30 October (Part 2) - Howbury point scoring
News
of Bexley council’s decision to award
the running of the Howbury
Community Centre to a new company, Eco Learning, formerly known as Eco
Computers, is hard to come by but the following information, whilst arriving via
a torturous path, would appear to be genuine.
It would appear that the decision was, as might be expected, made by cabinet
member Don Massey, the same Phillistine who made the decision to
shunt Bexley’s
history off to Bromley. It is reported that he was assisted by a council officer
named Kevin Taylor, a name which rang a bell with me and when I rediscovered why
found he was the subject of a note from a council informer which I judged could
not be published here.
The decision was based on a scoring system applied to each contenders’
presentation. Eco Learning pulled out all the professional stops and beat
Howbury Friends by 5·5 points on presentation. Is public speaking an
essential skill for running the Centre? However on Operational Plans and Vision for the
Future, Howbury narrowly beat Eco Learning. (0·5 points).
Where Howbury missed out big time was on financial backing. The voluntary group
which raises up to £100,000 a year lost out by 16·5 points to the glossy
prospectus offered by Eco Learning (formerly Eco Computers). The maximum
possible points is not revealed.
As mentioned the other day, I have obtained the full set of accounts from
Companies House and I really cannot see how this can be justified. Plus signs
are in very short supply.
More on this next month.