Inspirations Cafe Accounts

[steveL]

The accounts for this council enterprise are due to be published in a report to the Finance and Policy meeting on 10th February - a whole year after the Chief Executive, Gill Alexander promised in December 2015 and after God knows how many public questions and FOI requests.

I thought it would be fun to pre-guess the tactic used to hide the fact that this little enterprise was a financial bummer from day one. I'm told that the total losses over the 4 years it has been operating are now approaching £250,000 so what demonstration of creative accounting are we expecting to see? 

[fred c]

If it is that level of loss HBC should put the whole enterprise, Cafe & Garden Centre on the market asap........

There should be a concerted response by oppostion councillors & I include the 3Tories in that, how on earth has this situation  been allowed to be hidden away from the council tax payers, this is a prime example of the total lack of 'business acumen' that is shown by The LabTor Mob & HBC on a regular basis.

Will Raymondo Wells & his fellow Tories try to back up CAB & His Crew on this..... Ohhhhh Yes........ Tories...... My A**e

[kevplumb]

Finance and Policy meeting on 10th February

see you  there
should be interesting to listen to the pre-prepared rhetoric and smell the bullsh@t

[DRiddle]

Judging by the number of views this particular topic as already had, I'd say the DDOS attack thing is again in full swing.

In answer to the question of how the accounts might be painted positively, I foresee some sort of 'linkage' to the Waverley Terrace allotment scheme. Grant funding was gained for that, there is a 'relationship' between the 'café in the crem' and the allotments in terms of using their produce I think.

Would anyone be as crafty as to try to claim that without the café the allotments might never have gained the funding they did? So the 'fudge' could be to claim that the loses of the café are offset by the funding gained for Waverley.

That shouldn't happen of course, and I'm not saying it will. But nothing surprises me anymore about this administration.

Whatever the situation, there were comments, articles and various posts on here months before the café was actually built predicting how much of a disaster it would be.

Although its hardly a surprise really, the current ruling group couldn't run a bath. Let alone a café.

[kevplumb]

"3917 Views "
better batten down the hatches admin
bandits at 3 o'clock

[fred c]

Danny deserves a medal as big as a frying pan, the constant DDOS attacks must cause him problems, but he appears to be a right stubborn bugger.... Thank Goodness

Where's Cleveland Plod when you need them........

[mk1]

I am not so forgiving. If it were me I would return the favour by bringing down sites close to those who profit from this site being down.

[kevplumb]

the way I see it is if they keep hitting the site then as my American friend calls it
we are "putting a burr up their butt"
keep it up

[fred c]

I am not so forgiving. If it were me I would return the favour by bringing down sites close to those who profit from this site being down.

What gives you the impression any of us are 'forgiving'..... if you live by the sword.

[Johnny Bongo]

As a slight aside to this topic, can any of the informed members here please tell me the approximate amount of money that HBC have given charities (MRA, etc) and other such 'worthy causes' in the past five years. Plus any ward budgets that have basically been spent on fun days, orchards, etc, (vote buying...as if!).  I reckon that it runs into a fair few quid!  Do HBC actually publish the accounts of all the money donated to charities, etc?   

[fred c]

Difficult to quantify, 1example was the organisation that had Wilcox & Craney as directors, Who Cares N/E, I believe it had the thick end of a million pounds...... 1st lump was £680,000 followed by a further contribution of £300,000 plus.

[steveL]

The council planned to take over the Summerhill Café and spend £16,000 giving it a Swiss Log Cabin look complete with log burning fire. Some attempt at crossover accounts may be on the cards though I did hear the previous operator was running Summerhill at a £21,000 per year loss. I go to Summerhill a fair bit and it always makes me smile how the café is closed when most people are using the park i.e. weekends. It has a habit of closing early too during the week.

One thing you can be certain of is that they've come up with some sort of plan to hide the losses; if they hadn't done they would still be refusing to publish.

[DRiddle]

Whatever the situation with the accounts it'll just be one step closer to fulfilling the predictions that were made by many people on here prior to the cafe being opened.

(A) build cafe with no business plan using tax payers money.
(B) watch as cafe loses a fortune in start up costs and running costs for a few years.
(C) cry crocodile tears that it's losing money hand over fist and demand something be done.
(D) talks starts about handing the thing over to the 'private sector' to stop the loses.
(E) launch tendering process for lease of the cafe recouping none of the start up costs and 'gaining' a peppercorn rent.
(F) somebody gets the gig and runs it as their own business. They'll have little or no start up costs, all the equipment and furniture will be included in the lease and they'll be in a stronger position to make if turn a profit if they know what they're doing.
(H) it'll be hailed a success by Labour as they'll convientely forget to mention the half a million pound loses in the press release.

I'm very happy to be proven wrong, but I'd say we're well into stage (B) and will shortly be entering stages (C) and (D).

[Inspector Knacker]

With a mule like ability to plough on they have perfected the art of dead horse flogging to a fine art.
They work on the principle of having a ''brilliant idea' and proceed to make fantasy fact. Determined to make something work they plough on, untroubled by the financial details and protect their pet to the point of stupidity.
Why is a council running cafes ?

[fred c]

So, CAB & Co start a business in the privare sector using public money, there is no aparent business plan, the business start up costs are around £400,000, it then loses around £1250 a week over a 4 year period, meanwhile back in the real world, council tax goes up 4.9%, services are cut, facilities are closed or scaled back, community assets are left to rust away, jobs are lost.

Lots of people predicted the outcome, none of them had a crystal ball, what they did have was a modicum of common sense, until we actually see the accounts it is speculation on our part, however if they are as bad as they sound, whoever came up with the idea in the first place should be sacked for gross incompetence.

When will this shower learn not to dabble in the real world of profit & loss business......... there are recent examples, Raymond's quick flip BTS & The Cafe in the Crem...... losses of around £2.5 million pounds between them.

Only in Hartlepool & Only Under The LabTor Mob