komadori’s green corner

Mr Singh seems to be collecting enforcement notices rather more readily than he’s planning permission for work on the GWR Mechanics Institute building. Following an urgent works notice issued in January — requiring basic maintenance to be done on the building to make it watertight — Mr Singh is now the lucky winner of an enforcement order from the Health and Safety Executive, stopping that work because of unsafe practices. If he can’t even manage basic repairs safely, how does he expect anyone to believe he’s capable of fulfilling the grander plans he has for the building?

It’s difficult to understand why Mr Singh continues to cling on to ownership of the building. From a business perspective — even in the unlikely event that he did submit an acceptable planning application — from his actions so far it doesn’t look as though he’s got the wherewithal to make a profit from redevelopment of the Mechanics. The sooner ownership passes to someone more commercially capable the better.

It’s rare that I find myself in agreement, — even just partial agreement — with my local red nest councillors. But with the first election leaflet of the year to drop through my letterbox, they seem to have picked a topic which I suspect many in Central ward will see more than just a hint of truth amongst the political exaggeration.

First, they comment on residents’ parking permits. This is almost unadulterated political spin.

Residents parking is their second biggest revenue stream after Council tax. Every time they put up parking charges at car parks in town, drivers try to avoid the increased costs by parking in Central’s residential areas.

They’ve obviously forgotten that in the run-up to Christmas, charges for parking in town centre car parks were dropped.

If you think we are being unfair then question why the Tories closed the Northern Park and Ride, adding an estimated 250 week day cars looking for parking spaces in Central.

Perhaps because the economic disaster that the Labour government has presided over has reduced the number working in Central Swindon by far more than that.

The Tory Council have forgotten that this scheme is for you and your parking needs and not as their income generator.

Agreed, but the price of residents’ parking permits has nothing to do with visitor car parking charges.

So far, so much traditional party political drivel. But then they come to a topic where the current blue nest leadership are contentedly kicking own goals as fast as they can.

This Tory administration is more obsessed with itself and creating a legacy, than representing the people of the Borough… this Administration has an attitude of “it’s my way, or no way”…. They were planning to cut £50,000 from the Dial-a-Ride service at the same time they have shown misjudgment (sic) with priorities by the way they have gone about loaning £450,000 of Tax payers money to the Wi-Fi venture.

It seems the only legacy the local blue nest leadership have created is a massive stockpile of ammunition for their political opponents… and a bill for something many in Swindon will neither want nor need.

The flurry of news items and press releases on Friday referring to a ‘hydrogen highway’ were rather confusing. And that’s not just because the phrase is rather vague, meaning-light publicist-speak.

In the beginning, there was a trio of press releases: one from the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills;

South Wales was named as leading centre in the UK for hydrogen energy with South West as a key partner and with £6.3m of funding through the University of Glamorgan…. Energy Minister Lord Hunt highlighted how the South Wales LCEA will build on the expertise in the area to develop hydrogen on a commercial basis. It would also be closely linked to end users based on the M4 corridor.

Another from the Department of Energy & Climate Change;

UK capabilities in hydrogen were further boosted today as the Government created the sixth Low Carbon Economic Area (LCEA). It will be focused in South Wales, with close cooperation extending as far as Swindon in the South West. As part of this, the University of Glamorgan announced that it is investing £6.3m to develop new processes, products and services as part of the CymruH2Wales project. It will create 23 new research staff over the next three years and a further 63 permanent jobs in hydrogen energy.

And yet another from the Technology Strategy Board that did little more than repeat the words from the other two, though with much of the content removed, leaving an empty carcass of jargon.

By providing capital funding towards the cost of demonstration, this important programme will enable British companies to collaborate to commercialise fuel cell and hydrogen technologies. Covering both the transport and stationary market applications, the funding will support and take forward already successful research, development and prototyping projects. We expect the technologies that will be developed and demonstrated to make real progress towards market adoption, providing significant global opportunities for the British companies involved.

Note that apart from it being the location of Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells’ manufacturing facility factory in Swindon, there’s little of substance about the south west in all of this. The focus is very much on south Wales, where the University of Glamorgan’s press release made clear the extent of any ‘hydrogen highway’.

The money will be used to build a new hydrogen, natural gas and biomethane vehicle refueling facility at the University’s Pontypridd campus as well as further developing the existing alternative refueling facilities at its Hydrogen Centre in Baglan. These facilities will not only support the hydrogen and alternative vehicle drive train research and development work of the University, but will be the initial steps for the creation of a broader alternative refuelling infrastructure along the M4 corridor in Wales.

Now, unless there’s been a rather major secret redrawing of the principality’s boundaries, Swindon is not in ‘the M4 corridor in Wales’.

But as the day progressed, the Welsh border seemed to creep ever eastwards. First there was a tweet from Brunel fm.

Swindon is to become a hub for hydrogen technology research after a government cash boost – the M4’s to become a ‘hydrogen highway’.

Which is correct, if a little misleading, as mention of the ‘hydrogen highway’ being restricted to Wales has gone. Next it was the turn of the government’s representative in south Swindon, Ms Snelgrove.

According to today’s announcement from the Government, in partnership with the South West Regional Development agency, the new Low Carbon Economic Area (LCEA) will stretch through South Wales and across the South West.

Err… no. The announcement of an LCEA for South West England was made on 15 July 2009. Nice to see that the old habit or reannouncing old news as new is alive and well in government circles. Finally came Swindonweb with a version of the story of which the politicians would be proud with the ‘hydrogen highway’ extending all the way to Swindon.

The M4 motorway from junction 15 to South Wales is to become Britain’s first ‘hydrogen highway’, with strategically placed refuelling points along the route for hydrogen fuelled and electric cars.

Someone refill that car with two gallons of electricity please! South Wales is nearer than we think….

I don’t wish to appear churlish about Swindon Borough Council achieving a low council tax increase for the coming year but… if they can achieve an increase of just 1.8% following a year when the council’s other revenues (such as planning application fees) have collapsed, just why haven’t they achieved it before? Or perhaps it would be more pertinent to ask why they haven’t felt it appropriate to achieve such a small increase before. In principle, it should have been possible for them to achieve this level of increase in previous years putting far less strain on service provision, as the council’s finances were in a better state.

To go for broke — possibly literally — this year looks like little more than reckless pre general election posturing rather than carefully thought out financial planning.

With so little known about the companies behind the wireless internet scheme that Swindon Borough Council has put almost £½M of our money into, I’ve been doing a little investigation into the companies and the people running them. This isn’t going to be the most thrilling read, but there’s some information here that’s relevant to understanding the wisdom — or lack thereof — in spending public money on this wi-fi adventure.

Avidity Consulting Limited (registered no. 06990825) and Digital City (UK) Limited (registered no. 06990831) were both incorporated 14 August 2009 as DM 55 Limited and DM 56 Limited respectively, apparently as ‘off the shelf’ companies. Both changed to their current names on 18 September 2009 and one John Richard Hunt became a director on 21 September 2009 and 22 September 2009 respectively. Hitesh Kumar Patel became a director of Digital City (UK) Ltd on 26 September 2009. You may recognise that last named person as one of the authors of the Cabinet Member Briefing Note dated 12 October 2009 that recommended that Swindon Borough Council provide a loan of £450k to the company. There’s little to add about the facts of Mr Hunt’s record that he hasn’t said in public himself, though there are a few that seem to have slipped his memory.

The history of aQovia UK Limited (registered no. 06846037) is a little harder to follow. According to the company’s website it was founded in January 2008, which is the month after their internet address was registered. Companies House shows the company as having been incorporated on 13 March 2009 and that it has yet to file accounts. The company states that its managing director and founder is Muhammad Malik. Doug Berman is described as ‘a key member of the aQovia advisory committee’ though it seems less key to him as aQovia is without mention on his own recently updated profile. He appears to have experience of the wireless networking industry going back to 2002.

Mr Mustafa Arif became a director of aQovia UK Ltd on 16 September 2009 and has, apparently, also been a director of Digital City (UK) Ltd since September 2009. According to aQovia’s website he ‘has ten years experience of the telecoms and IT industries.’ However, for much of the last ten years — 1999 to 2003 and 2005 to 2007 — Mr Arif was a student. Whilst his studies were in topics (Information Systems Engineering, and Spacecraft Technology & Satellite Communications) of some relevance to his current role, time as a student is probably not what most people have in mind as ‘experience’ when reading the profile of a director. In the intervening two years Mr Arif was president of Imperial College students union or, as Mr Arif modestly describes it, ‘effective CEO of a £6 m+ turnover organisation.’ It seems that until 2007 Mr Arif’s ‘experience of the telecoms and IT industries’ was limited to his studies and a string of vacation jobs.

It is in such… err… experienced hands that almost £½M of Swindon tax-payers money has been entrusted.

If I were someone who’d chosen, on the basis on minimal consultation, to stump-up almost £½M of local taxpayers’ money to the company intending to install wireless internet boroughwide across Swindon, I’d be feeling a little worried reading that company’s February update.

Things aren’t going according to plan. Just six weeks ago installation in Highworth was expected to be complete by mid-January. It’s now early February and work is still in progress.

[T]he installation in Highworth has not gone to plan. There are several reasons for this – topography, approvals and snow to name a few…. We have also had areas where there were no suitable lampposts and no public buildings to substitute. We have in the High Street spoken to retail businesses and begun to cover our black spots and hope to complete around the 15th.

Now I’m not aware of the approvals process for radio transmitters having changed in recent months. Nor have I seen reports of a mountain suddenly springing up in the middle of Highworth, nor of buildings and lampposts disappearing overnight. None of these could be regarded as unpredictable, and cold weather in winter is not a total surprise either.

Not only is the hardware side a bit awry, the marketing seems to have been off-target too.

Customer response in the main remains positive but we know we have frustrated many because we went live with the PR before we were ready, as a result are always playing catch up…. The following is our initial plan. In Highworth, from the end of February, we will carry out a leaflet drop, display window posters and place an advertisement in a community magazine. We will also be placing adverts for the free service (not yet designed) in as many public places as we will be allowed.

If they don’t know what the adverts will be nor where they will go, that’s more an initial guess than an ‘initial plan’.

To be fair, no start-up company will be anywhere near perfect: start-ups make mistakes… lots of them. And the openness with which the company is now talking about its progress is welcome. If this was all being done with private capital, whilst I might have a little fun at the company apparently being caught unawares by the presence of hills in the landscape, I wouldn’t be overly concerned. But this isn’t being done just with private capital.

There’s almost £½M of local taxpayers’ money invested in this. Taxpayers money invested in secret. Taxpayers money invested on the basis of a business case only a select few in the council have seen. A business for which the briefing to two councillors said marketing was key. If the business case was truly robust enough to warrant stumping up £450k of local taxpayers’ money, I wouldn’t expect things to be so far off plan as they are now.

With work on Thomas Homes’ Smith’s Quarter development resumed, it’s sad to see the majority of what was left of the traverser in the former GWR works ripped up. All that remains is the bare minimum that is needed to serve STEAM museum.

It’s been brought to my attention that Mr Bluh’s been defending and promoting the efficacy of his not-so-little wifi deal. At a meeting of Swindon Borough Council’s Scrutiny Committee he almost showed a little humility. Almost.

He acknowledged the significant level of debate on the subject of the proposal to deliver a Wi-Fi network across the borough, particularly in relation to the decision-making process in reaching an agreement with Digital City (UK) Ltd

It would be rather shocking if he’d not noticed the very extensive debate.

He welcomed debate on how best to resolve issues of process that will allow the Council to take advantage of similar commercial opportunities that might arise in the future

As the evidence that this will be an opportunity rather than a liability has not been made public, I’d rather processes were in place to ensure secretive deals like this weren’t done in future.

[He] stated his certainty that the Wi-Fi network would prove to be a great success, one that would not only produce a financial return that would underpin service delivery for the benefit of residents, but one which presented an exciting commercial opportunity for private and public sector businesses and organisations in Swindon.

And why should I or anyone else in Swindon trust the business judgement of a politician and has-been lawyer? As it seems this decision was made in secret by no more than five people there’s clearly not a lot of trust around.

It was therefore essential, he felt, that the Council was prepared and able to pursue viable commercial opportunities, such as the Wi-Fi network, as they presented themselves.

A new internet provider in one of the best connected towns in the country doesn’t sound like the most sure-fire winner to me.

[H]e agreed that more openness generally was to be welcomed but he maintained that, if the proposal had been debated in an open forum, the “deal would not have happened”.

One of the purposes of open debate is to ensure that certain deals don’t happen. Nobody beyond a select few has been allowed to scrutinise the information that would allow them to form their own view as to whether this was a deal that should have happened.

He was aware of concerns about the decision making process and assured the Committee that the process would be reviewed.

And what happens if the review shows the process was flawed? Will Mr Bluh personally stump-up the almost £½M that has been gambled on the three start-up companies providing the wifi service?

However, he remained convinced that the proposal, which he was sure would be to the benefit of the council and its residents, could not have been successfully concluded if it had been made public any sooner than it was.

But it’s not really public even now. We have no detail of the basis on which Mr Bluh and associates made this decision — it remains a secret deal.

Councillor Bluh assured the meeting that the Council would not be required to make any further financial commitment to the Wi-Fi scheme beyond the initial £450k loan.

The council had no commitment to make the initial £450k loan, but a select band decided that it should. Why should we believe that if the company came back begging for more money, Mr Bluh wouldn’t choose — in secret — to stump-up yet more of our money?

Many questions have been asked so far about this deal. Some questions about the process by which this decision was made raise serious issues. Mr Bluh’s answer to almost all of them seems to be ‘Trust me, I know best.’ Until he provides more informative answers the scrutiny should continue.

Swindon Borough Council recently suggested that if the owner doesn’t do some basic maintenance of the Mechanics Institute building within the next three months they may compulsorily purchase it. According to Mr Singh in his latest tirade against against the council,

the south side of the building is complete.

Mr Singh clearly has a rather draughty and scaffolding-clad view of ‘complete’.


As for the remainder of the building, it’s condition is deplorable.

As Mr Singh now says he is accepting offers, perhaps an organisation with the funds and experience to restore this neglecting building will express an interest. In many ways, it could be an ideal public venue to compliment the nearby headquarters of the National Trust.

It seems to be just once a year that Mr Singh — owner of the GWR Mechanics Institute building — appears from his self-imposed inactivity to claim a little publicity for his newest far-fetched plans for the building. The story is always the same: how he’s done so much to maintain the buildings; how great his newest plans for the building are; and how Swindon Borough Council and English Heritage are obstructing him. This year is no exception.

The way the council is talking it’s like I’ve abandoned it completely. People would be amazed if they could see what is actually going on inside.

So poor is the state of the building now that it’s actually possible to see rather a lot of the inside whilst standing outside. All I see going on inside is more decay.

It really is time Mr Singh understood that if the council is blocking his plans, it’s because that’s what the planning regulations say they should be doing. And if Mr Singh isn’t prepared to abide by the development control laws in this country, then he shouldn’t be in the property development business.