Rikki Hunt cuts and runs

In a move that will come as no surprise to those that have studied Mr John Richard ‘Rikki’ Hunt’s business history, he’s now done a runner from Digital City (UK) Ltd — the wifi network company he set-up — leaving behind almost £½M of overdue debt to Swindon Borough Council. It’s not the first time he’s abandoned a company having lead it to financial disaster, as local football fans know only too well.

As ever on matters related to this shoddy deal, Mr Perkins is on hand, trying to make things sound better than they really are. As usual, most of what Mr Perkins has to say is deceptive. If you’re looking for an honest analysis of the situation, Mr Perkins is not the person to turn to.

He had a lot of problems to overcome which he didn’t appreciate you’d have when involved with the public sector.

Don’t forget — as Mr Perkins seems to have done — that Mr Hunt is very familiar with working with Swindon Borough Council, having been a director of both The New Swindon Company and Swindon Commercial Services.

It’s very difficult for a partnership to go forward when you’re dealing with public money and scrutiny, which quite rightly, there should be.

It seems Mr Perkins has forgotten all the abuse and spite he has vented in the council chamber at anyone daring to question this deal over the last eighteen months.

We’ve learned a lot from this, and I’m sure Rikki Hunt has as well.

I’m sure Mr Hunt has learned a lot… such as how easy it is to get gullible councillors like Mr Perkins to part with taxpayers money, then walk away after eighteen months leaving others to clear up the debts.

With Swindon Borough Council now bunging £610,000 in the direction of its Recreation Centre to right off debts, Highworth will have been the lucky recipient of over £1M of Swindon taxpayers’ money. You could be forgiven for thinking that the local blue nest put keeping their rural voters happy above dealing with the council’s dire financial position. To quote Mr Bluh in the latest edition of Swindon News:

Boiled down, if we are to have a hope of balancing our books, we have two challenges ahead of us. The first is to become as efficient as possible in the way we operate. The second, perhaps more controversially, is to reduce what we currently do.

At the moment, they appear to be doing neither.