£10k monthly security bill for Barlaston college shut to save £28k a year
SECURITY costs have hit almost £10,000 a month at a council-run residential college which was shut to help save £28,000 a year.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council is also forking out on utility bills at the mothballed Wedgwood Memorial College as the institution's power supply is needed for security systems.
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COSTLY: The Wedgwood Memorial College and our story from June 18
The college was closed in April to save £28,000 a year as part of £24 million budget cuts.
But figures obtained by The Sentinel show the authority spent £9,093 on security at the Barlaston college's two sites in the first month of its closure.
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The bulk of the cash was spent on hiring security personnel to keep watch.
If the council is unable to find a cheaper alternative or sell the complex it faces an annual bill of around £110,000 for security alone.
The Save Wedgwood Memorial College group claims it can independently run the college without subsidy but has already had four business cases rejected by the council.
Organiser Derek Tatton, of Leek, who was principal at the college for 24 years before retiring, said: "It underpins our case that the city council is now wasting taxpayers' money by keeping the buildings empty when we have a plan in place to run the college at no cost to the city.
"We are hoping very shortly to have another updated business plan to put before the cabinet."
The council claims the college would have required future subsidies of £160,000 to keep operating as it was not meeting its targets.
But campaigners, who have secured more than £53,000 in pledges as part of their fight, say they could run the college at a profit by focusing on its traditional strengths of education and residential courses.
Campaigner Karen Carlin, aged 51, of Fenton, said: "We have been arguing for some time that it was going to cost the council a lot of money to keep this place closed.
"As a campaign we're seeking further business advice from the North Staffordshire Chamber of Trade.
"They are being very helpful in reviewing one or two comments made about our business plan.
"On the whole they have been very positive."
The council said it was currently looking for cheaper alternative to the current security arrangements.
A spokesman said the monthly cost is expected to fluctuate as security is extended to cover the daytime during 'riskier' periods, including school holidays.
Costs incurred during the first month of closure included £4,985 at the college's Limes site and £4,108 at Estoril.
The council said it has not yet calculated security costs for May and June.
Barlaston is outside the city boundaries but the college remained under city council control after it became a unitary authority in 1997.
Comments
by IanFantom
Tuesday, July 10 2012, 5:29PM
“But it's not even to save 28k a year; the college was breaking even when the whole question of a possible closure first arose in 2007. The Friends of WMC Association put out an appeal for absolutely everyone who had links with the college to write to as many people as possible to try to save the college. They had interpreted events following the resignation of the then Principal, Jill Ward, as suggesting that the Council was attempting to create a situation where they could justify the closure of the college. They thought it might be to do with asset stripping. Their prophesy has now been fulfilled.
And yet Esperanto Association of Britain did absolutely nothing to support that plea. Amazing but true. I relayed the information to as many members as I could, and got some to write in. As a result I was ****ged of by the Management Committee in 'EAB Update', who accused me of disinformation. The secretary of Friends of WMC Association confirmed the information I had sent out and said he was mystified at EAB's response. I put out a further circular, reporting on this development, and was accused by the President of possibly defamatory statements.
Readers should know that Dr Derek Tatton was a member of the Management Committee of Esperanto Association of Britain at the time. I gave evidence to the inquiry run by Staffordshire County Council and shortly after that Dr Tatton left the Management Committee of EAB.
In 2005 I joined the Management Committee myself in order to find out what was going on behind the scenes. I had always had a high regard for Dr Tatton, but I have to say that shortly after joining I received a not very nice email from him saying that I was disdainful of the committee. He proceeded to instigate a dispute with Jill Ward, and in the process claimed that the building contract for Esperanto House was with Stoke, but had eventually to accept what had been written in the minutes, that it was with EAB. Then he put forward a motion of censure to get me off the committee on the basis of the 'tone' of a question I had put six months earlier to the treasurer.
There should be a public inquiry into the whole business of the closure of Wedgwood Memorial College, going back not just to 2007, but to the matter of the building of Esperanto House, and to Dr Tatton's first meeting with EAB in 1999 on this issue, before members of EAB were led to vote for the sale of their premises in London on the basis of financial information which we now know to be untrue. It looks to me as if Esperanto House was a Trojan horse. Some sort of independent fact-finding mission is essential.
I produced a video explaining some of my findings in the research project which I undertook in 2005:
Esperanto House - YouTube
26 Nov 2007 ... The Wedgwood Memorial College in Barlaston, Staffordshire, is under threat of closure (at least, at the time the video was made). One building ...
http://tinyurl.com/7e4p5cu
Esperanto House Part 2 - YouTube
27 Nov 2007 ... The Wedgwood Memorial College in Barlaston, Staffordshire, is under threat of closure (at least, at the time the video was made). One building ...
http://tinyurl.com/83edda4”
by HarryPotter40
Monday, July 09 2012, 10:58PM
“So, the director with responsibility sanctioned and officers cooked up this plan on the back of a fag packet.... No thought to the bigger picture. Next the councillors did what the officers wanted them to and voted this through in the budget proposals without question.... A farce!? One for Ian Hislop. Joking aside, someone should be held to account. I too would like to know if the contract for the security was put out to tender?”
by kitcrew
Monday, July 09 2012, 9:37PM
“I would happily provide 24/7 security for 2k pcm”
by callum16
Monday, July 09 2012, 8:39PM
“grrenhouse 2000 will be exactly the same, anotherbcostly blunder to add to their reign.”
by Mr_Jingles
Monday, July 09 2012, 7:01PM
“Some officers at the council need the sack over this fiasco for gross incompetence.”
by papalazaroo
Monday, July 09 2012, 6:51PM
“So on the one hand, we have an authority which will frustrate those interested in taking on these buildings, make them go through hoops, looking for any opportunity to see a perforation in the business plan; yet on the other hand it has the total and utter mendacity to announce a wholesale shift of operations from Stoke to Hanley seemingly at the toss of a coin. Where is the city council's business plan? If a ROBUST business plan should be part of a proposal to take over the Memorial College (a proposal which if realised would cost the residents of this city nothing) it certainly should be on the table NOW over a £40m+ move on borrowed money, which could cost us a fortune.”
by putmefootinit
Monday, July 09 2012, 6:39PM
“It is rumoured that pervez got mixed up with the exchange rate !”
by britpark
Monday, July 09 2012, 4:38PM
“Someone show them where the ON button is on the calculator!”
by magnum57
Monday, July 09 2012, 3:15PM
“If they can't even get this right imagine what is going to happen with the Hanley "business district" finances!!”
by mitch1961
Monday, July 09 2012, 1:58PM
“"The council said it has not yet calculated security costs for May and June."
Obviously "calculating" is not a skill our City Council excels at! Ever likely they won't give the campaigners credit for their business plan - they're terrified it might just add up!”