The Public - The Plot Thickens.....

On 22^nd May, 2013 Sandwell Council (“SMBC”) held a meeting at Haden Hill House Museum to “appraise” whether to gift the multi-million pound taxpayer-funded Public to grasping Sandwell College or to permit it to stay open. Now read on….

The taxpayer – you and I – funded the construction of The Public but via The Arts Council, The European Regional Development Fund and another public body which has since been disbanded, Advantage West Midlands. There is a myth at large that SMBC paid for the building but they did not.

The Public went into administration and was “rescued” by SMBC – talk about out of the frying pan into the fire! Unfortunately, the Arts Council was under heavy political flak in respect of the project and simply walked away in 2006 without insisting on any legal safeguards to protect the future of the building. They later piled Pelion on Ossa by rejecting The Public’s first bid for National Portfolio funding.

Enter SMBC including Hussain and the laughable “leader”, Darren Cooper, aka “The Turdmeister”. This blog has contended all along that Labour had no intention of keeping The Public as an arts centre. From day one they insisted on an almost constant stream of “reviews” culminating in the ludicrous waste of £39,000 ex Vat on the Jones Lang LaSalle reports (plus the other £11,500 ex vat they paid them to report on the crappy Town Hall offices where some of The Public tenants were forced to move). The problem with the JLL reports (see posts passim) was that they were based on other uses for the building as it was (ie a purpose built arts and community facility) and NOT what uses it could be put to if the inside was destroyed and a multi-million pound sum borrowed to reconfigure it – which is what has actually happened. It is noteworthy, in passing, that the £39,000 reports specifically stated that the building was NOT suitable for a school or college.

Another problem for Turdy and his followers was that New Square was going to be a game-changer for The Public in terms of visitor numbers which did, indeed, start to increase substantially as the shopping centre opened and so there was a “rush” to kill the building off.

Let me, if you will, scroll back to the question of Labour’s motivation in taking the building on. I have mentioned this in an earlier blog but, to date, Turdy has refused to say whether the following tweets to a protected account (so that I am unable to see the other side of the conversation) relate to The Public:

05/07/13 “Backed for the money from other partners. Who’d say no to a £50m investment in one or our towns #westbrom “; and to the same person in the same conversation:

05/07/13 “Not Council project Baggie. Was a Council rescue and indeed a waste of money”.

Ask again Cooper – does this relate to The Public and, if so, was the “rescue” simply a cynical attempt by SMBC to grab the building from the original funders?

Back to Haden Hill. For some bizarre reason the meeting was “chaired” by a facilitator – Robin Powell - who is described in the minutes as “Risk Management Adviser, Transform Sandwell” ie the multi-million pound SMBC disaster & emerging scandal! (Honestly, I have not made this up).

In my earlier blog, “Ashfords Solicitors – Part One – The Public”, I pointed out that a senior partner and head of projects was brought up all the way from Exeter to Haden Hill House and, if the minutes are accurate, felt able to participate in the actual decision-making process which would lead, in due course, to Ashfords receiving very substantial fees in the College deal!

The other attendees from SMBC were: Jim Wells, Frank Caldwell, Garry Morris, Nicola Leavy, Steve Smith, Stefan Hemming, Paul Piddock, Martin Fox, Steve Harrison and Melanie Brooks (a SMBC solicitor). (I have not named one junior employee who appears to have been present for note-taking purposes only). Note that no-one from The Public was invited to attend, even simply to address the meeting.

Prior to the meeting at least three of the above had been vocal OPPONENTS of The Public but, happily, they felt able to put their personal views to one side and to appraise the proposed closure objectively.

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At least two of the above have very strong Labour party connections. The Turdmeister and his Labour followers on the Council are shortly to cull 36% of the workforce and so one would imagine that a third of the above will shortly be departing The Kremlin. We shall see. I am already aware that one of the above has, apparently, been “spared” the cull.

There is another very important point to make about the attendees. In earlier blogs I pointed out that SMBC are pumping up to £425 million into Interserve and other associated companies purportedly under the defunct Building Schools for the Future programme. There is a whole web of companies involved in all this but much of the money is ploughed through Sandwell Futures Limited in which SMBC have a 10% shareholding. The other 90% is mostly owned by Interserve-related companies and Dalmore Capital (who bought out shares previously owned by those notorious socialists, Barclays Private Equity). The Independent newspaper mentioned recently that some major shareholders of Dalmore Capital are based in the, er, Cayman Islands……

The curious thing here is that before the Haden Hill meeting took place IT HAD ALREADY BEEN DECIDED to do The Public refurbishment [sic] via Sandwell Futures Limited and, far from this being a cause of concern to the Haden Hill Mob, they specifically minuted this as being a good thing and described it as an “opportunity”. The actual minute reads “Sandwell Futures would be appointed by SMBC to undertake the work required (opportunity).” Well it’s certainly an opportunity for Interserve and Dalmore Capital!

Further, on this subject, I have a Freedom of Information Act Request in with SMBC about the potential for conflicts of interest to arise as two employees of SMBC are also Directors of Sandwell Futures Limited. I have had a very unsatisfactory response to date and have applied for an internal review. In short, however, SMBC have said that the two employee/directors – Kerry Ann Bolister and Sarah Melanie Dudley are kept away from any involvement in major projects involving Sandwell Futures and/or Interserve. In the case of The Public this seems surprising since Melanie Dudley specifically signed the Fundamental Review [sic] document which sealed the building’s fate! At this meeting, where it was already decided that Sandwell Futures would secure a multi-million contract if the college deal went through, two members of Melanie Dudley’s team – Steve Smith and Steve Harrison were actually involved in the decision-making process! We are asked to believe that no-one mentioned any of this to Mel back at the ranch – again, we shall see…..(Incidentally, the SMBC website still shows Melanie Dudley as being the Director in charge of the Transform Sandwell train crash!)

Some miscellaneous points from the meeting:

1. The only protection for The Public was a legal clause whereby the successors to Advantage West Midlands had to give permission for disposal of the building. Of course, SMBC and the greedy College are still fighting to keep the whole deal secret but there was clearly concern at an early stage that giving the College a 25 year lease could, legally, be classed as a disposal. The Haden Hill Mob found a neat “solution” ie call it a “concordat”. The minute reads: “Concordat rather than lease ensures that a change of use is not viewed as a disposal”. Crafty, eh? (This is a “con” alright and I am still investigating this aspect of the matter – more anon). The minute also reads “NB – SMBC is not allowed to dispose of the building”!

2. A curious minute and interesting given the identity of some of the attendees: “Arts Council England may fund future arts in Sandwell but not at The Public.(Opportunity)”.

3. It now seems certain as this blog has said all along that SMBC have borrowed the money for the conversion costs (as Sandwell College would not have been able to) and the avaricious College is to repay this over the term of the lease. Although all this is still being kept secret this payment is being dressed-up as “rent” when it is no such thing. It seems that the College will pay very little rent for a massive building paid for by you and I and, possibly, NO ACTUAL RENT AT ALL. For some inexplicable reason the Haden Hill Mob did not view this as an opportunity but as a “golden opportunity”!

4. Interestingly in this supposedly objective appraisal, the creation of some jobs by the College is mentioned as a reason to proceed but there is no opposing comment about the 60 people who would (and did) lose their jobs with closure of The Public. Nice people at this meeting!

5. The Public was being very-well managed (by my wife I hasten to add!) but was free to enter. The Mob could not see any way of increasing income and therefore deemed it a “non-performing asset”. If that fallacious reasoning is applied elsewhere SMBC will have to shut the libraries and museums tomorrow!

6. The Haden Hill Mob stated that The Public did not have Arts Council National Portfolio funding and so would not attract new funding from the Arts Council. This is thoroughly misleading (deliberately so?) since NP funding is decided every 3 years. Although The Public did not get NP funding it did get strategic funding for the period of 3 years which mirrored NP funding and directly anticipated that The Public would apply again. The Public staff were already working on a bid for 2014 and if they had remained open the bid would be in now awaiting a decision on 1^st July. Of course, the bid may have failed but who could say that from those attending the Haden Hill meeting (and staff from The Public were deliberately excluded)? Further, the Arts Council were actually funding various specific projects at The Public on an ad hoc basis.

Ok, you might say - this lot still went through an “appraisal” of sorts although there are certainly questions to be asked concerning the actual information that was available to them - particularly in respect of the College "deal". The problem with this is the date. You would think that most organisations would conduct such an "appraisal" BEFORE taking the actual decision but not Socialist SMBC. This meeting was on 22^nd May but SMBC had ALREADY announced the closure of The Public and the College plan at a big press "session" on 9^th May, 2013! Clearly all those attending the meeting knew that to vote against the College "deal" would be to defy The Turdmeister and their other political masters. Indeed this was even twisted as a reason to press ahead as they minuted that an “about face” on the College plan would reflect badly on SMBC! Happily again, they managed to put all such considerations to one side and everyone present, including the lawyer from Ashfords, felt able to objectively "score" the College "deal" as a good thing and keeping The Public open, a bad thing.

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