Youth unemployment hit a record high today – raising worries that Britain’s and Swindon’s young people could become a ”lost generation” who cannot find work despite the fact that the recession ended more than a year ago (thanks to the Labour Government).  The total number of adults under 25 who are out of work moved close to the 1 million mark in the three months to November, rising by 32,000 to 951,000. This pushed the youth unemployment rate up to 20.3%, which is also the highest level since records began in 1992.

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The Leader of the Council, Roderick Bluh stated that the MP Ann Snelgrove had made misleading comment in the adjournment debate in the House of Commons.

What she did say is on public record and my own knowledge led me to believe she had not misled Parliament.  The only area where I had no direct knowledge was the statement that aQovia was an IoM registered company.

A family friend researched aQovia at his own expense and found there are three companies registered, one in the UK and two in the Isle of Man.

On re-looking at the briefing note supplied Scrutiny Councillors on December 14th 2009 it clearly states that the shares in Digital City are 40% owned by aQovia (UK).

My friend had previously downloaded the registration document of Digital City from Companies House (he has since checked and it remains unchanged) and it clearly states that the share ownership is 4 shares of a total of 9 owned by aQovia Ltd and has an Isle of Man address.

The details of the ownership of aQovia that are available would appear to suggest that it is an off-shore holding company and that the published secretary is an enabling person only. It is noted that the stated project manager for aQovia a one is Muhammad Ifran Malik who holds 10% of the shares and the secretary is Sarah Kilduff of the IoM address holding 90% of the shares. On searching for Sara Kilduff on the web, we can only find adverts for secretarial services for hire by her.

My thanks to Chris Watts in helping me download for my own assurance the share allocation of Digital City yesterday which remains unchanged. The ‘family friend’ is well known to Talkswindon and it is for him to fess up that he knows me.

The Scrutiny decision, exact wording will come later.  Cllr Tomlinson junior proposed that a decision of Scrutiny be deferred until members were satisfied regarding who was a director of what.
Cllr Tomlinson senior, amended that officers give assurances required and the cabinet decision be supported.  Cllr Moffatt (me Labour) was not content and demanded, that there also had to be clarity that due diligence was being done now as it clearly had not been done and that we needed to be satisfied on the provenance of any investments by a third party and that there was compliance with British law. No-one contested those remarks and the vote was taken.  Cllr Tomlinson senior amendment was lost 5 votes to 4. Cllr Tomlinson junior substantive motion put and carried 6 votes to 3.

In conclusion I believe that Scrutiny did its job properly last evening.

Des Moffatt.  For views of the original documents, contact me on 07709066707

This is my best recollection of what I said at the Council’s special cabinet meeting on 31/3/2010 on the WiFi project that the Swindon Tories have got themselves mired in.

Following a preamble, where I criticized the accuracy of the agenda item report proposing a further draw- down of the loan of £450K to Digital City,  I responded to Councillor Bluh’s criticism of the Labour group’s alleged failure to define the reasons why we thought the process of making a loan to Digital City was outwith proper procedure.  I reminded Councillor Bluh that I had made the following points during the first scrutiny meeting on December 15th 2009.

1. The resolution used to authorise delegated powers to officers relates to regeneration of the Town Centre and dates from 2008.  It is an abuse of process to use this resolution to justify making a loan to Digital City since the resolution dealt with Treasury Management and enables the Council to pump-prime redevelopment in the town centre,  should the opportunity present – at the then start of the economic downturn.
2. CIPFA rules (CIPFA being the government backed rules by which officials engaged in public finance operate) stipulate that credit ratings should be obtained before any loans are made.  This was not done.
3. There are only three ways to make a decision on financial matters not catered for in the budget, these being (a) proper delegated officer authority, (b) by lead member/s decision note (circulated to opposition shadow lead members and ward members if appropriate) and (c) a cabinet decision on a prepared report.
4. What had happened here is that in exercising delegated authority the paid staff of the Council had sought political cover by getting the leader of the Council and the lead member for resources to sign off on a briefing note.

I went on to say:  ”That is the past, what is before you tonight is the officers seeking political cover before exercising a delegated power.  My colleagues are all of the opinion that WiFi should be supported as a concept. I do not share that view,  I believe you are being asked to throw good money after bad. The claim that there are good results on performance ignores the most important performance indicator:  paying customers for the scheme are nowhere near the target.  The jury is still out on whether this will work.   Please reconsider your intentions.”

Following input from Councillor Bluh, I replied for the record that, “I believe that the paid staff of the Council, including Hitesh Patel, sought to defend the position of Swindon Borough Council given the political instructions they were under.”

At the end of the debate Councillor Bluh implied that we and others sought to maker the issue political.  However he had orchestrated the politicization by inviting a national figure of the Conservative party to launch the scheme, flanked by the two Tory Swindon Parliamentary Candidates.

Des Moffatt,  Councillor Western