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Council show contempt for court on stopping up the highway

It seems that the Cabinet of Horsham District Council have completely forgotten to inform people, both internally and externally, about the pending High Court case re. Old Town Hall planning application DC/08/2317 - or the outstanding District Auditor inquiry that continues to prevent the Council getting an Audit Certificate for 2008/2009. 

HDC appear to want to push blinkeredly ahead with approving the dependent planning application of DC/10/0607 at Development Control North on 8th June. 

The latest report to be put before the committee claims that the proposed glazing of the historically in-filled arches was 'approved' under the currently contested DC/08/2317. When DC/08/2317 falls at the High Court, then DC/10/0607 will fall with it, so one might legitimately ask what's the point?

As regards the stopping up of the highway application it seems that the Government Office of the North East (acting for the Secretary of State) has not been made aware of the outstanding issues either.

This could be an effort by the Council to 'dupe' the relevant Government Office - as was the case with the Government Office of the South East and the Government Office of the West Midlands. On planning application DC/08/2317 the Council claimed that Josh Leon was an individual applicant and thereby avoided due Government Office scrutiny and decision. Alternatively, it could simply be poor communication - or it could be something else. Either way, it seems that the Council needs to explain itself.

It is also currently unclear whether the Council has been co-operating with the Audit Commission Inquiry. Under the agreed Terms of Reference the objector was supposed to able to comment on the Council's evidence submitted in their defence. The original timetable for this was intended as January of this year. At the time of writing however, no such defence has been received for comment by the objector. 

He has also recently indicated to the District Auditor via a representative that he would have no problem with the Council being given further right-of-reply before the District Auditor comes to a decision based on the collective evidence. It is not clear when or how the District Auditor might step in and break the impasse or how long the Council can seemingly 'play dead'. 

After all, we are now already in another financial year and questions on the 2009/10 accounts concerning the Old Town Hall will undoubtedly be looming.

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Musicians Union gives weight to Old Town Hall Campaign

Following the successful campaign to save The Portland Arms in Cambridge as a music venue, an article in the summer edition of The Musician has featured the plight of Horsham's Old Town Hall.

Quoting from the article:

"With the help of musicians around the country, we can demonstrate that community music venues aren't the easy target that councils thought they were. The Old Town hall has two wonderful performance halls and both have superb acoustics. We simply cannot allow them to be lost forever. In troubled economic times, we clearly need more of the arts, not less"

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Horsham M.P and Cabinet Office Minister, Francis Maude supports community control of assets - just not in Horsham.

 With the Government's launch of the 'Big Society' there appears to be a big difference in national theory and local practice.

 "People know what is best for them and their community, and it is Government's job to make this happen as cost-effectively as possible."
 Francis Maude

So - since February 2006 Horsham has had in its possession a workable business plan for the Old Town Hall, managed for the community by the community, at zero cost to the taxpayer. This plan was approved by the Council's Advisory Group having met all the standard procurement  requirements laid down. The plan was also backed by a favourable full Feasibility Study requested by the Council and independently validated by the University of Liverpool.

Can the community run its cherished Old Town Hall therefore? No - in a radical departure from words and practice - the politicians from Francis Maude's local party at the Council simply won't allow it. In practice, it seems they would rather give the historic hall at a knock down price to big business (COTE) - against the overwhelming view of the local people.

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SCANDAL OVER OLD TOWN HALL : Gondola versus Bill’s

Further details can be found at www.blueflashmusictrust.org.uk 

Published by; M Jeremiah, Business Consultant Blue Flash Music Trust, PO Box 557, East Grinstead, RH19 2WX.  

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Is Horsham District Council introducing unfair competition to Horsham town? 

     Horsham District Council can be contacted at Park North, North Street, Horsham RH12 1RL Tel 01403 215100. 

Published by; M Jeremiah, Business Consultant, Blue Flash Music Trust, PO Box 557, East Grinstead, RH19 2WX.

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HDC : Never let the truth get in the way of a good story

 It’s not clear what the official overall motto of HDC might be. However one observer has suggested “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story”

 We examine the evidence below……

 Council claim: “The Court case has caused delay and cost the taxpayer money”

 However, it was originally announced that Bill’s would be open before Christmas in 2009. This pre-dated the Court claim. Furthermore, it has been reported that Bill’s was concentrating on the Covent Garden and Reading branches and would not be ready until Spring 2011. The recent Court appeal is still likely to conclude before then.

 Council claim: “The restaurant is about saving money”.

 However, if the Cabinet had not blocked the work of the original Advisory Group the taxpayer would have incurred no costs on the OTH since April 2006 – four and a half years ago! Identified benefits to the local economy as a whole were lost. Even then, we are still waiting for a rational explanation from HDC as to why they would accept an offer from Bill’s Produce at £20,000 per year less than the final Gondola bid. This would have been worth circa half a million pounds to the taxpayer over the life of the tenancy.

 Council claim: “Costs have been incurred as a result of the Freedom of Information Requests”

 Partly true, but not much. The Blue Flash Music Trust confirms they made a simple request for the minutes of the Assets & Management Advisory Group. This was granted, but the financial information blanked out by HDC (information which did not match the final Gondola bid). BFMT then made a further de-scoped request – a request in order to flush out the final Gondola bid, so we are told. This was not granted at all. However, the Trust finally obtained the details they sought through the District Auditor. Another request for the notes of alleged negotiations between English Heritage and HDC was made, but the Council simply replied that they did not hold any information.

 One key sticking point is the details of the proposed contract between Bill’s and HDC, allegedly guaranteeing certain trading conditions for Bill’s. Most recently, this request has been made by a local businessman and not the Trust. It was initially refused by HDC, but on different grounds than was given to the Blue Flash Music Trust. It has gone to internal review at HDC. If refused at review, we understand the request will be referred to the Information Commissioner. It is thought that all of these requests were/are fairly simple to meet and will not therefore have cost much. On the other hand, the reassurance of publishing the information to the Horsham public might be worth its weight in gold!

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Removal of Stopping-up Order notice signals the end of Council's Old Town Hall restaurant project?

The Order advertising the proposed works on behalf of Bill's Produce has finally been removed from the Old Town Hall in the last week.

The Blue Flash Music Trust responded with:

"Following the publication of the superior Gondola offer, Bill's Produce obviously had a moral choice to match the £72,500 per annum and other terms. It appears that Bill's was not prepared to do this, particularly given the continued strength of feeling amongst Horsham people for community use. We believe this to be an honourable stance by Bill's and wish them well. I am also convinced the townspeople would welcome them with open arms to any of the many vacant A3 restaurant venues in Horsham sometime soon. 

In my view, the Council cannot now realistically continue with trying to find another restaurant. The lack of interest in the face of such public opposition was apparent even before the Cabinet took the final fateful restaurant decision in February 2009. With the lack of competition and the resultant supplier leverage, HDC is unlikely to secure anything like the market value of £75,000 per annum for the semi-destruction of this historic building and consequential denial of rightful community use. I believe it is time for the Council to finally instruct the Cabinet to ‘call it a day’. We still look forward to a renewed offer of negotiations from HDC with a view to creating a major tourist asset for Horsham at the site of the Old Town Hall."

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Did Gordon Lindsay contribute to his WSCT article with a metaphorical gun to his head? 

The HDC Cabinet Member for Finance & Assets came out fighting re. the Old Town Hall this week in the West Sussex County Times. But whose cause was he fighting? 

His own? Unlikely perhaps! Councillor Lindsay has been a welcome advocate of the arts, particularly with his support for the Shipley Arts Festival and the Ralph Vaughan Williams commemoration concert, project managed between Horsham Museum, Horsham Folk Club and the Blue Flash Music Trust in 2008. For the latter concert in St. Mary’s Church, his influence is thought to have helped greatly in securing sponsorship from HDC of £1000. His faith was rewarded with a spectacularly successful event – both artistically and financially – one which he witnessed personally. 

Being a Cabinet Member maybe seems to come with a price. In my observation, all reason has to be discarded. Look no further for an example than Councillor Alan Harris, who was the Cabinet Member for Leisure and chaired the Old Town Hall Advisory Group. In my experience, this man of integrity was sacrificed on the altar of irrationality, personalities and petty politics. The four and a half year carnage at the hands of the Cabinet in over-ruling him is plain for all to see. 

Reading the WSCT article, it is perhaps hard not to laugh (or should it be cry?). 

“Part of his job is to make sure Council buildings are used to their full potential”. 

So let’s make the Old Town Hall the same as all the other buildings! Let’s rent out and sell off all of the community buildings across the District. For starters, let’s take back the Council grant decision of £40,000 to Dial Post Village Hall (not so far from Francis Maude MP) and say to the likes of those who are successfully fundraising for community halls like Loxwood “You’ve got it all wrong you know”. In this context, the Old Town Hall situation seemingly represents nothing more than a hypocritical, ‘out-of-town’ Cabinet stealing the townspeople’s assets away from them. 

“One of these is Horsham Town Hall which has stood empty for two years”. 

The only reason the building has stood empty is that the Cabinet hasn’t allowed the community to use the OTH in order to give some desperate weight to their restaurant folly. As it turns out, Theatre 48 was unnecessarily evicted from the top floor in 2006 also it seems. Horsham Painting Group applied to use the OTH for their annual exhibition this year but were told they could not use it because it might affect the court case. The Claimant dismisses this assertion by HDC as not true. However, since the court case was concluded, the Acoustic Evenings have been told that they can’t use the Old Town Hall while the Council “reviews its options” i.e. a different reason. It seems that this allegedly cost-conscious Council puts its own ‘fit-of-pique’ before income to the taxpayer. 

“The only viable solution would be to have a business lease and manage the building” 

This might be interpreted as saying that Alan Harris and his committee got it wrong after much detailed work in 2005/06. However, if the Cabinet had not unconstitutionally blocked Alan Harris’s recommendation to outsource the management and marketing of the Old Town Hall to the Blue Flash Music Trust, hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ money would have been saved over the last four and a half years and the community could have continued to enjoy their building, as well as creating a major tourism asset for the town. It could have been David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ ahead of its time. 

Councillor Lindsay also seems to be back-tracking on a restaurant solution in talking about a “business lease”. It’s unlikely that the Old Town Hall would find one overall non-restaurant user for the whole building, so the Council would presumably retain both ownership and overheads. It is therefore perhaps worth recalling what happened with the second Old Town Hall Advisory Group under Cllr. Patterson. According to figures from the District Auditor, this council committee increased the losses on the Old Town Hall and decreased the usage – the exact opposite of what it was supposed to do under the September 2006 Council resolution. 

“If Bill’s had moved in it would have provided a decent income for the council” 

Cllr Lindsay was responsible for choosing the Bill’s bid of £52,500 over the final Gondola bid of £72,500. It represented a loss to the taxpayer of some half a million pounds over the term of the contract. The Cabinet did their best to keep the final Gondola bid from the public and who can wonder given the not too difficult maths? Once revealed, the Gondola bid was also thought to be superior in all respects, not just financial. 

“It needs a lot of money to get it done up, maybe £500,000” 

Actually it needed £205,814 (although none of it essential for “day 1” community use). This figure was formerly reserved in the HDC accounts. The Cabinet released the money back into general funds before any restaurant decision was taken and more besides. The accounts appear to show that HDC overspent and dipped into reserves fairly consistently over the eight years prior to 2008/09. This amount of £500,000 is a departure from the previous claim by HDC that a group of consultant architects said that £750,000 was needed for a community solution. However, many believe that the report was faked by the Cabinet in pursuit of the restaurant solution. The accounts show that the architects were only ever paid £2000 for their work as ‘interim payment no. 1.” The fee of £2,000 would have barely covered their presence at the consultation meetings and indeed, the District Auditor’s manager wrote that it was “highly unlikely” that the report could have been produced for £2,000.     

“It (Bill’s Produce) would have drawn people in” 

More than likely, it would have simply introduced fresh competition to other restaurants. Independent restaurants would then sell out to chain restaurants, with the benefit of their greater economies of scale. People from outside the town would therefore be less inclined to travel to Horsham as they could visit those same chain restaurants closer to home. Don’t take my word for it however. Rather; believe the Council’s own consultant expert. His specific prediction concerning one restaurant has already come true 

“I don’t believe a community group can afford to take on that large building and take it off the council’s hands”. 

Again, this unsubstantiated opinion undermines the detailed work of the first Old Town Hall Advisory Group under Alan Harris. It is also thought to be a snub to the Faculty of Social Environmental Studies at the University of Liverpool who validated the Full Feasibility Study for the community proposal. 

“Running a successful business is quite a task and running it without backing from a big organisation would be quite difficult.” 

Perhaps an insult to successful independent small business’s everywhere! However, the Blue Flash Music Trust has the support of many national networks like the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, English Folk Dance & Song Society, Making Music and Folk Arts England. Such established networks reduce the cost and increase the effectiveness of marketing significantly. 

The Blue Flash Music Trust has an unblemished track record in delivery as with the Horsham Community Festival in 2006. To organise a three-stage music festival in just one month is a feat that will never be easily repeated by any organisation of any scale or type, anywhere in the world. 

“An old building is expensive to run and the council’s finances are squeezed. We need a business to pay a decent rate and deal with the upkeep without digging into the council’s coffers.” 

The Cabinet are now highly unlikely to secure anything like the market value of the building i.e. £75,000 per annum for commercial use. If they are really determined to rob the community of this historic asset; and to rob the town of a major tourist attraction that could benefit all of Horsham’s businesses; it would be better to wait until a more favourable financial climate. However, to look at a business rental in narrow isolation would still appear to be a heavily ‘blinkered’ view. One rental on just one building out of the Council’s overall spend is a ‘drop in a bucket’, less in some cases than one or two people’s salary. By contrast, provide a diverse and unique attraction to the town and the overall increase prosperity will have a much greater knock on benefit to Council finances. 

However, the Cabinet could transfer the building to the management of the Blue Flash Music Trust at ‘zero cost’ to the taxpayer tomorrow. Who needs to dig into Council coffers unless the out-of-town Cabinet wants to unnecessarily spend thousands of pounds further in an ongoing fight with the townspeople over the building? – a community building in which the out-of-town Cabinet should legitimately have no say.

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Was there a delay caused by campaigners or the Court case? The facts!

Bill's were courteously informed of the fact that there would be a Court case and were given an estimate of the likely delay by campaigners well in advance. The relevant e-mail can be produced. This course of Court action had been agreed with Ian Davison, the Council's Secretary & Solicitor, in March 2008 - almost a year earlier. Bill's therefore went into any delay with its eyes wide open and in any event, no work could have commenced before the expiry on objections to the Secretary of States Highway's Order (which turned out to be July 2nd 2010). As partially admitted in an HDC Cabinet report during the summer, Bill's was prioritising its Reading and Covent Garden branches and was not in a position to open at Horsham until Spring 2011. In effect, there was no delay caused by 'others' - or by the Court case - therefore.

People would consequently have to look to other reasons for Bill's withdrawal.

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Out-of-town HDC Cabinet loses further credibility

If the Lib Dems are accused by the Council Cabinet of being "very economical with the truth" then the Cabinet are just plain wrong. This week, we examine the claims of Cabinet Member Andrew Baldwin on the Old Town Hall in his letter to the County Times. In order to protect his Cabinet credentials, he seems to be at pains to conveniently forget that he was one of the visionary few that prevented the Cabinet getting egg on its face when Bill's Produce pulled out for the first time in August 2006.

In those days the negotiations with Bill's Produce were not made public - as to deal with a restaurant was against the long-standing Council policy for community use. To deal unofficially with a single restaurant was also breach of Council standards to be "fair and equitable to all suppliers". Councillor Lindsay, seconded by Councillor Kitchen, tried to recommend overturning the community policy at the June 2006 Cabinet meeting, but Councillor Andrew Baldwin wisely advised caution in the face of the detailed report submitted by the Business Adviser of the Blue Flash Music Trust. Bill's Produce pulled out of the secret negotiations in 2006 because they felt they could not happily co-exist with the Registrar. If the Cabinet had not listened to Andrew Baldwin and the Blue Flash Music Trust the Council would have been up a gum tree back then, as indeed they are today.

The Business Adviser of the Blue Flash Music Trust was subsequently asked to keep quiet about the failed restaurant negotiations by Leisure Services in return for a recommendation for the Folk & Community Arts Centre at the Council meeting of September 2006. However, the enthusiastic gathering in a packed public gallery was betrayed by the Leaders report in favour of a Council run community solution. People sensibly asked why they didn't want to do this before they wasted every bodies time, effort and money. 

An objection to the Conservatives survey techniques and results came up in March 2007, almost a year before Councillor Baldwin's alleged February 2008 survey. The 'In Touch' leaflet issued just before the 2007 Council elections claimed:

"88% of people agreed with our policy for keeping the old Town Hall as a community facility with only 1% preferring a Folk Arts Centre".

This was quite bizarre perhaps, when you consider that Conservative policy was for a restaurant in the Old Town Hall. The Folk & Community Arts Centre (to give it its proper title) was the winning community bid at the Council's own Advisory Group that was backed by over 50% of people in a County times poll (way ahead of the two other bids). In this poll people had to give their name and address and return it on a coupon so that people could not vote more than once.

The status quo vote of September 2006 was simply an expensive blocking tactic by the Cabinet to thwart Alan Harris's committees detailed deliberations and their recommendation for the second time. The second Advisory Group that replaced him collapsed in an embarrassing heap after less than a year - having increased the losses and decreased the usage for the Old Town Hall - the very opposite of the job it was given!   

No residents came forward to verify that they were asked the question in the alleged 2007 Conservative survey and there was no audit trail to verify the results. The Conservative Council Chairman at the time (Bernard Baldwin) consequently agreed with the objector to raise the issue with the local Conservative Party. It seems the Chairman's intervention was short lived given the similar kinds of claims being made about the 'In Touch' 2008 Conservative survey a year later. Hardly a representative sample. Hardly independent in the fact that non-Conservatives would be less inclined to respond to a Conservative leaflet. No transparency of the process and no audit trail to lead to the result. This survey would therefore be summarily dismissed as any meaningful research methodology.

Less so other quantative data. For example, there have been just over 1000 column inches in the local press on the Old Town Hall in the last five years. The positive comment about it being a restaurant is blitzed by the opposition - in a ratio of roughly twenty to one. Most of the positive restaurant comment as been written by Conservative Councillors too of course. 

An objection was also made to the County Times on-line poll referred to by Andrew Baldwin in his letter to the newspaper this week. When it was revealed that the voting trend had suddenly dramatically switched as a product of what was thought to be a batch file regularly producing multiple votes for the restaurant from the same computer (same IP address), the Editor of the County Times ruled that the only poll that really counted was one where people had to give their name and address.      

Any independent survey using a valid research method is therefore likely to overwhelmingly find 'against' a restaurant and 'for' community use. This is why the Cabinet is unlikely to allow such a survey. The most beneficial and zero-cost option to the taxpayer has already been determined by Alan Harris's Advisory Group - the Folk & Community Arts Centre. The Full Feasibility Study on the back of the most verifiably popular, approved Business Plan; was in turn, subsequently independently verified by the University of Liverpool also. 

The capital cost to the taxpayer of the Folk & Community Arts Centre Plan was nothing; as the Blue Flash Music trust was/is prepared to sign a Full Repairing Insuring Lease. However, the Cabinet felt the need to produce a report, allegedly from consultant architects, that £750,000 was needed for community use. Bizarrely, this would have been more than Bill's Produce would have needed to fit it out as a restaurant and make major structural changes to the building. Not many believe that this report was written by the consultants. They were not paid for it either. 

The first Advisory Group signed off the Folk & Community Arts Centre plan as a going concern after detailed examination. The Cabinet subsequently insulted its work and its Chairman (who was the Cabinet Member responsible for the Old Town Hall; also with specific delegated authority from the Council) on a wing and a prayer. The resulting mess is currently there for all to see while the clock ticks, money is burned and opportunities for the town are lost.  

The Blue Flash Music Trust did not organise the Old Town Hall petition as claimed by the Andrew Baldwin. The petition was organised by a local businessman.

Bill's accepted any likely delay from the Court case with their eyes wide open, having been given notification in advance by the representative of the Claimant. As a Cabinet report from the summer shows, Bill's was not ready to move into the OTH until Spring 2011 anyway. People would therefore have to look for another reason for Bill's Produce finally pulling out. Many residents believe that following the revelation of the superior Gondola bid - the one the Council had desperately tried to hide (finally turned up by the District Auditor) - that Bill's Produce no longer wanted to be associated with the Council and its manipulation of the evaluation scores.

Residents do not blame the Council, so Andrew Baldwin does not have to worry about this. The Council as a whole cannot be blamed for being kept in the dark and led by the nose by the Cabinet.

For this scandal and many others - it's the Cabinet to blame!