Paddling in the pool of despair.

Time and again the red herring of a new open air swimming pool comes up. Looking back at the local press this is something Cllr Derek Giles went on about.
So it was with a bit of concern that I looked into this bit of St Neots history. I found there was a charity which ran the open air swimming pool and all the Councillors of SNTC are trustees on the St Neots Swimming Pool Trust. The Trusts Charity Commission webpage is here.

Since the closure of the swimming pool, the Trust relies on the income it receives from rent on the land leased to Eat n' Bowl next door. The Rent is at £10,000 pa.

The main expenditure of the Trust is the cost of ground maintenance or grass cutting. Plus there is an administration charge levelled at the Trust by the Town Council for the old swimming pool site owned by the Trust.

So, the Town Councillors are the Trustees and charge this charitable trust for all the work the Town Council does in administration. Plus any work to the land at the old swimming pool site.

So what is the record of this Town Council in respect of this? The answer is pretty simple. Atrocious! Not only does the Town Council keep missing deadlines for its client it isn't really that good at administrating this tiny charity.

The problem with this cosy arrangement is the Town Council has little incentive to stop this arrangement. It is way beyond time the Trustees were independent of the Town Council. Rather than the same 18 Councillors who have presided over two damning audit reports!

The only report on time was the 2005 accounts.