Inspirations Cafe Accounts

[testing times]

So who is the Greater Leader going to blame?

[Lord Elpus]

HARTLEPOOL COUNCIL

PRESS RELEASE





Council "reluctantly" decides to close coffee house



HARTLEPOOL Council has "reluctantly" decided to close the town's Inspirations Coffee House after councillors felt that it could no longer be a financial burden on local Council Tax payers.



It follows a meeting earlier this week (Monday 6 March) of the Council's Finance & Policy Committee when councillors heard that the coffee house has operated at a trading loss since opening in May 2013, years with the position expected to continue in 2017/18.



The decision to create Inspirations Coffee House - which is located at Stranton Cemetery - was agreed in 2012 under the Elected Mayor/Cabinet system which was abolished in May 2013.



Councillor Christopher Akers-Belcher, chair of the Council's Finance & Policy Committee and Leader of the Council, said: "We inherited the Inspirations Coffee House initiative from when the Council was run by the Elected Mayor and Cabinet and we have given it every opportunity to be financially viable.



"The staff involved with Inspirations have worked extremely hard to try and make it a success and I don't think anyone could have done anymore.



"Moving forward, the Council continues to face significant cuts in Government funding which will place further pressure on frontline services and reluctantly the Committee unanimously agreed that they could no longer continue to subsidise the service."



The coffee house will close at the end of March 2017 and councillors have requested a further report outlining options for the future of the site.



They also requested that re-deployment is explored for the one full-time and three part-time members of staff at Inspirations Coffee House.

[steveL]

Well there's your answer .....

I'll just repeat Stephen's quote from the front page as he opened the Cafe:

"The coffee house is called Inspirations and it shows that we as a council are looking at different ways to make income."

That was May, 2013. I would also point out the decision to establish the cafe might have been made in Drummond's time but the running of it fell wholly under Christopher's. In that time, Labour have pushed for an alcohol and music license, against public protest, later extending the hours to late night opening.

In addition, Christopher has consistently refused to publish the annual accounts, requested by the public, which we now know have shown the cafe to be running at a loss every year it has been open. Had he done so, the public would rightly have demanded closure much earlier. It was his decision alone which allowed losses to continue.

Against this background and against the council's record of never having run any of its cafes at a profit, Christopher's lemmings have decided to take on the running of the Summerhill Cafe with nothing to suggest that it will be any more successful.

Trying to off-load responsibility onto someone else when something goes wrong is a characteristic of both Akers-Belchers, Christopher, if you remember, tried to blame the Charity Commission for the fraudulent accounts of Manor Residents. He also claimed the new town plan would take only 6 months to produce and then blamed someone else for giving him the wrong advice - it took 4 ¹/₂ years.

He's probably the most deceitful leader of the council we have ever had; a profligate liar who accepts no responsibility, claims the victories for himself and blames the defeats on others. In other words, not a Leader at all.

[akarjl]

He's probably the most deceitful leader of the council we have ever had; a profligate liar who accepts no responsibility, claims the victories for himself and blames the defeats on others. In other words, not a Leader at all.

Comment of the year so far!

[akarjl]

Curiosity has been eating away at me I can find very little on line ......

What exactly makes Cwissie qualified to hold the role/responsibility he does (Carpet Specialist,special needs specialist, autism expert,  - His linkedin profile claims he's got a couple of A levels- I see no evidence of financial / management qualifications/training or experience ( supported by his performance in his current role). What did he do up until the moment he crawled out of his hole and started destroying the town?

What about lying Ste?

Crannible?

Mad Dog?

[the_exile]

Surely, if Cwis was that much against the café idea, when he ousted the monkey, why did he not put a stop to it?

Could it be because he saw it as some kind of "private" members club??

The man is deluded

[fred c]

NO COMMENTS ALLOWED on the Mail article...... looks as though Joy has had her ar** kicked by the Kremlin

[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 conveniently 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).

Looks like we've arrived at 'D' and will shortly be entering 'E'...