Hyndburn Life - Well Would You Believe it?

[andrewb]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

Unfortunately Andrew, that's how it reads. If you can direct me to information that states otherwise I'll gladly take a look and reappraise things.

I assume it is national thing simply because of the huge cost. I don't think it's fair to blame just the council for the waste of money though. All the funding came directly from the office of the deputy PM, the single regeneration budget and the European regional development fund. They requested that Hyndburn council have the site, and offered the cash.

The most shocking thing is this:

"The Portal was to be a project that broke new grounds in IT, but unfortunately rapidly developing technologies such as Ebay, Amazon, Facebook etc. made it obsolete almost at the point that it was launched."

Sites like Ebay, Amazon, that already existed before the project was embarked on! Quite how Hyndburnlife sought to replicate those sites, I don't know...

[garinda]

'Assume', 'think'.


Personally I find facts a more useful tool, when discussing an issue.

[Ken Moss]

Originally Posted by andrewb

I assume it is national thing simply because of the huge cost. I don't think it's fair to blame just the council for the waste of money though. All the funding came directly from the office of the deputy PM, the single regeneration budget and the European regional development fund. They requested that Hyndburn council have the site, and offered the cash.

The most shocking thing is this:

"The Portal was to be a project that broke new grounds in IT, but unfortunately rapidly developing technologies such as Ebay, Amazon, Facebook etc. made it obsolete almost at the point that it was launched."

Sites like Ebay, Amazon, that already existed before the project was embarked on! Quite how Hyndburnlife sought to replicate those sites, I don't know...

The council votes on how money is spent so stating that it's not really their fault because it was given to them is a very, very poor excuse. It's the equivalent of a sickly child throwing away £25 on sweets and then blaming their parents for giving them birthday money.

I know that the Hyndburn Labour party budget meetings contained lengthy debates about the best way of spending money and sums that were many orders of magnitude less than £591k were very closely scrutinised. Surely the same principle should be applied by those in power when spending public money?

Just because you have it doesn't mean you have to blow it in a cavalier fashion.

[andrewb]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

The council votes on how money is spent so stating that it's not really their fault because it was given to them is a very, very poor excuse. It's the equivalent of a sickly child throwing away £25 on sweets and then blaming their parents for giving them birthday money.

I know that the Hyndburn Labour party budget meetings contained lengthy debates about the best way of spending money and sums that were many orders of magnitude less than £591k were very closely scrutinised. Surely the same principle should be applied by those in power when spending public money?

Just because you have it doesn't mean you have to blow it in a cavalier fashion.

The budget is well scrutinised (and costed unlike some Labour budgets of past!). The money was only to be used for the website. I'm not making excuses. I also didn't say it was their fault. I said it wasn't JUST the council's fault. It's not the same as the scenario you suggest, as government knew what it was getting spent on, and how much, since they proposed it and offered the cash.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by andrewb

...government knew what it was getting spent on

Yes, community based websites.

On which our council frittered away £591,000.00, with their pitiful effort, the now dead as a Dodo, Hyndburn Life.

[Ken Moss]

Originally Posted by andrewb

The budget is well scrutinised (and costed unlike some Labour budgets of past!). The money was only to be used for the website. I'm not making excuses. I also didn't say it was their fault. I said it wasn't JUST the council's fault. It's not the same as the scenario you suggest, as government knew what it was getting spent on, and how much, since they proposed it and offered the cash.

Fair points, but without getting into the whole tedious 'budgets of the past' debate, someone in control at HBC should have stood up and had the balls to say that it was a waste of money.

I don't know the particular ins and outs of this incident but we're talking about over half a million pounds of our money being approved for a project that was obviously wildly overpriced to start with.

If you want to get political about it, the Tories have had control in Hyndburn for some time so it would have been they who had the deciding vote.

£591,000. That figure is probably somewhere near to what you will earn (after tax) in the rest of your working life, Andrew.

[andrewb]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

Fair points, but without getting into the whole tedious 'budgets of the past' debate, someone in control at HBC should have stood up and had the balls to say that it was a waste of money.

I don't know the particular ins and outs of this incident but we're talking about over half a million pounds of our money being approved for a project that was obviously wildly overpriced to start with.

If you want to get political about it, the Tories have had control in Hyndburn for some time so it would have been they who had the deciding vote.

£591,000. That figure is probably somewhere near to what you will earn (after tax) in the rest of your working life, Andrew.

You're probably right. As for a vote, they weren't spending council money, I don't know if one took place. One of the councillors might know.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by andrewb

You're probably right. As for a vote, they weren't spending council money, I don't know if one took place. One of the councillors might know.

Money is money, when the source is people's hard earned taxes.

Period.

[accyman]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

I'm glad you did. Any more instances of ludicrous waste that we might all be interested in hearing about again?

nope hyndburn council is pretty thrifty when it comes to teh old purse strings infact you could describe their money management as carrying water in a bucket full of holes which is a good thing isnt it ?

[Morecambe Ex Pat]

Out of interest, does anyone know what the budget for HBC's own website is?