Author: Dave Quigley
Library User Group Accuses Council Of Misuse Of Funds
5:27 pm Wednesday, 13th July, 2011, Isle of Wight
ShortURL: http://wig.ht/28GV
Read More- East Cowes, Library, News
This in from the Friends of Isle of Wight Libraries, in their own words. Ed
It has been brought to our attention that East Cowes Town Council, being led by IW Cllrs Giles and Webster, are planning to use a large part of the Section106 money deposited for the construction of amenities for the people of East Cowes with the IWC by Barratts.
The total sum involved is £500,000 and this has been in the IWC bank account, accumulating interest for some considerable time. We understand the rules governing the use of this money do not permit refurbishment or extension of existing amenities and can only be used for new build projects.
Residents’ suggestions rejected
Every suggestion put forward by the people of East Cowes has been rejected!
This current plan which has had absolutely no involvement of the townspeople is to extend the Town Hall so that it can incorporate the library.
This will involve the demolition of the public toilet block (property of IWC) and replacing it with a new one within the extension, so the IWC get a new toilet for free at the expense of the local residents!
Extension to replace toilet block
As the land on which the toilets sit is the property of the IWC, the new extension will be built on IWC land.
It should also be pointed out that the state of the public toilet block (the only IWC owned one in East Cowes) is deplorable and that this is due entirely to total lack or maintenance by the IW Council over the last six years).
Building maintenance backlog
According to the Audit carried out at the end of 2009/start of 2010, the IW Council had a backlog of building maintenance of £53million!
What a disgrace, they have spent this money on schemes that have come to nothing and have ended up being binned and now we are being expected to pay for their incompetence!
According to the Local Government Act, no Town or Parish Council may run a public library, and no Town or Parish Council may raise the Council Tax precept to pay for any service that is already a statutory requirement for the local authority to run, as these services, including libraries are already paid for in Council Tax.
It would seem that the IW Council and East Cowes Town Council have some form of exemption from the Local Government Act.
East Cowes precept had 21% increase
East Cowes have already (from last April) increased their precept by 21% specifically to fund the running of the East Cowes library as per a public meeting, which they have no legal authority to do. The town council have been led into this action by the IWC who should be aware of the implications of the Local Government Act and should not have allowed this apparent breach of the act.
If this action is approved it will free up the current library/ youth club premises for the IW Council to sell off, as they are trying to do with as many of their assets as possible. The tenants of the upper floors of the building have already been moved out so we must assume that plans for the disposal must already be at an advanced stage.
Make your voices heard on 25th July
As the spending of Section 106 money is dependant on support of the local population, the people of East Cowes have to be consulted – please vote against these plans which are for the good of the IWC and not the town of East Cowes.
If you care about what is happening to our Island, please attend the meeting at East Cowes Town Hall at 6.30pm on the 25th July 2011 to view the plans and to make your comments
Shocking news from this council seems to occur on an almost daily basis now. Surely they cannot get away with this blatant misuse of section 106 money? Spending it on their own buildings can’t be legal can it?
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We’ve certainly seen some unravelling of plans at a national level over the past few days. As for the Isle of Wight, apart from what slips through the net of secrecy, we can only wonder about what is going on. There is certainly an ethos of deceptive exploitation and profiteering that is being quietly and expediently applied in every Island Parish with increasing urgency for fear that the game will unravel (as it eventually surely will ) with planning wheezes being just one aspect of the whole disastrous debacle. The big question is : When to take the money and run? If it can happen to Murdoch, it can certainly happen to big fishes in a small pond. Praise be to commercial confidentiality.
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Let’s see how the County Press deal with this!
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D’arcy The County Press receives a lot of money from the Council and will deal with it in their usual way.
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Quite!
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Swept under the carpet, or page 94 I would guess?
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reflections of national government?
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“The County Press receives a lot of money from the Council”
I assume (hope!) you’re just referring to advertising space. But where else would they put it? The CP could be as rude as they liked to the Council and it wouldn’t make any difference to their income. It’s not a newspaper, it’s a snooze-paper.
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I’ve had them on the phone this morning, basically putting words into my mouth “as the IWC cannot affort to run East Cowes Library and we don’t want to pay an illegal precept rise and see 106 money used to bolster IWC coffers then we would rather see the library close!” This is not the view of myself and is not the view of the Friends of the IW Library Service and if thats what they print- they will be accused of misrepresentation.
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Our favourite recent gift: T-shirt with words
“Isle of Wight Can Depress”.
We are now spoilt for choice when it comes to alternative CP names (previously council press, & something else substituting a word much too rude for here).
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Here we go again. I often think that the Island would be better run if the IWC was terminated and taken over by Hampshire County Council.
I put this forward as a deadly serious suggestion.
The downside would be that ‘Deadwood’ Giles; the Asset Stripper – George Brown and his puppet, Cllr Pugh and various others would never ever get enough votes to even run the local girl guides pack.
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That’s a bit rough on Girl Guides, Fred.
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A cabinet made up of 11 year old schoolkids would probably do a better job than this lot. Pugh and his gang seem to get into mess with every idea they come up with, dismiss the mood and feelings of the Island people and just plough ahead with ridiculous and wasteful schemes.
This must be one of the worst, bungling and uncaring Councils that has ever been elected on the Island. What a great legacy Mr Pugh?
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Yes and 11 year old school children would be honest too,honesty is something that appears to be lacking in the Island cabinet of the IW Council in my view.
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Our Council have become experts in misusing funds. I sometimes wonder whether Pugh’s lack of political and economic education is contributing to a waste of Council Tax payers money.
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For anyone thinking of going along to East Cowes Town Hall on Monday 25th July at 6.30: this is not a public meeting and has nothing to do with plans for the town hall, so your journey would have been wasted.
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so when is this going to be discussed by the public, or is this yet another done deal
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I have, this morning, forwarded an email received from one East Cowes businessperson which categorically states that the “plans for the library/youth facility” (in the town hall extwension) will be on view! So someone is lying, I wonder if it could be our town councillor?
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sorry, should have said forwarded to Ventnor Blog
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if the plans are on veiw , the public are entitled to come and look at them, not to be kept behind closed doors, if people turn up and told its a private meeting , they need to demand access to see them, they should not refuse this is a public matter, what are they trying to hide, its a disgrace how certain persons are treating the residents of east cowes with such contempt, there should be a seperate meeting held elsewhere for residents if not allowed in, to discuss whats happening ,
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further to above, this meeting is open to the public, and persons are allowed to make comments, and as dave has said the plans are going to be on view.
it may not be called a public meeting, but no one can be refused from attending,
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No mention of this at all in todays county press. I’m not really surprised, without the council spending, this paper would probably fail. In free paper, this scandal would be front page news wouldn’t it?
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Told yer…!
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why hasnt the county press put this item into this weeks edition, they were given this information earlier in the week, is cllr pugh their secret editor, a number of people i know have sent letters of complaint about this and other matters about the council to the county press and its common knowledge they never get printed, why.
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