A delegation from Deepings Rotary spoke in the Open Forum in support of a grant application that had been submitted to help with funding the Annual Christmas Concert featuring The Grimesthorpe Colliery Band. This is a popular event in the local calendar, but increasing costs make it difficult to keep the ticket prices at a […]
Yesterday, at the first ever meeting of the SKDC ‘Companies Committee’, senior Councillors expressed their concerns regarding the appropriateness of InvestSK Ltd. It was revealed that discussions have taken place between members of the Tory group over whether to continue with the InvestSK project or to bring services back ‘in-house’.
Newly appointed Director of InvestSK, Cllr Barry Dobson
(Con) who is Deputy Leader of the Council, stated “I think it is very important that it stays actually as an external
company. I know that we talked about bringing it back in-house and everything… We
have had a long conversation this morning about it. I have only been a director
for about a week officially, and I think that it’s got a great future providing
we manage it well”.
The meeting was the first opportunity for formal scrutiny of the InvestSK project since a Growth Ctte in May 2018 which discussed a ‘call-in’ request that I co-ordinated before the company was incorporated. The new Companies Ctte was supposed to be ready after the election earlier this year but was delayed due to the election and constitutional obligations. The Committee has responsibility for overseeing the work of all Council’s companies (of which there are now six) but the first meeting focussed on the ‘busiest’ of those companies, namely InvestSK.
Lack of Transparency
My main complaint about the whole InvestSK project is that
of transparency. Although the company
has been set up for over a year, funded almost entirely from well over
£1million of tax-payers money via SKDC, it has been very difficult to obtain
any detail of how the money has been spent. It emerged yesterday that £680,000,
more than half, of the organisation income is spent on the salaries of core
staff. There are no details of how many staff this includes nor how much they
are paid.
I have personally made some one-off enquiries about the
expenditure of InvestSK. These have been answered. The first concerned details
of the hundreds of thousands of pounds allocated by InvestSK
as grants to heritage schemes, community projects and businesses. Another
concerned the award of £15,000 of press and PR consultancy work to a company
based in Lincoln.
However, while SKDC is required to publish a list of
transactions over £500 incurred by the Council, once the money has been
transferred to InvestSK the spending becomes more opaque and therefore less
accountable.
Lack of a useful Business
Plan
Another example of the lack of transparency of InvestSK is the late publication of the Business Plan. The first time it was available to members of the Companies committee was when the agenda pack for the meeting was published last week as a restricted (confidential) item but after the intervention of the Chair, Cllr Graham Jeal (Con) and others it is now in the public domain. The 44-page business plan was originally written ten months ago in February but only the Company Directors have been able to read it before now. Incidentally, the three Company Directors are the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council (both Conservatives) and the Chief Executive.
The published plan contains a reference to “budgets for the next 3 years” contained at ‘Appendix 2’. I commented that although I could find ‘Appendix 7’ and annexes ‘i’ to ‘ix’, I could not find ‘Appendix 2’. It emerged that it had been omitted from the documents but would be circulated to members in due course. Curiously no-one asked what happened to ‘Appendix 1’.
Lack of Clarity
A number of councillors, including me, expressed frustration
at not knowing where SKDC ends and InvestSK begins. For example, the provision
of Arts Centres and Markets are both SKDC services yet in both cases the
management structure involves staff from both SKDC and InvestSK. In an attempt
to clarify the situation, the CEO of InvestSK explained that some of the staff
of InvestSK are seconded from SKDC payroll. Consequently, as Cllr Ian Stokes (Con)
pointed out, the Council is lending staff to InvestSK in order to buy back
their services as consultants. This situation has led to confusion.
Lack of Ambition
During discussion of the business plan, a variety of
comments were made. I asked why it was so long. I have previous experience of reports
which have been deliberately written in a long and turgid fashion in order to
discourage people from reading and understanding the content (let alone the
missing appendices).
Refreshing the Chair, Cllr Jeal, did not conceal his
disappointment with the Business Plan. He stated that he was expecting more about
from the business plan in terms of big goals and also evidence that the team
had learned from their time at Opportunity Peterborough and elsewhere and how
these experiences could be used to “turbo-charge this business”.
Lack of Detail
Addressing his comments to Steve Bowyer, Chief Executive of InvestSK, Cllr Jeal continued “The other thing that I found myself writing all over the business plan is that I would like more SMART deliverables (strategic, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based) and there’s a lot of fluffy and flowery targets. I don’t want to criticise officers at all but it’s something that I think is a big difference between the private sector and the public sector. The public sector don’t like writing things down that in a year’s time we can look at and say ‘Did they do that, yes or no?’. Now if it’s a ‘no’, that’s fine, we can learn from it, but I’m looking for a document that lives for a year that I can pick up in a year’s time and say ‘brilliant, brilliant, what can we learn from not achieving that?’. Now some of those may be in here but I’m not getting enough of those smart deliverables and I think a lot of these could be much smarter. I also picked up the point that some of our ‘targets’ are written in the past tense…”
“Moving on, there’s a
lot of stuff about Corporate Strategy in here but I don’t see anything about a
PR strategy. I actually think that there needs to be… There needs to be a
proper communication strategy with Members and, through Members, to the electorate
who are actually paying for this”.
“I think it definitely
needs a big goal that evolves and it needs ambition. And it needs ambition
based on your experiences from Opportunity Peterborough. It is no coincidence
that you come from a body like this. I was expecting to see much more of ‘this
works this didn’t work, we’re going to do this…’.
The lecture continued through comments on the lack of detail
regarding succession planning, competitor analysis as well as the company’s
fundamental vision and aims.
What happens next?
The Council Leader and InvestSK Director Cllr Kelham Cooke
(Con) responded on behalf of the InvestSK Board. “Actually, a lot of the comments you and others have raised are really
valid actually. I appreciate where Councillor Baxter is referring to with regard
to this business. I suppose, for me, I’m
looking forward. We now have this committee, and I think I have already said to
the committee that I want us to re-prioritise what InvestSK actually does for
the Council. I think if we are looking at budgets, I don’t think it is for us
as a council. We set the budget and we decide what money can go to InvestSK and
that can only be done when we’ve actually worked out really what we want
InvestSK to deliver on behalf of the Council. So ultimately, it is us that
commission InvestSK to do the work. The Directors, myself and Barry, are
ultimately looking at what it does. We will come back with a proposal and a
revised business plan will be submitted back to this committee where it can be
scrutinised and discussed by elected members. And ultimately, the budgets are
decided by us in our budget meeting”.
The next meeting of the companies committee is scheduled for
January 7th.
Report to MDTC Full Council 13th November 2019 from ASHLEY BAXTER, SKDC Councillor for Market & West Deeping.
Deepings Neighbourhood Plan
The Neighbourhood Plan for the Deepings is currently in its consultation phase. If you care about the future of our community and its built environment, please respond to the consultation. Comments are particularly welcome concerning the future of Mill Field, the expansion of the town centre and the types and layout of new housing.
Christmas Market
Market Deeping Christmas Market andlights switch-on will take place on Sunday 1st December. There are more than 80 stalls booked and the entertainment is going to be varied and awesome.
Young musicians performing at the 2018 Christmas Market
Stop the Knock
Last year, SKDC used bailiffs’ services for non payment of Council Tax over 2,000 times. The Council also evicted 31 of its own tenants. There surely must be a better way… and there is! The ‘Stop The Knock’ campaign is monitoring council’s approach to debt collection and has some innovative ideas for reducing the costs and heartache associated with council tax collection. I have written to the Council Leader and the Chair of the Rural and Communities OSC and officers have informed me that the subject will hopefully be discussed at an OSC meeting early in 2020.
Meetings Not Attended!
In terms of Council business, October
was a very quiet month with only 1 scheduled meeting. I’m not talking about my meetings, I mean
that South Kesteven District Council only had one formal meeting which was
Planning Committee on 16th October.
I don’t sit on the Planning Committee
at the moment but I had already sent comments and objections on two of the
applications which were on the agenda because I had asked for them to be
‘called in’ by the committee rather than considered only by the planning
officers.
The first was the erection of roadside services to including a petrol filling station with ancillary retail floor space on the Langtoft roundabout, north of Market Deeping. – This was the second time the committee had discussed this application and I am pleased to say that the application was refused, contrary to Officers’ recommendations. Not a single Councillor voted in favour of it (although two abstained). There were a variety of reasons for refusing it including the loss of a greenfield site, visual amenity and highways considerations.
Secondly an application to allow the
transfer of up to 75,000 tonnes of waste per annum at the existing waste depot
at Unit 2 Whitley Way Northfields Industrial Estate Market Deeping. This was a
County application but the SKDC planning committee discussed the application
and resolved to “urge the County Council to give due consideration to highway
implications including increased parking and possible adverse impacts on
amenity on surrounding developments, particularly the children’s nursery,
through odour noise, and other pollution that may result”.
The meeting also dealt with:
Four dwellings at 21 Broadgate Lane, DSJ (Reserved Matters) – Approved
Seven industrial units at Spitfire Park, Market Deeping – Approved
Meetings Attended (Climate Change)
Despite
the lack of ‘official meetings’, I have attended two council meetings, on
consecutive days, concerned with South Kesteven’s approach to Climate Change.
The
first was a workshop for members of the Environment Overview and Scrutiny
Committee (OSC) which heard evidence from the Environment Agency, the Woodland
Trust and the Council’s own planning team.
The
second was an inaugural meeting of the ‘Task and Finish Group’ on Climate
Change commissioned by September’s meeting of Full Council. It was meandering
at times but, on the whole, very productive.
The meeting was introduced to the fundamentals of Climate Science by the
external expert, Prof Edward Hanna
of Lincoln University.
Aside
from the meetings, I have been doing my homework regarding the council’s
environmental performance. I have discovered that in recent years recycling
rates have been falling due to a number of reasons mostly concerned with the
Conservatives’ cut backs. At the same
time, contamination of silver recycling bins has increased meaning even less
effective recycling.
On the
issue of the Council’s own energy use, officers are struggling even to
establish a baseline. It appears that
almost no proactive monitoring of energy consumption has taken place for nearly
a decade. The figures presented have
been incorrect and at times comical. For
example, it has been claimed that gas use at the small changing block next to
the all weather pitch adjacent to Deepings School field is three times as high
as gas use to the Council’s main office in Grantham. On the positive side, officers are beginning
to work with the suppliers and brokers to get more reliable information. It would be very difficult to achieve the
target of 30% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 without any baseline
figures.
General Election
John Hayes might be an affable chap but please don’t vote Conservative!!
Remember, it is the
Conservatives who have turned off the streetlights, caused the rise in
foodbanks, made the cuts to the Deepings Library and Deepings Youth Centre
causing them to become dependent on volunteers and grants from the Town
Council. It is the Conservatives who have chosen to cut budgets for schools,
hospitals and police. The Conservatives have also failed to negotiate any
acceptable resolution to Brexit.
As ever, if you require any further
information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
On my regular journey from the Deepings to my parents’ home in Norfolk, I pass a brown tourist sign indicating the ‘Fenland Aviation Museum‘. For over a decade I have been meaning to visit and on a recent rainy Saturday afternoon I finally visited with my sixteen year-old daughter.
On arrival it is clear that this small museum is not in the same league as the IWM at Duxford. The museum is set back from the road behind a pet-shop and various other small independent retail outlets.
A shingle track full of puddles leads to the entrance gate where the suggested donations are listed on a laminated card. The museum consists of a few modular buildings behind a grassed area probably not much bigger than a badminton court and crowded with aircraft in various stages of reconstruction. These include a Lighting T5 training jet and the fuselage of a recently donated spitfire awaiting the reattachment of its wings, somewhat reminiscent of a half-finished Air-Fix kit.
From the outside, I was not entirely convinced the museum was open as I gently pushed the PVC door but, sure enough, a volunteer named Steve was at the desk awaiting visitors. At almost 11am he was delighted to welcome us as the first visitors of the day. He briefly explained the layout of the museum and called across to another volunteer, Henry, who he said would be pleased to answer any questions.
The museum has a wide range of exhibits from many periods of
aviation history including models of early airships through to the cockpit of a
jumbo jet and memorabilia from the first gulf war. However, the raison d’etre
appears to be a place to show the findings of many archaeological digs which
have recovered parts of aeroplanes which crash-landed in and around fens during
the Second World War.
Henry began our introduction by showing us an illuminated
map of various crash sites which had been excavated, and then pointed to two
engines which had been recovered from the same plane. The first was smashed and
damaged almost beyond recognition while the second had been partially restored.
Further into the museum were many similar examples of smashed propeller,
landing gear and other scrap metal illustrating Fenland’s aviation heritage.
Henry followed us to the 1950s training simulator, the jumbo jet cockpit and the helicopter engine commenting with a zeal to match any aviation enthusiast.
We then came to a short passage connecting two of the
buildings which told the stories of some of the aircraft and airmen who had
served during the Second World War. Henry pointed to a panel which told the
story of a Halifax bomber which had been shot down over Holland in December
1944. The panel has details of all the six crew but points out that, sadly, only
the navigator had survived.
“There was fuel all through inside of the aircraft”, said
Henry, “and so the pilot gave the instruction to bail out. I removed a metal door
from hatch from beside me and dropped it through the hole. I then stepped
through and followed it out. The plane
crashed into the countryside and I looked around but I couldn’t see any other
parachutes. It was only me. I had no control over the parachute and the wind
swept me over the river, which was the border, and so I landed in Germany.”
“How old were you?” I asked.
“Then? I was 21. Now, I’m 96.”
Henry was ‘on the run’ for six days trying to stay out of
sight and surviving by drinking water from puddles and cattle-troughs.
Eventually, just before Christmas he found himself walking, exhausted, down a
main road. He heard the click of a rifle bolt and a voice shout “Halt, Wer Da?”
and he knew he had been captured.
The panel in the museum explains that while Henry was a POW (Prisoner of War) for ‘only’ a few months, they were certainly the worst few months to be in that position with the German armies retreating from the advancing allied troops as the war neared its end. Henry was among the POWs forced to take part in the ‘Death March’ of 227km over 21 days and nights from Bankau Stalag Luft VII to Goldberg during horrendous weather with very little food and virtually no medical care. This was followed by three days travelling by rail, standing with 65 other men in a cattle truck.
As we stood at the centre of this small but well-cared-for museum, Henry told us that people refer to this corridor as ‘the hall of heroes’ but adds “We didn’t consider ourselves heroes, we were just doing our job”.
My daughter and I made our way round the rest of the museum
exhibits which include a helicopter engine, propaganda posters from World War 1
and examples of ordnance of various shapes and sizes. Before we left, Henry
directed us to an exhibition piece beneath a swastika flag. It has details, in
original German and also translated into English, of a German attack on a
Halifax bomber. In fact it was the attack which brought down Henry and his
companions on that fateful night in 1944. Henry explained “I researched the
raid in the Bundes-archive and I know how many rounds of ammunition were used,
the name of the pilot and the name of the gunner. I don’t have any ill-feeling
towards them. They were doing their jobs just the same as we were”.
Henry is the same age as the Queen. At the outbreak of the war he was the same age as my daughter is now. As a young man he put himself in harm’s way in defence of our country. What an unexpected privilege to meet an aviation enthusiast with such a story to tell.
Henry Wagner, sole survivor of the crew of a Halifax bomber shot down over Holland in 1944,
The Fenland Aviation Museum can be found at Old Lynn Rd, Wisbech PE14 7DA is normally open, during the season, on Saturdays (10-5), Sundays (10-4) and Wednesday afternoons (1-4). For more information phone 01845 461771. NB. The museum is usually closed between November and Easter.
DeepingDo - The blog of Ashley Baxter, Independent Councillor and founder member of the Deepings Rebel Alliance! 