mother, father and little sister and brother when their hometown Qaraqosh (also known as Bakhdida) was overrun by IS fighters in August last year.

After a dangerous journey from Iraq, Frenk’s family arrived on the coast of Turkey where they boarded a boat on the night of 16 November to make the perilous crossing to the Greek island of Kos, in search of protection in Europe. Overloaded and amid high waves and strong winds the boat capsized. Frenk’s family drowned but somehow Frenk survived.

Frenk’s uncle Mark who lives in London, immediately flew to Greece when he learned of the tragedy and is working with the British Embassy in Athens to try to bring his nephew to the UK. Needless to say Frenk’s life has been shattered by the death of his parents and siblings. His uncle is doing everything he can but he could do with some help.

The crowdfunding is being sponsored by Nichola Elvy and she aims to:

Provide funds to meet Frenk’s basic needs – food, accommodation, transport – in Athens, Greece.

Assist Frenk with the difficult legal process that will enable his uncle to bring him to London.

Give presents, food and money so that Frenk can enjoy the best possible Christmas he can amid these terrible circumstances.

All the money will go to Frenk.

Nichola works during her holidays with a Dutch charity in Kos and will go to Lesbos on Boxing Day. Nichola meets her own travel, accommodation and jeep-hire expenses. The same goes for all the volunteers with the Boat Refugee Foundation (Stichting Bootvluchteling).

As well as much-needed immediate financial help, plans are being made for a long term support group for Frenk. When you see his photo you will see a rosary around his neck but Nichola makes it clear that she would be equally concerned for the child of a Moslem or an Atheist.

We have known Nichola and her family for over thirty years. On the basis that you direct your charitable monies towards people and organisations you trust, then the Elvy’s (and Frenk’s needs) come near the top of the list.

To help please go to https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/ChristmasforFrenk

					

		
		
	




			
				


	

		

					
A.S.P.I.R.E.

								

								 Brian Riley
															Money Matters, Political - Local					
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MoneyEver since I was elected a County Councillor I have been critical of Suffolk’s ASPIRE programme. This is a motivation tool aimed at the staff and the ASPIRE values are:


    

  • Achieve – We are the best we can be
    • 

  • Support – We work as one team
    • 

  • Pride – We take pride in and are proud of what we do
    • 

  • Inspire – We model the ASPIRE values
    • 

  • Respect – We give and earn respect
    • 

  • Empower – We empower, encourage and motivate people
    • 



I was especially critical of a poster proclaiming that the Council’s key achiever was a community psychologist who planned and co-ordinated conferences  and supported staff to learn and develop their skills alongside colleagues and services users. My success was to have the poster removed since I objected to staff seeing at least twice a day a poster telling them that they should achieve through the soft side of management rather than take on the hard choices of achieving more for less in the interest of the tax payers and residents at large.

Ideas like ASPIRE are like vampires. They never die unless they have metal stakes driven through the hearts. The posters are back again.


This time they read as follows:


    

  • A is for being Adaptable
    • 

  • S is for Embracing Digital (I know there appears to be an outbreak of alphabetical illiteracy and I couldn’t work it out either)
    • 

  • P is for Leading Change
    • 

  • I is for Agile Working
    • 

  • R is for Politically Aware
    • 

  • E is for Commercially Savvy
    • 



Apart from the last two (and I do applaud an officer who seeks to measure his operational efficiency against commercial benchmarks) the rest of the ASPIRE examples are a tad Ho Hum and if this is the best we can to do motivate staff, then it is time to follow the money and cut off the supply.