Ferret’s posts, highlighting the huge food costs that are being run up month after month at the Lakeside Café Bar are another cause of concern for this community and questions are rightly being asked:
- about the huge costs?
- what food is it they are actually purchasing?
- and where is it being used?
The lakeside Café Bar, the brainchild of Jim Kenyon and his cabal mates, has been running at a loss of approximately £2000 per week since its creation in 2019.
Yet here we are, nearly 4 years later and incurring bills for food that are:
January 2023 £4938.44
February 2023 £5102.32
A little over an average of £5000 per month and this is reflective of previous years.
A concerned resident asked under the freedom of Information act for Alan Draper to disclose some relevant details to see where the problems lay.
It was a simple request briefly:
How many paid for events have been held at the |Lakeside Café/Bar since its creation in 2019?
What the functions where?
The profit or loss that resulted from each function.
The main reason for the request was to see if any lessons had been learned that could have helped to stem the losses or perhaps at the very least break even.
Alan Draper’s response to date is, as we have come to expect vague and Ferret finds it hard to believe as well as being factually incorrect, is a very poor attempt at a “fob off”.
To quote Mr. Draper’s response in full:
In terms of the number of functions, previous years’ details are destroyed (GDPR) so the only details held are for the current year and It is not possible/practical to discern the profit/loss for any particular function (besides which, council services are prohibited from making profit). This is because supplies are bought generally for the café. For example, if two dozen breadcakes were purchased, some of them could be used for day to day meals and some could be used for a funeral tea.
Kind regards,
Alan.
Ferret will look at his answer in a little more detail:
Quote: “In terms of the number of functions, previous years’ details are destroyed (GDPR) so the only details held are for the current year”.
Ferret’s response, Sorry Mr Draper, you may get away with withholding personal details under GDPR but they were not asked for, disclosing for example, 6 funerals, 2 weddings or 4 Birthday parties discloses nothing illegal.
More importantly, data from those functions should and could be used to improve service and efficiency and should in no way be destroyed.
Ferret, like the requester of the information does not believe your answer for even one second.
You are after all, allegedly, the council’s “Responsible Financial Officer” as well as the Town Clerk, vital information has not been collected and used to improve the service provision.
Quote: “For the year to 31/3/23 there have been 37 functions.
Ferret’s response, 37 functions is not even 1 per week and the Lakeside Café Bar is running at a huge loss!
Perhaps analysing the previous data may have improved this appalling commercial performance.
Quote: “It is not possible/practical to discern the profit/loss for any particular function (besides which, council services are prohibited from making profit). This is because supplies are bought generally for the café. For example, if two dozen breadcakes were purchased, some of them could be used for day to day meals and some could be used for a funeral tea.”
Ferret’s response: It is very easy to discern the profit/loss for any event undertaken, supplies must be bought additionally for the function or do we have a massive everyday “wastage” if not needed.
Therefore any event can be costed easily, as can the staffing costs and proportional overheads costs.
As for the claim that councils cannot make a profit, does not mean that councils cannot recover costs and is a sham of an answer to hide behind.
Try reading the relevant acts of law Mr Draper that covers these things.
There are specific powers to charge for services scattered throughout local government legislation.
For example:
Section 19 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 permits charging for the use of leisure and recreational facilities.
The Local Government Act 2003 introduced a general power to charge for the provision of any discretionary service.
Charging is limited to cost recovery and statutory guidance published in 2003 outlines how costs and charges should be established and that guidance remains in force.
The charging provisions contained in the Localism Act 2011 follow, very closely, the requirements of the 2003 Act to allow local authorities to charge up to FULL COST RECOVERY FOR DISCRETIONARY SERVICES.
The General Power of Competence (GPC) within the Localism Act 2011 reinforces the provisions.
Ferret believes Alan Draper is way past his sell by date…
The amounts spent on food are staggering and FOIs as yet regarding what type of foods perishable or frozen and requested invoices for Brakes who seem to be the main supplier amongst others are still outstanding from 4/4/23.
Also what is the wastage eg from the carveries especially as people have witnessed mass being scrapped into rubbish bags.Does any of the unsold food get donated to our communities food banks questions to be answered.
Please post on FB Thankyou.
Again simple FOI being answered very vaguely by town clerk and trying to hide behind rules.yes councils are seen as not to be profit organisations but that doesn’t mean you run at a loss either! The town clerk as a duty installed upon him.to run HTC income/expenditure in a proper and fit manner The ongoing losses at the waterpark should have thrown a red flag up many months ago, but to equlise argument councillors as well are to blame as they too could see what was occurring.
Perhaps a explanation from the general manager about why it’s incurring such losses is on the agenda 🤔
Maybe after May the manager will be able to explain better their business plan to council and why they haven’t reduced the cost to HTC and where its going.
Hopefully after May the manager will not be employed by HTC!!!
Hopefully Anonymous the manager will not be employed by HTC after May!