29 September - The Engine restarted
Bexley Council has come a long way since its Deputy Leader sacked a whistleblower at the Thames Innovations Centre who complained that
it was employing a (later convicted) paedophile as manager and was shovelling in taxpayers’ cash to keep it afloat. Ten years later it is called
The Engine House and may at last be an asset to the borough. The annual £186,000 grant ceased in 2016.
Unfortunately the Council will have to loan it £235,000 to partially cover
current refurbishment costs. It came up for discussion at the recent Resources and Growth Scrutiny meeting.
The Chairman started the discussion by thanking the management team for all the
hard work that had gone into its transformation.
Councillor Steven Hall (Conservative, East Wickham) admitted he had never visited it but was nevertheless impressed by the creativity
on display there. He wanted to know how “such a great resource” was being advertised.
He was told that the main thrust of advertising was via Social Media, its website and networking with similar facilities elsewhere.
Councillor Val Clark (Falconwood & Welling) asked to be permitted to make a statement and as she is a
Conservative Councillor this was allowed. It transpired that her statement was a
criticism of the previous management team who she said “fiddled and did
nothing”. She said they were eventually asked to resign since when things
have been much better. “Bad practices” were mentioned. Not paedophilia but the
general thrust of Councillor Clarke’s comment was undoubtedly correct. A shame that a now
gone Deputy Leader was happy to go along with it. Bexley Council is definitely not
as Bonkers since certain people were shown the door.
Councillor Clark was not entirely happy that Bexley Council has not written off
the debts from the early days and said that the Director of Finance had failed
to respond to her request for a meeting made very nearly two months ago.
Councillor June Slaughter (Conservative, Sidcup) asked where the comparable facilities were locally and was told there were “not many”.
Councillor John Davey (Conservative, West Heath) referred to how the failure to deliver Crossrail was
adversely affecting nearby businesses and asked if The Engine House was being affected too.
Director Jane Richardson said that the current year was planned to be a quiet
one during the refurbishment and some businesses had been lost but most
replaced. It was difficult to say if the Crossrail delay has been a factor but
with the refurbishment work in progress she would not have wanted the building
to be full anyway. Crossrail will be an asset when it comes.
It was agreed that all Committee members should visit the facility early next
year when refurbishment would be completed.
The Engine House.