Jubilee Hall going bust?

The 2010/11 accounts make grim reading for Jubilee Hall. With flooding closing the hall for sometime, the parlous state of its finances means it will have to either rely on a Town Council subsidy to continue or go bust.

The Hall made a surplus of £2,426 for the year. Of which £3,197 came from the Grants made by the Town Council. Without those grants the Hall would be close to bust.

The rent has risen from £1,197 to £6,500 for this current year, which according to the accounts they are not paying as their reserves are close to exhaustion. Even if the Town Council supports Jubilee Hall by doing a museum whereby the rent is charged and a grant is made for the same amount this doesn't undo the fundamentals that the Hall is nearly bust.

So what of the future. In 2009/10 the Hall made a loss of £4,876. Though £1,196 was for rent owed to the Town Council and another £1,196 for previous year. The fundamentals of this loss haven't changed. Unless the Town Council actually starts supporting this Hall financially there would be no alternative for the Town Council to take over this Hall.

But this isn't necessarily good as the money to run this Hall will therefore be charged to the Town Council.

This is not a good place to be in. Either option will cost the Town Council (and therefore the Council Taxpayer) money. If the Town Council does takeover this Hall it will have to pay out. If the Town Council
doesn't pay up then it will have to be ready to take this hall over.

The fate of this Hall is in the Town Councils hands. The Hall isn't paying the new rent and the Town Council hasn't decided on whether to pay the hall the equivalent of the rent.

Not an easy decision to take and my instincts are to take this building into the Town Council and run it with a Management Committee, instead of a charity, managing the bookings and day to day operations with the Town Council taking responsibility for the building, decoration, heating equipment and electricals. Or the Town Council could manage the Hall itself.

What is up at Jubilee Hall?

The Eaton Socon Institute, which runs Jubilee Hall, hasn't paid any rent for 20 months according to minute 118 of 4/11/09 Town Council Meeting. In the minute it says:

"The unpaid rent on the Jubilee Hall amounted to £2,093; being the annual rent for 2008/09 and two-thirds of the 2009/10. During this period she had received correspondence from the Treasurer of the Jubilee Hall Committee, but had heard nothing since the last two letters sent out. Under the Financial Regulations, the next letter to be sent would inform them of the legal action that would be taken to receive the outstanding money."

Taking a look at the Eaton Socon Institute on the Charity Commission website they have roughly £12k in reserves (2008/09 Accounts). So they have the money but aren't paying rent.

Now the Town Council appoints 2 Councillors to the Jubilee Hall Management Committee. These are: Cllrs Thorpe and Collins. I find in the minutes the following:

"Upon the raising of a question concerning the Eaton Socon Jubilee Hall, Cllrs Thorpe and Mrs Collins both declared a personal and predjudicial interest as members of the Jubilee Hall Management committee and left the room whilst the Finance Officer updated members on the non payment of rent by the Jubilee Hall Committee."

Whilst this is a Personal interest, as these are both appointees of the Town Council where is the prejudicial interest? There is none. If they were members of the JHMC in their own capacity then that is prejudicial. As Town Council appointed representatives (see page 8) they should be looking after the Town Councils' interests and is therefore not prejudicial.

What is the point of appointing Town Councillors to these Management Committees if when things go wrong they duck for cover under it being "prejudicial"? This is wrong and is not what the Standards Board allows.

Standards Board Prejudicial Interests
An example of Personal and Prejudicial Interest