The Lakeside Café Bar has operated on very limited opening times during the winter.
During December it was also fully closed during some of the festive period.
Ferret has questioned before, the large amounts of food and drink being ordered by Samantha Knowles and Independent Hemsworth Town Council for use at the Lakeside.
In December 2022 a total of £4827.71 was spent on food alone.
Ferret bets someone had a feast, and it certainly wasn’t the scum of our community…
The astonishing amounts of thousands of pounds spent on food for the Lakeside Cafe is not just on December accounts the thousands of pounds spent is every single month.Thousands paid to Premier foods ,Brakes,Costco month after month all the entries line after line show Food Lakeside Cafe.The entries alone from 22/12/22 are staggering as most of the month and Christmas the Lakeside cafe was closed,no community no footfall so where did all this food go and more importantly who ate it.The spendager is certainly not shown in any profits as we are informed the Lakeside is losing thousands of pounds about £400.000 as been mentioned so questions need to be asked,who is ordering and paying for the huge quantities of food,and who is eating it ,profit accounts need to be published.The accounts are put on the HTC web site and need to be checked and seen by all the community and as a suggestion when and if the NOTICEBOARDS should ever be erected in the precinct then the monthly accounts sheets need to be placed on it so the community can see the vast amounts of HTC expenditure and not just on food,it’s called open Transparency.Some of the Independent councillors may need to look up the meaning.
We need to be considerate and remember there are some big mouths to fill on Hemsworth Town council before we jump to the wrong conclusions.
Vickie accounts don’t lie or do they,but what we read on the monthly accounts spent and not just on food is staggering,if the profit accounts on food and beverages were available am sure it would be seen that as it is being run at the moment the losses are also staggering.
Someone posted that all that was available on their visit to the Lakeside cafe was a sausage roll surely cannot be right thousands of pounds have been spent on food,we know it hasn’t gone to help the food banks who are desperately in need of food to help our communities parishioners who are the very people that HTC should be helping with our communities precept money ,we haven’t seen coach loads of visitors to the waterpark lakeside cafe all ordering vast amounts of food so questions do need asking who as been consuming the very costly food.Easy to put the communities minds and mouths at ease show the profit against expenditure in separate accounts.
Julie remember that in the Finance meeting 12th January 2023 we were told most council don’t publish the accounts, but HTC do for transparency !!!
Cathy,shame they can’t spell Transparency let alone serve it to the public with all the costly food.
They may have eaten the accounts when they still felt hungry
I know what’s happening everyone is having super sized meals and being given seconds in a goody bag , seriously, the amounts seem to be consistently high Jan to Dec although footfall is down in the winter months and buying there should only be one purchase card for food only ,and 2 persons able to use it ,items ordered then checked and questioned if there seems something amiss, this way you now who has used the card and what’s being bought.
Anyone know who orders the food ?
Come May 22, all payments relating to the Lakeside need to be thoroughly scrutinised and analysed.
Massive payments for food add up to what should be a contractual arrangement between HTC and the suppliers, which should be put out to tender.
The amounts we pay HMRC for VAT are ridiculous. If we had no income, we’d be reclaiming VAT back from HMRC but, we have a low income, so why are we not in a position to reclaim something? It makes no sense and needs looking at.
The December expenses didn’t include and wage/salary payments! Did they just forget?
Alan Draper should be producing a monthly financial management report which captures both income and expenditure, in month and cummulative totals, a forecast to the year end, and everything compared to the budget figures, with a proper variance analysis. This is basic stuff and we pay a massive amount in system and software costs to receive no indication of HTC’s financial performance.
And, don’t get me onto the issue of the HTC Reserves – there as transparent as custard.
Things will change big time in May 23.
Anonymous I believe the ordering and control is done by the security/manager of all to do with the Lakeside Cafe Sam Knowles.Would not have thought the young staff were given the responsibility to order and spend on the HTC debit card .