A sorry tale unfolded at Thursday night's Community Scrutiny meeting when Bill Hobman presented an update on the Community Interest Company of which he is chairman. Now Bill has a proven track record of service to the Forest, but his involvement in this company is not his finest hour.
It has been difficult to obtain information from the Forest of Dean District Council about the loan of £26,574 made by the council to this company. Readers may remember that the question regarding what sum had actually been paid was refused by the Corporate Scrutiny Committee and I had to request the answer under the Freedom of Information Act.
Last Thursday I asked the sister Committee, community Scrutiny, from what source of income the loan was to be repaid and in what time scale. The answer was that it should have been repaid in cash if a certain grant from another source had been forthcoming. As this grant never materialised, the loan is repayable in shares in the company and a council representative, Cllr Venk Shenoi, is on the Board.
In his report Mr Hobman first contested the fact that the money was a loan as he understood that it was a grant. He was corrected on this matter, but it is, in the event, a moot point, as the money turns out to have been a gift. As the story unravelled, it became apparent that this is a company with little board expertise, no capital and no staff. How then, with no track record either, could its members expect to be taken seriously in tendering for the provision of health services in the Forest?
What was even more surprising was that the council ever thought that this company could be viable and that the loan was sanctioned by full council last December. On Thursday evening many of the councillors appeared bemused by the turn of events and Cllr Brian Robinson, who holds the portfolio for Efficient Government, asked searching questions that should have been posed months ago. It is now evident that the council holds shares in a company that have no financial worth whatsoever. Mr Hobman was at some pains to explain that a community interest company is non-profit-making, but when this is the case, the so-called shares can only carry the right to be represented at an annual general meeting, which is the right of shareholders in any company whether profit-making or not. No dividends will be paid, so there is no return on capital invested and the shares, because they are worthless, cannot be sold. In any case, this is itself immaterial as the company is not trading currently and does not look as if it ever has any hope of doing so. Anyone 'investing' in this company is making it a gift.
The question that was not asked, but should have been, was how did the council, with its financial officers, ever become involved? The answer is that they were seduced in full council by impassioned speeches from advocates of the scheme and by the emotive phrase, 'for the good of the people of the Forest'. The interest of Forest residents would have been much better served if this £26,574 of taxpayers' money had been retained by Forest of Dean District Council. To put the best possible gloss on the matter it is likely that there were good intentions on all sides. What was missing was any vestige of common-sense.
In the meantime, there is yet another hitch in the Redbrook car park project (and that's another sorry story). Perhaps the council considers that residents should console themselves with the thought that while there has been a problem in finding sufficient funding for the car park over the past eight years, which has been the reason given for non-delivery of the project, there will always be enough taxpayers' money available to pour into any gaping black hole waiting to swallow it.
Daphne Pearson (Dr), Tinman's Green, Redbrook.