The leaders of a local award-winning community project have severely criticised interference to their autonomy by a group falsely claiming to represent their interests.
Community recycling charity Bridport TLC and the voluntarily-run indoor skate-park, The Trick Factory, have had their current premises nominated to a register which could affect both of their activities. They are concerned that the nominations by a property group, Enterprise St. Michaels (ESM), to limit their use through new ‘Assets of Community Value’ legislation is using them as pawns in attempts to frustrate development of St. Michaels Trading Estate.
The Trustees of Bridport TLC have submitted a detailed response to WDDC highlighting the lack of any consultation and numerous misleading details about their charity. Trustee Jude Hopkins could not believe what she was reading when she saw the nomination form; “It was clear that they had just copied and pasted information from our website and added incorrect information to suit their purposes. It felt like we had been hijacked and were not in control or responsible for all our years of community activities.”
The Charity also highlighted the lack of knowledge and contradictions of Cllr Ros Kayes and her fellow ESM directors in making their application, in particular the fact that the Scrapstore building has no disabled access (a legal requirement after three years for a charitable group) which makes the building unsuitable for the nominated purpose. This raises the lack of any consultation, and the “ignorance of people who have absolutely no history of any involvement in Bridport TLC”, suggesting that the move is both an insidious attempt to gain credibility by association with the much-valued community groups and to manipulate support for their own vested interests.
Bridport TLC Founder and Director, Leon Edwards, questioned ESM motives, pointing out that “We have absolutely NO connections or association with this nominating group. We find it very surprising that they should suddenly take an interest in us when they have previously displayed nothing but animosity. Their implausible proposals to secure St. Michaels Trading Estate for their own purposes have not previously shown any recognition or our organisation; in fact all their plans show Bridport TLC as completely ‘disappeared’!
“We suspect that the good name of our award-winning charity is being used and manipulated to imply that two popular, well-respected community groups – Bridport TLC and The Trick Factory – support the credibility of the nominees who have their own variety of self-interests. There has already been what we see as cynical and misleading local Press giving this impression from a local councillor [Ros Kayes] and it is not implausible to suggest that, through these nominations, there is also political motivation behind them, recognising in particular the current local elections.”
If granted, the nomination by ESM means that they, and not Bridport TLC or The Trick Factory, have first option on buying the buildings if the landlord chooses to sell them, although Haywards & Co have made repeated public statements affirming that they have no intention to sell any part of the Estate. Bridport TLC Chairman Charles Fuge says “We have a very good relationship with our landlords” adding “We deplore what is clearly a cynical and manipulative move by the nominating group to try and associate the respect and integrity that we hold within our community with their fanciful self-interests. They can make no such claims to be acting in our interest when they have deliberately distracted us from our work with these ridiculous nominations. We are sure that the relevant legislation was not intended to allow this and if there is a loophole which enables falsely-motivated nominations then perhaps that needs to be rectified.
