Affording the swimming pool of despair

Cllr Ursell was going on about a the front page of the previous months Lovely Moon. He said:

"Call me cynical. Is it just a coincidance that the "Lovely Moon" publication blaming HDC (which is Conservative controlled) came out just before the election especially as the editor is Ted Bruning who I suspect is the the same Ted Bruning who was standing for town council in Eynesbury Ward as a Liberal Democrat canditate. If it is true then no wonder the article was biased against HDC. Its deplorable that, if true, a Liberal democrat candidate should try and mislead the general public by this sort of election tactic."

In this months Lovely Moon there is an article quoting  Cllr Ursell. Cllr Ursell is standing for Town Coucil elections on 9th June 2011. The article is below:

What Cllr Ursell does say does raise one question. How will a new open air swimming pool actually be self-sufficient? With £1.75 million in the bank their shouldn't be much to worry about. Once all the construction costs have been taken out there won't be much left. According to Cllr Ursell the old Outdoor Swimming Pool lost £30,000 a year. In truth all pools lose money and need public subsidy in one measure or another. People won't pay the actual cost of swimming.

Eversholt which has an open air swimming pool relies on fundraising to keep the pool open. In financial terms there are a few points to consider:

1. Renewal. The pool will need renewing or a major overhaul in roughly 20 years. If it cost say £1 million to construct this would mean a pool would need roughly £2 million in 20 years time, if not more.

So a "financially self-sufficient" pool needs to put £100,000 a year aside for renewal. 

2. £1.75 million seems alot of money. Take a million off for contruction and the trust is left with £750,000. With interest of 5% this would bring in £37,500 a year. Just enough to cover the losses.

3. The old pool was seasonal. Opening up the pool for the whole year brings with it higher staffing costs, management and utilities not to mention higher costs of maintenance. 

4. What else could the Trust do? There is an idea of a wave machine that surfers could use. But how much profit would a machine like this actually bring in? I have no idea. Nor, I suspect, does Cllr Ursell or the Trust. There have been hints of having a gym. But this won't make any money. 

Whatever the outcome any outdoor swimming pool would need public subsidy to make it a going concern. Either subsidise the running costs or put money aside for pool renewal. £1.75 million sounds alot of money but it isn't. To make this pool self sufficient the amount needs to be closer to £5 million rather than £1.75 million. As with the titchy cinema St Neots will end up with a paddling pool.

Those Councillor Allowances

With the publication of HDC Councillor allowances I thought I would compare those who have served full terms. The pay year runs from April to March. The election year starts in May to April. So there is a month out. I have compared the basic allowances from 2009/10 and 2010/11. Of the six Councillors 2 are Liberal Democrats and 4 are Conservative.

Kendal Cooper didn't claim any other allowances. Her total was £4235.04.

The surprise is Cllr Ursell who didn't take a pay cut! In fact he got an increase of £103.30 whilst he fellow Conservatives had a pay freeze.

And the Conservatives don't check the fine print!

Candidates are responsible for their election literature. It is in their names it goes out and they should approve every word and comma. So I was surprised that in the recent Conservative leaflet there was a mistake on the fine print. Paul is now Paula!

A message from Cllr Ursell

I received this personal message from Cllr Ursell to me at the St Neots Community Forums. I posted this message as Cllr Ursell says he can't get access to my blog. So I thought it best to add to the blog.

Leaflets

From: Paul Ursell

To: rednek

20/04/2011 02:54PM

David

Letters to postal voters have been delivered to most postal voters in Eynesbury. The few that remain will be delivered by tomorrow night.

The main leaflet is being delivered during the next week or so. I will deliver your copy personally

The conservative candidate team have been out canvassing and will continue to do so up until the election.

As we have been going round we have not seen the other parties canvassing

I would have posted a comment on your blog but I can't get access

Regards

Paul Ursell

Conservative postal letter - The first Conservative literature of this campaign

I thought I would take a look at the Conservative letter to postal voters as delivered in Eynesbury. The Conservative District candidate is Paul Ursell. There are 7 candidates for Town Council.

The letter can be accessed here and on the electionleaflets.org website or here.

The letter starts off with a bit about people agreeing with Conservative policies. Of course you want to be one of the crowd. The letter then goes onto list the things the Conservatives want to achieve. These are:

So the Conservatives are going to maximise the use of Bargroves as the community centre for Eynesbury! Please inform me what maximise means?

Now this is a bit of a contentious issue. Much of Parklands was in the area of the former Eynesbury Hardwicke Parish Council which Cllr Ursell sat on. They didn't get around to putting this in place. Now St Neots Town Council has too.

Now I keep getting told that the Swimming Pool Trust is separate from the Town Council. Remember the phrase "ALL THE PROCEEDS OF THE SALE".

To my mind the best possible concept is to put this in an out of town location.

Sounds good.

Not to sure what is meant by this. There is actually very little to cut in Central Administration. Only the Deputy Town Clerk. And what are front line services?

Very good except when the idea of a family friendly arcade came before them the Conservatives objected. One reason was they didn't want those kind of people in the Town Centre.

What does "support" mean?

There are more questions than answers in what the Conservatives are going to do. The main question I have is over Council Tax. Not a word from them in this leaflet.

Also what has happened to the Eynesbury Hardwicke fund? the extra money from the hard pressed ex Eynesbury Hardwicke residents!

In the last few paragraphs is this little statement:

Does this mean Cllr Ursell who is so experienced he only has turn up 55% of the time in the last 6 months.

Also if we are only going to elect experienced candidates what about the Town Council where 5 Liberal Democrats are the experienced ones. What of other Conservative candidates like Roger Harrison. Should the electorates not elect these Conservatives because they have no experience of Town or District?

Not at letter that enthralled me to vote Conservative. Key points are missing especially over Council Tax.

Cllr Ursell standing in Eynesbury

On the St Neots Community Forum Cllr Ursell (Conservative District candidate for Eynesbury) has been saying a few things about the non-appearance of any Conservative literature since the election campaign started. On the Forum Cllr Ursell says on 12th April 2011:

Six days later and the leaflets will be now delivered over the next two weeks.

If Cllr Ursell fails to be re-elected, then this must be the significant reason why not.

Another reason could be the candidate didn't come and knock on the electors doors.

But Eynesbury isn't that large.

This is not a rural ward. All the housing are in estates and aren't particularly spread out. Combining the District and Town candidates there are 7 Conservatives candidates in Eynesbury. With that many candidates Eynesbury should be canvassed within the election period. If Eynesbury is too big then this is evidence that St Neots should go to single member wards. Also instead of not getting round within the election period do this beforehand!

This isn't good enough and this is a lame excuse by the Conservatives as to why they are not effective campaigning. Why are they being so quiet?

The incumbents and their attendances

I took a look at the list of candidates and I looked up their attendance records at HDC and other Councils to see how they have been doing. Attendance is only one measure of being a Councillor. Whilst not perfect it does give a good idea of how each is doing. I'll do this by ward:

Eynesbury- Cllr Ursell - Conservative

This is for the 6 months period before the election. As can be see Cllr Ursell has turned up for 55% of the meetings.

I therefore went back another 6 months to see if this was a blip.

As can be seen his average was 70%. So I went back a further 6 months to see whether this was a blip.

Well it was. Cllr Ursell's attendances were back down to 55%.

Eaton Ford - David Harty - Conservative

Again I went back 12 months.

Clearly a Councillor how takes being a representative seriously with only 1 absence.

Eaton Socon - Gordon Thorpe - Liberal Democrat

With nearly twice as many meeting to go to, Gordon Thorpe put in a good number of appearances.

Eaton Socon - Andy Jennings - Conservative

As Andy is an ex-Councillor from Greenwich I thought I would his attendances at Greenwich. These were:

Not exceptional.

Priory Park - Kendal Cooper - Liberal Democrat

Pretty good statistics.

Of all the candidates standing the only question mark I have is over Cllr Ursell's attendances at 55%. This is low for a Councillor who should be representing St Neots at Council. Too much work Paul?

Leopards can't change their spots.....

......and the St Neots Swimming Pool Trust accounts/annual report are always late!

The St Neots Swimming Pool Trust is run by the Town Council although the Town Council insists it is separate. The Town Council run the administration and charges the Trust for the privilege. The contact address is in the same building. The Town Council charges for grass cutting. All the Trustees are Town Councillors. The Town Council is the custodian trustee.

The reporting limit for accounts has been raised to £25,000 of Income. This means the Town Council/SNSPT  doesn't need to provide accounts to the Charity Commission going on income levels from previous years. What does the Town Council/SNSPT need to inform the Charity Commission?

The Annual Return asks for Income and Expenditure totals, the details of Trustees and the details of the Trust. Pretty simple and can be doe online. No accounts are submitted.

Yet again, the St Neots Swimming Pool Trust has failed to get official documents in on time! This is the same Trust that is supposed to be trusted in getting an open air swimming pool for St Neots. Hardly likely!

What the Chairman of the Swimming Pool Trust says:

"Although the Swimming Pool Trust Deed states that half the proceeds of any sale goes to HDC, the trust, having taken advise, believe that that particular clause is unlawful and therefore unenforceable because all assets are held as a permanent endowment of the trust. However because the trust deed contains the clause the trust as advised by the Charity Commission are obliged to note the fact in the report and accounts." -  Paul Ursell

Cllr Ursell is not only Chairman of the Swimming Pool Trust, but is also a St Neots Town Councillor and a Huntingdonshire District Councillor as a Conservative.

As a District Councillor I asked him these questions:

What the Conservative run District Council thinks? 

Will HDC oppose the sale of the land until they get their half? 

Just because the Trust has obtained its legal opinion I assume the District Council has done the same. Is HDC's legal opinion different?

I await an answer!

I feel there should be a definitive statement from HDC over its intentions on claiming half the money. Either from one of our Conservative District Councillors or from a member of the cabinet or from the legal team at HDC. 

I have therefore emailed both David Monks, CEO of HDC and Cllr Ian Bates, Executive Leader of HDC asking them what the District Councils position is on taking half the proceeds.

I await an answer!

In the end this is two councils serving the same area fighting over half the proceeds of roughly £1.75 million. It will look very, very silly if all this ends up in court. And why so secret? I feel this should be aired in the public domain rather than hidden away in committee rooms or secret reports. This is essentially between a Town Council run Charity and HDC. The only winners will be the lawyers. The losers will be the St Neots public.

Plunging into the pool of despair

The Charity Commission has sent me a copy of the 2009 accounts (361 days late). This document can be found here.

The accounts show one large piece of expenditure for £9,776 for professional fees. Probably to do with the negotiations over the sale of the land to the developers of the site including Huntingdonshire Regional College before the plug was pulled by the previous Labour Government. Otherwise SNSPT had £68,677 in cash at the bank.

One aspect worries me and that over half the proceeds from the sale goes to HDC.

I looked up the previous set of accounts to find that this wasn't even mentioned in the 2008 accounts. There we have it. Martin Land and his announcement that the trust was going to get £1.75 million is wrong. The figure after HDC is paid off the £28,859 ad all the fees and legal bills will give the trust just over £800,000. Not much to build a pool with!


This must have been known before! So why wasn't this agreement in the previous accounts? The agreement was made in 1987.

Is £800,000 enough to build a swimming pool? Probably not. St Neots is going to be stuck with a Swimming Pool Charity with about £870,000 of cash but can't afford to build a swimming pool!

The Swimming Pool Trust is an unaccountable body which is taking decisions over a major project for the Town. Why aren't the public informed of the details? When I asked for a report to HDC Cabinet I eventually received a redacted report after appeal. I just have to wonder whether the redacted bit of the report contained the half goes to HDC. Secrecy and yet more secrecy.

St Neots Tories Shocked At Town Council Grant News

St Neots Tories Shocked At Town Council Grant News:

I thought I would look in a bit of detail at the political responses to the "racist playgroup" story.

The Liberal Democrats have been very quiet. The news story broke on Wednesday morning and yet the Town Council "rushed" out a statement late on Thursday night. It was a pretty pathetic statement:

"St Neots Town Council does not operate the ‘Making Links’ group which is organised by the Open Door Church. St Neots Town Council grants have been awarded to a variety of community organisations and groups including ‘Making Links’.
A £1000 grant awarded to this group was entirely within our rules and regulations for grant aid to the community."

But then that is what Councils do when faced with a story against them. When it is story a Council delights in then you can't shut them up.

Now I'm not having a go at the Town Council for making the grant. The Town Council has to trust that people will spend the money wisely and for why it was granted. Otherwise it is a new set of red tape which will cost the Council Taxpayer yet more.

Not that it was a cash grant. The money was paid to The Priory Centre so this part of the Town Council didn't charge Making Links for the use of a hall.

The Liberal Democrats have really not liked this story and have hidden from it. The Conservative response is different and goes to town on the Liberal Democrats. Well it is a good story. Why shouldn't they?

The Conservative press release:

St Neots Tories Shocked At Town Council Grant News  Wednesday, 19 January, 2011

St Neots Conservatives were today critical of the news that the Liberal Democrat led St Neots Town Council had awarded funding to a playgroup that excluded British parents and children from attending on the basis of their race.

Conservative Councillor, Paul Ursell commented, (Standing for election in May 2011)

‘I am astonished that in today’s society it is felt appropriate to provide services on the basis of race. I recall that when Making Links came to the Town Council and asked for their grant, the Conservative Group questioned who would have access to the group and were subsequently accused of having racist undertones to our comments.’

Andy Jennings, Conservative Action Team member for Eaton Socon added, (Likely standing for election in May 2011)

‘This story seems absurd and has made St Neots Town Council the laughing stock of the nation. I thought that this kind of attitude had died a death sometime ago and we are shocked an appalled that British children and mothers are not allowed to mix with other ethnicities.’ (Over simplification of what was going on)

Simon Burton, the Constituency Organiser for the Huntingdon Constituency said, (Organising the elections in May 2011)

‘It seems strange that the Liberal Democrats have been complicit in what can only be considered segregation by the back-door. (The use of the term segregation is wrong. This is not segregation in the strict or loosest term.)

‘I recall that when he was selected a year ago the Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesman, Martin Land, accused the Conservative Party of being full of ‘closet racists’. (Not actually full) Given that his party control the Town Council and have done for many years, his comments now seem even more ridiculous than they did at the time they were first made.’ (Town Council elections in May 2011)

This press release is a bit of jumping on the bandwagon. It allows both potential candidates for seats, where the Conservatives want to win, to get their names in the newspapers.

Something Cllr Ursell needs to answer

A short while back I had a spat with Cllr Ursell over the use of the 1960 Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act and the secret item called Burial Plots. Browsing through the archives I found the following:

So the Conservatives themselves thought that secret meetings were being used as a shield information that residents should know. How the Conservatives have changed!

Corkscrewing in the swimming pool of despair!

As ever with the swimming pool trust the questions go unanswered. Back at the Annual Town Meeting I asked the following question:

The answer I got from Cllr Ursell (Chairman of SNSPT)was:

Not the answer to the question at all. They focussed on the £1,980 and I was asking about returns and accounts. I therefore asked a supplementary about why the accounts and annual return were 4 months late? The answer I got from Cllr Ursell was he would look into it. I thought then that he didn't know.

6 months on and I get into a clash on the St Neots Community Forum. This was about the cemetery. I took the opportunity to ask Cllr Ursell about the swimming pool trust and the late accounts.

Cllr Ursell answered:

Now I find that very strange because Cllr Ursell didn't inform me of this when I asked the original question at the Annual Town Meeting when the accounts and annual report were 4 months late.
I therefore replied with this:

I have yet to receive a reply. Is this why they are being so quiet? Cllr Ursell either knew why the accounts were late and didn't answer the question or he didn't know. As Chairman of the St Neots Swimming Pool Trust he should have known!

This leads me onto another question I asked at the Annual Town Meeting:

This is the answer I got back then:

So according to Cllr Ursell the Swimming Pool Trust has no money. Except when I take a look at the Annual Accounts for 2007/08 I find the following:

Less any accruals leaves a bank account balance of:

So when is £53,435 in the bank - no money?

Yet more on car parking debate

St Neots News and Crier - 29/07/2010

Why should we help you? - Joan Gutteridge makes some very good points about the whinging that comes from St Neots. And that is a good point. St Neots residents are looking like a bunch of whingers who don't know a good thing when it happens. If St Neots carries on this way then the rest of Huntingdonshire will stop listening.

Was there a covenant? - John Slack asks this question. The answer is there was and it has run out.

Charge won't deter visitors - Cllr Paul Ursell breaks cover with a letter. The difficult choices that Paul refers to have always been there. This is why I have always considered the car parking issue to be a political pantomime played out to the watching public.

Bombing in the pool of despair

St Neots News and Crier - 03/06/2010

The SNSPT has finally gotten around to marketing the site. According to Cllr Ursell 3 unsolicited offers have been made for the site. I don't see why not. As I've pointed out before this was Leisure land. With the planning brief for the site both housing and a medical centre are both allowed.

There seems to be some back peddling of where the new swimming pool would be built! Cllr Ursell says there is land identified but wouldn't let on where this land is. This is strange. I read elsewhere the identified land was at Riversmead. The local residents are probably up in arms over the changing of this little green space into an open air swimming pool.

Treading water in the pool of despair

The Hunts Post St Neots - 07/04/2010 digital edition

The Swimming Pool trust is in the papers again. This time, this unaccountable body, is pushing the pool out to the long grass. Cllr Ursell (St Neots Conservative Councillor) informs the public the land sale will be pushed back. The trouble is land prices will be depressed for a long time. Cllr Gordon Thorpe (Liberal Democrat) is diminishing expectations over the type of pool from a proper open air swimming pool to a splash/fun pool for children.

This is the trouble with having Councillors in charge of this project. This charity is far too close to the Town Council and should have independent trustees. This is shown with the bad reporting record to the Charity Commission.

The Swimming Pool will have to wait?

St Neots News and Crier - 01/04/2010 digital edition

Not too sure what to make of this. The site has been in problems for ages. The likelihood is the reliance on Government cash has gone. I still say this is the best site for the Cinema as it would be next to the Eat n Bowl.

What worries me is Cllr Ursell linking of the open air pool with another form of Leisure outlet. SNTC has a bad track record with the newly finished ECC. I have no confidence the Swimming Pool Trust has the ability to manage this type of development. Especially when they have a history of not getting the returns and accounts into the Charity Commission on time.

Cllr Gordon Thorpe is hardly impressive with "...but the Town Council will do what it can to redress the balance." What does that mean?


It is time the St Neots Swimming Pool Trust comes forward and publishes the future plans.

Is £15,000 still coming from Eynesbury Hardwicke?

In this weeks edition under the heading of "Deal struck on town's toilets" Julia Hayward is quoted as saying:
“In the first year we will put in about £15,000 and Eynesbury Hardwicke Parish Council will pay about the same. After that the town council will put in about £30,000.”


This is news to Cllr Ursell (Eynesbury Hardwicke Parish Councillor and District Councillor) who wrote the Town Council may not get this money. I'll only believe the Town Council is getting the money when the Town Council actually receives the money.