Mayor's Charity Donations 'Commercially Sensitive'

[Johnny Bongo]

The mayors charity work isn't done under the umbrella of a charity organisation is it ?

Maybe it should be to make it accountable.

Exactly, is a it a Registered Charity ? If it was I assume you could contact the Association and they would provide the info, I don't think it's a Charity, its a fund which forwards the money to a Charity ?

If he has given the money to 'charities', then why can he not just say which charities actually received any (and the amount). Surely, there's no gain for him by not revealing this....or is there?

[mk1]

I think the main problem SAB has is letting the public know who the 'donors' were. I  expect heaven and earth is being moved in The Civic to remove all connections to a certain filth-dumping company.

[Land Phil]

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/1-000-boost-for-chairman-s-charity-1-4610084

[Ste P]

this town and its council are absolutely unbelievable, but be correct in thinking that authority's higher will be observing, recording and snooping, even taking notice of some of this sites content, its all current and it will go back and include the retired executive.

only saying.

[for fawkes sake]

It would be an interesting exercise to go through the back pages of the Hartlepool Mail and find the many articles announcing Niramax's various donations and totting up just how many of those donations were centred on Owton Manor or Ward Jackson Park.

[DRiddle]

To be honest, an even more interesting exercise would be to find out what the organisation ultimately on the receiving end of the money did with it.

£118k is a significant sum.

"The charities across the town that will benefit from the chairman's fundraising are the Belle Vue Youth Project, Central Correctors, Hartlepool Young Carers, NYPD (Nurturing Young People's Development) The Phoenix Funsters, The Rifty Youth Project and the Wharton Annexe".

I'm suggesting nothing untoward of course, I just think it would be good to know. For example, did any of the money go on salaries of staff employed by the respective organisation?

How 'different' are the charities listed above in terms of their management teams, their boards of directors or trustees etc?

It would be good if a charity could come forward and say "we received x and spent it on y". That might help reassure people regarding aspects of the transparency.

[steveL]

There's a lot of cynicism how these things are done. I remember how when we first ran the 'To the Manor Born' story on Manor Residents, we were accused of doing a great disservice to the voluntary sector and to the many volunteers involved in it. Well we all know how that ended up and that it wasn't us that were doing committed volunteers a disservice.

Likewise, the list of organisations that have benefitted from this money is a mixture of what I would call proper voluntary organisations together with a sprinkling of some of which I would like to see the books of before handing over any money.

I have a particular soft spot for Hartlepool Young Carers, for example, a support organisation for some truly amazing kids . . . but The Rifty?  The latter is far too close to SAB himself, an habitual liar who managed to make a council officer distinctly uncomfortable about the 'off-the-books' wages being paid to a certain young, Rifty employee.

As we saw with Manor Residents, there are certain councillors riding the wave of natural empathy for 'Community and voluntary' organisations in order to feather their own and their family's nests and no one can afford to be too comfortable or complacent while such people are still around.