hyndburn life website - Page 4

g jones · 02-11-2006, 00:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tealeaf

I do recall having an hour's knock-about fun with Greg on there on one particular evening. I suspect that we all recognised the thing was going to be a waste of time and money.

However, as Graham says, funding for this project came from central government - in other words, the taxpayer, not the council charge payer. This begs a number of questions, among which are:

1) Was this funding optional, or was HBC forced to receive it and develop the website as part of a central government directive?

2) Did the funding come with a list of approved web-site developers and a package showing council officers how to go about commissioning and launching the project?

3) Presumably, HBC & Pendle were not the only local authorities to be involved in this scheme. How have sites with other local authorities fared in comparision?

Hyndburn gets given pots of money to spend so it is not external money as such, it is Hyndburn money already in the bank ready to spend. There are many pots but there are four big pots. The Council and other Hyndburn organisations then gets its ideas together on how it to spend the money and develops an application or bid. Each pot has some broad criteria as it is designed to direct funding at problems.

1. NRF - from Govt (Neighbourhood Renewal Funding) £7 million from 2001 to 2008 (runs out 2008)
2. SRB6 from Govt (Single Regen Budget) £8million from 2000 to 2008 (runs out 2008)
3. ERDF from Europe (European Regional Dev Fund/Economic Development) £2.4million generally 2000 - 2006 plus £1m for Whitebirk.
4. ELEVATE (East Lancs Housing) Hyndburns Share £95 million 2005 - 2020 to regenerate housing in Hyndburn

The Council decides what bids to accept as the Council is the responsible authority for the money.

The bid application was done by the Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with Pendle's. No other authority was involved.

The Council (then Labour) were sceptical about the scheme but allowed the the Cham of Trade to put the application in because the Council new nothing of it and were prepared to look at the proposal. Council IT officers were then able to review the (Ch of Com) scheme and recomended against accepting the bid.

This advice was then also passed on to the incoming Conservatives. The (new) Cabinet then had to make a decision but somehow went against the expert IT officer advice and authorised the expenditure with - as outlined in the proposal - itself as the commissioning agent .

Consultants were used (at at cost of £300k approx) to develop the scheme. Not sure who did the code. The Council took on responsibilty for site maintenance and content. In fact the member of staff employed as part of the bid worked in the Councils IT dept but resigned after 12 months.

There are e-government targets but this is not part of them. It was designed to be a tool to attract new businesses to Hyndburn (hence the Ch of Comm connection). Sadly, it has not attracted a single business interest yet.

It is now being wound down but it cant be pulled due to EU 50% clawback rules and SRB clawback rules which the Council will have to stand. So in order to con the auditors they are leaving it up.

No other authorities were involved. Pendle's site is trundling along and marginally fairing better. At least they are making an effort. Unfortunatley due to Council cuts due their well documented finacial woes, 6 of the 13 IT staff positions are being left as vacancies and not filled leaving 7 staff to struggle (They do all the Council Tax stuff, benefits systems, complex servers and databases etc..).

g jones · 02-11-2006, 00:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tealeaf

Well, I could be wrong - but I was under the impression that money was forced upon HBC purely to spend on IT and the website.

Unfortunatly, this was not like the panopticon project, which thankfully was stopped in time before money could be wasted.

See above post. The ERDF pots and SRB pots used to fund this scheme could not have been spent on art.

The monies are gven to Hyndburn in advance, that is whay I think it is not external funding which implies you get or you don't. SRB and ERDF we have already got. Hyndburn has to decide then what to spend the money on.

g jones · 02-11-2006, 00:50

Funding for the project

Hyndburn (£591k)
£250,000 ERDF
£266,000 SRB
£75,000 ODPM (John Prescotts office) **This was external funding

Pendle (from memory) (£346k)
NRF
ERDF £250,000
PERP
ODPM £75,000

TOTAL £937,000

Sparkologist · 02-11-2006, 07:41

Is there any transparency with regards to the "consultancy" fees?
Are we likely to be furnished with a complete breakdown of where this money was distributed and for what purpose? It sounds very much like a money laundering scheme to me!

A modicum of honesty and integrity wouldn't go amiss from the controlling interest on HBC.

WillowTheWhisp · 02-11-2006, 07:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by g jones

Consultants were used (at at cost of £300k approx) to develop the scheme. Not sure who did the code. The Council took on responsibilty for site maintenance and content. In fact the member of staff employed as part of the bid worked in the Councils IT dept but resigned after 12 months.

If you look at THIS page of the Clicks and Links website I think you'll get a clue. It's somewhat ironic that that page hasn't been updated for a year or three because it still describes Hyndburnlife as something which is due to "go live later this year" - er what year would that be then?

Quote:

Originally Posted by g jones

There are e-government targets but this is not part of them. It was designed to be a tool to attract new businesses to Hyndburn (hence the Ch of Comm connection). Sadly, it has not attracted a single business interest yet.

And they laughed when we were sceptical.

Is it any wonder that we had our doubts about all the new businesss the Panopticon was supposed to be bringing if we'd ever got one of those too?

g jones · 02-11-2006, 08:52

Thanks for the link to the innovators of this idea. Sounds like they approached the Chamber of Commerce who approached the Council.

This says it all;
Buying goods or services from local businesses online FAILED
Joining online community activities such as discussion groups FAILED
Making reservations at leisure facilities FAILED
Links to paying council tax or reserving places on further education courses FAILED
Booking appointments to see a health visitor FAILED

The e-govt thing is confusing because it is largely about innovation in delivering services and products electronically, discretion is largely given to each area to decide in different ways which way it can achieve this. I am sure most authorities will be doing some/mots of these inhouse at a fraction of the cost. Like I said before, The Councils cash crises has resulted in considerable cuts. IT have 7 out of 13 staff.

Mick · 02-11-2006, 09:11

So what's going to happen to the site now Graham ?

Less · 02-11-2006, 10:06

I bet if the council had asked nicely, Roy would probably have put appropriate links in and set up a section of accyweb to keep the general public informed, still I don't suppose we miss much as it is, just a pity they chose to waste all that money instead of giving something local a try.

Neil · 02-11-2006, 10:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Less

just a pity they chose to waste all that money instead of giving something local a try.

Was Roy in the UK at the time? If not I can just imagine the headlines in the Observer if Hyndburn had used someone living in Russia to create their new web site

Less · 02-11-2006, 10:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil

Was Roy in the UK at the time? If not I can just imagine the headlines in the Observer if Hyndburn had used someone living in Russia to create their new web site

He was in and out of the country at the time, as you know the site can be looked after from just about anywhere, I was meaning giving a local site (run by local people, the mods are local too), a chance, to run things for the local community, instead of how they did go about it.

Neil · 02-11-2006, 10:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Less

as you know the site can be looked after from just about anywhere

I know, it would just look interesting if HBC's new web site was run from Russia. They will be having a call centre in India next. Well they almost have, when you phone the emergency line its answered by someone in Pendle

Less · 02-11-2006, 10:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil

I know, it would just look interesting if HBC's new web site was run from Russia. They will be having a call centre in India next. Well they almost have, when you phone the emergency line its answered by someone in Pendle

As you know at the time Roy was living in Russia the server accyweb was on was based in America, but the members are mainly local, the topics discussed are mainly local and the council called is definitely local!

It is all speculation now however, I suppose they (the council members), live in fear of a real newspaper getting hold of the story, especially if what Graham says is correct about them having to pay money back if it's discovered they aren't actually running it.

Anybody got the email address for the Sun or the mirror or the Daily Telegraph?

lancsdave · 02-11-2006, 10:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil

I know, it would just look interesting if HBC's new web site was run from Russia. They will be having a call centre in India next. Well they almost have, when you phone the emergency line its answered by someone in Pendle

If they are council employees then surely they are Cowboys not Indians