Incompetence or worse, Chapter 2

Incompetence or worse? Chapter 2

Craven District Council (CDC) has decided that your money should be spent in promoting a rock concert.

No, really!

It’s like this…


CDC allows a certain amount of money to be spent on charitable bodies. Not necessarily registered charities. But, as an example, suppose you want help in setting-up a worthy cause for the neighbourhood: fixing the leak in the church roof, forming a ‘mothers and toddlers’ group or perhaps an old folks’ outing, then CDC allocate funds for those very purposes.


You might get awarded a few hundred pounds, even as much as five hundred if the cause is deemed good. Generally the seekers of such awards are asked to go to a public meeting where they explain to councillors why they need such monies, what other funding they’re getting, and so on.


There is a limit to this generosity. After all it is public money, and council taxes are at an alltime high. In June 2007 the limits were set as:


Community Chest: £16,500

Sports Development: £6,000

Arts Development: £3,140


Over 2006/7 a total of 62 groups were supported under this scheme.


There is also an Employment Initiative scheme, which is self-explanatory, and officers were allowed under what’s called ‘Delegated Authority’ to allocate grants of up to £1,000 each to worthy causes which might help employment.


However one officer, David Smurthwaite, apparently decided to slightly exceed that authority, by allocating £11,500 to a profit-seeking commercial organisation. That's more than the combined totals granted to sport and arts bodies in Craven.


An organisation in which he, Smurthwaite, seemingly had managerial status, in which capacity he visited parishes adjoining Settle to extol the virtues of that organisation and a major commercial project.


This was, of course, the proposed Settle Festival, and one might well ask why a salaried CDC employee should be giving large grants without prior authority to two inexperienced organisers of a putative rock festival.

That festival has been considered by the parish councils and meetings of the villages concerned, with the following results:


“Giggleswick Parish Council, Ribblebanks Parish Council, Rathmell Parish Meeting, Halton West Parish Meeting and Long Preston Residents Association have all objected.

The Cyclist Touring Club, Yorkshire Dales Soc, CPRE, and Halton West Parish Meeting have all objected, and adverse comment has been made by North Yorkshire Police.

The only body that has not met formally to consider the matter is Wigglesworth Parish Meeting”

Curiously, Wigglesworth Parish Meeting is chaired by one Michael Dean, who apparently saw no reason to call a meeting to discuss this Festival.

The fact that he is one of the festival’s directors is of course pure coincidence.


As is the fact that he works for Cottages4U (a local company owned by a US multinational) which has a financial stake in the festival.


It’s good to see democracy in action, isn’t it?

Some festival facts:

Leeds Festival has been organised by Mean Fiddler, probably the most experienced festival organisers in Britain, and takes place at around the same time of year. No doubt Settle Festival organisers are hoping that the same people will attend both events.

With professional staff, including up to 700 on security, it might be supposed that trouble of any sort would be noticeably absent from the Leeds Festival. You'd be very, very wrong!.


So you might well feel a sharp stab of concern to learn that the organisers of the Settle Festival are attempting to recruit unpaid volunteers for such highly responsible managerial positions as:

Child Care Manager
Site Structures Manager
First Aid Manager
Fire Risk Manager
Security Manager
Coach Manager
Fencing & Barrier Manager
Site Communications Manager
Traffic Manager
Information & Signs Manager
Ticketing Manager
Car Park Manager
Clean Up and Prep Manager
Services Manager
Environment & WiderEconomic Benefits Manager
Camping Manager
Lighting & Power Manager
and Chief Steward & Marshall.

Settle's organisers are displaying their amateur credentials - in Spades!


Even with the expertise of Mean Fiddler, troubles are rarely absent. For example, the video clip showing actual footage of Leeds Festival happenings at the end of this article.


And if you don’t like your council tax being spent by salaried officers on promoting rock concerts in which they are actively involved, why not let Paakwa or – better still your ward councillor - know?


Or write to the Craven Herald. It now has an editor who, unlike his predecessor, is promoting council transparency and accountability.

To watch the video, click the little arrow at the left.

Incompetence or worse? - A Series

The more Paakwa delves into matters concerning councils and councillors, the more Paakwa is disturbed.
Are their more questionable actions driven merely by incompetence?
Or by something more serious?

Paakwa thinks YOU should be the judge of that, and in this short series the facts will be laid before you, that you might judge.

Let's start with one of Paakwa's least favourite public bodies, Craven district council.

One of the items mentioned earlier in this blog was the sale of some prime building land on Gargrave Road to local construction firm J. N. Bentley, a sale which had been nodded through by Cllrs. Lis, English, et al, just before Christmas.

This greenfield site had been valued by a land development company headquartered in Chicago, and instructions appear to have come from one Jonathan Kerr (a name infamous for pushing the sale of many Craven assets, and mentioned many times in Paakwa's dispatches) that the sum offered should be kept secret.

That sum has already been revealed by Paakwa, that prime commercial site was knocked down for a mere £340,000, just £15,000 less than the price paid two years ago for a mid-terrace house with minimal land on a site immediately opposite, in Gargrave Road!

And so the Bentley sale price DID become public knowledge, thanks to a councillor who was heard by non council witnesses to inadvertently blurt out at a public meeting something along the lines of: "How do we know that £340,000 is the best price we can get?"

Paakwa now hears that plans may be afoot to punish that councillor for letting such information escape into the public domain, even that he might be reported to the Standards Board of England with regard to disciplining him.

But in a just and democratic world that councillor should be commended for his action, whether deliberate or not.

The council is secretive over the disposal of our assets to the point where questions - serious questions - need asking. It apparently suits Kerr, an ambitious officer who doesn't live in Craven, to see our Craven assets disposed of at secretive and apparently bargain basement prices, but these assets are ours, the public's assets, and once gone will never be recovered.

Councillors are elected to safeguard the interests of their constituents, NOT the the ambitions of council officers. It is to be hoped that more elected members will challenge the words and actions of those who seek to dispose of our assets at questionable prices.

Sadly it's too late to regain the hill at Gargrave Road from Skipton building society's subprime moneylenders HML. Around 6 acres sold at an apparent snip, for the sale price of £800,000 Paakwa has been informed.

But it's not too late to stop the sale to J.N. Bentley.

If the £340,000 offered by Bentleys is a fair price, the most that we could get for our assets, then Paakwa asks this:

Why was the price secret?

What is being hidden, and why?

Paakwa extends grateful thanks to a councillor who, by letting this price inadvertently be known to the public, has done a service to democracy in Craven.

And Paakwa has this to say to councillors who give mealy mouthed lip service to 'openness and transparency,' but hide behind cloaks of 'commercial confidentiality' whenever it suits them...

J'accuse!

Next in the series:

'How to spend more than the combined charitable allowances for sport and arts in Craven by backing a single private limited company.'

For fans of video, stand by for some revealing footage.

Who runs the council - Take 2

The more Paakwa delves into the murky waters of Craven district council, the more it seems to be that the council is controlled by a few people, rather than the councillors.
On name in particular crops up very often, that of Jonathan Kerr.
Jonathan has many mentions in this Blog, he it was who pushed the recommendation for selling a greenfield site to Bentleys at what might seem like a bargain price (HERE)
Jonathan was also the one who was brought to attention in the first of this series of 'who runs the council. (HERE)
He answered the ago old riddle of 'Why is a council like a condom?' (HERE) and he is also justly famed for explaining the meaning of 'Lively and animated' to an enlightened audience. (Video HERE)

But now Paakwa has discovered that Jonathan, aided by one David Smurthwaite (his assistant as far as is known) decided to spend our money without recourse to councillors.
Last year a money making enterprise was set up, called the Settle festival. This was set up by two promoters, Mark Dale, a chef by trade, and Mike Dean, a commercial holiday cottage rental executive, who formed a limited liability shell company with no employees, no experience, and no listed assets.

Jonathan and David decided to aid these two financially, not out of their own pockets, but out of ours.
Now the council does aid many worthy projects, indeed there were 17 worthy projects chosen who received grants. Not huge grants, for example the total for all sports grants was £6,000 and the total for arts was £3,140

So these charitable activities were aided.
But Settle music festival is not a charity, it is a money making venture.
So just how much of our money did they give to these two budding entrepreneurs?
No less than £11,500 - around FIVE times as much as say Ingleton Swimming Pool school support team got, they received £1,180 to encourage school children in swimming.

Jonathan does not have the right to give our money away, he is not a councillor,he is a highly paid employee of ours.
And so he went to the policy committee, headed by our old friend Carl Lis, who retrospectively approved his largess for this profit seeking endevour.
Isn't it good to know that employees such as Kerr can spend our money without bothering to ask councillors, knowing that they can get such permission afterwards?

This article gives details of the Settle festival planned for this year. Perhaps Craven district council, or Kerr, may be equally free with our money again?

FOI Request from Paakwa:

I note that £5,000 was given to the festival last year by CDC, apparently to pay for licensing, who approved this?

The actual sum granted was £11,500. This comprised of:

£8,100 licence fee

£150 license advert

£2,500 traffic survey

£200 local business event

£150 local business event advertising

Plus VAT

This payment was agreed by Jonathan Kerr and David Smurthwaite

And was it returned when the festival did not take place and remained unlicensed?

No.

Minutes of the Policy Committee, June 2007:

Table 2: Projects seeking retrospective approval

Settle signage project	£2k
Waterways Festival	£2k
Settle Festival	£11.5k total £8,100 licence £2,500 traffic survey £300 advertising £200 local business event Plus VAT

Musical interlude.

Music Lover's Dilemma

Those of you who know Paakwa know that he is a lover – indeed a player – of music. So Paakwa will be happy to hear that the so-called 'Settle Music Festival' is back on the agenda, won't he?

Mmmm...

Let's get a few facts straight about this 'festival':

Firstly: It won't be in Settle. It will be held on a low-lying flood plain largely on the west side of the A65-Rathmell road and is immediately adjacent to Rathmell village. It will virtually encompass some properties in the parishes of Giggleswick and Rathmell;

Secondly: The two would-be promoters, Mark Dale, a chef by trade, and Mike Dean (a commercial holiday cottage rental executive), have formed a limited liability shell company with no employees, no experience, and no listed assets;

Thirdly: These two organisers expect up to 29,000 people to attend the event, a maximum of 20,000 per day, arriving at the site at the rate of 1100 vehicles per hour. This equates to around one vehicle every 3 seconds trying to enter the site! Anyone who's been to a music festival will appreciate the chaos probability of that expectation!

It also demonstrates the naiveté of organisers, who expect people to turn up at a steady rate per hour. Most will arrive on Friday afternoon/evening, totally blocking the already choked A65 on the last weekend in August, one of the busiest times of the year on one of North Yorkshire's busiest roads.

Fourthly: this wildly optimistic duo are asking for volunteer (ie unpaid) staff to fill the following managerial positions:

Programme Manager

Liaison Manager

Stage Manager

Child Care Manager

Site Structures Manager

First Aid Manager

Fire Risk Manager

Security Manager

Coach Manager

Fencing & Barrier Manager

Merchandising Manager

Sponsorship Manager

Print Manager

PR & Publicity Manager

Site Communications Manager

Traffic Manager

Information & Signs Manager

Ticketing Manager

Car Park Manager

DDA Manager

Clean Up and Prep Manager

Services Manager

Environment & WiderEconomic Benefits Manager

Camping Manager

Lighting & Power Manager

Chief Steward & Marshall

Volunteer First Aid Manager? Volunteer Safety Manager? Volunteer Fire Risk Manager? And Volunteer Traffic and Security Managers?

In the words of volatile tennis star John McEnroe: "You must be joking!"

But even disregarding all the above, the most questionable part about this whole affair is that the organisers expect to make sufficient profits to be able to give away an unstated sum to 'charity'.

If this is a profit-making venture, then why is Craven District Council stated on the festival's website as being a 'joint sponsor' or 'partner' in a wholly commercial enterprise?

Why has Yorkshire Forward – an unelected Quango with lots of public money to waste (sorry invest) parted with £15,000 of our money to fund a venture whose sole purpose is to turn a profit for its promoters?

By a strange coincidence Paakwa notes that the daughter of Dixon, Craven district council's chief executive, works for Yorkshire Forward, an expensive quango which will be the subject of a future Paakwa piece on its profligacy.

And why is the Yorkshire Dales National Park named on the promoters' website as a joint sponsor or partner of the festival – when it will not be held on national park land and has nothing whatsoever to do with that body's remit?

Craven District Council has already promised £5,000 of our money to this limited liability company, apparently to cover the festival's licensing fee. Who approved this? Has it been paid to the promoters? And, if so, was it returned last year when the festival application was withdrawn after widespread public opposition?

The answer to all the questions posed above will be posted on this blog as soon as Paakwa receives them.

Meantime, Paakwaa's faithful readers may be interested to read details of a company which planned a similar festival in 2007.

http://www.creweguardian.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1572688.mostcommented.music_festival_gets_drowned_out.php#comments

Unlike the Settle Festival organisers, this company had some tangible assets. Indeed they spent around £200,000 on the festival, including £50,000 for fencing. The festival was cancelled due to rain, and those who'd bought tickets received no repayment, despite the tickets stating that they would.

Meanwhile Paakwa wonders if the organisers of the Settle Festival, if they succeed in obtaining the *permanent licence for which they've applied, will actually proceed? Or will they sell that licence to a third party on for a massive profit?

*According to the Oxford English Dictionary, 'permanent' means: lasting, enduring, indefinite, continuing, perpetual, eternal, abiding, constant, persistent, irreversible, lifelong, indissoluble, indelible, standing, perennial, unending, endless, never-ending, immutable, unchangeable, unalterable, invariable, unchanging, changeless, undying, imperishable, indestructible, ineradicable.

Residents of Settle and Rathmell – be warned!