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Taxpayers’ cash for Public staff to knit
Monday 19th January 2009, 11:29AM GMT.
Staff at troubled West Bromwich arts centre The Public have taken up knitting – at taxpayers’ expense.
Bosses say classes are a “vital” part of activities and organised sessions so assistants can help at workshops.
Today Councillor Mary Docker, Tory representative for Blackheath, said: “This is unbelievable – whose decision was it to fund this? Bosses should be addressing the big problems that this building has – rather than teaching their staff to knit.”
The centre is still not fully open more than six months after being launched. Technical problems are blamed for delayed opening of the Public Gallery in the £63million building. Despite this many of the full compliment of staff did funded sessions including photography, animation and craft-making.
The Public Gallery Ltd spent more than £700,000 on staffing and running costs between November 2006 and March 2008, as well as a total of £372,521 on wages, £106,521 on artists costs and £28,901 on travel, subsistence and hospitality.
The Public spokesperson Michelle Simpson said: “In October last year the gallery’s visitor assistants undertook a series of craft and training exercises in preparation for the many family and school workshops that took place at half term.
“ These sessions included a range of hands-on craft and making activities including knitting, assemblage, photography, stop frame animation, MAC publishing, to name a few.” This enabled assistants to assist the Learning team in delivering first-class educational workshops and activities, she said.
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Only with The Public isthis tale believable. Nothing suprises me anymore about it.
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Knock it down and build affordable houses.
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What is wrong with this? They were probably on a break on the occasion when they were seen.
Isn’t knitting a form of art anyway? Surely there can’t be objections to people knitting in preparation for workshops.
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CRB, nearly £70 million and they are knitting ,give us something we need , im voting con next time defo !!!!
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Dudley is bad enough and its at times like this I am glad that I live in Dudley.
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No 4-You think who you vote for would make any difference to the out come of any council projects? They will spend our money on what they want and when they want whoever they are in power.
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Shut it down and make it a sports complex.
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Shut it down, knock it down and get a new football team for west brom to be proud of in there!
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This has been a disgraceful waste of tax payers money in one of the poorest Authorities in the country. The money would have been better spent on providing interesting activities for teenagers or as has been suggested an olympic sized swimming pool.
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Knock it down.What a waste,and it looks horrible!
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Close the place down. Waste of money.
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First I don’t agree with comments they are all the same, and they are all to blame, they are not to blame, they will do what the council electorate allows them to do.
Yes they are irresponsible, yes they are ripping us off, yes they should all be sacked but don’t blame them.
I often contact the council to complain about things that are not right, I often write to the letters page in the Chronicle, the lack of letters in support of my Chronicle letters tells me either I am in the wrong, or there is totally apathy running among other residents in the borough.
If its apathy don’t you think that the council leaders are fully aware of this, don’t you think this is why they are laughing all the way to the bank?
Stop blaming others for the results of your apathy.
Jim of Bearwood.
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Paid for knitting. wha? My god its strength through joy division.
I must remember that it`s crying on the inside and laughing on the outside…… Not the other way round!
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£63 million quid for a knitting school you could not make it up close it down till its complete which i think will be the twelth of never i hope i am going to be told in my next council tax bill what this is costing me every year what a waste of money councilors are keeping very quiet about this white elephant
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Just another example of Sandwells incompetence.
Same Council that literally just threw away £200,000 worth of brand new CCTV equipment on the advice of a £70,000 a year outside consultant that only works for Sandwell for 2 days a week. And guess what, like the idiots that run the Public, neither the consultant or the manager from Sandwell Homes that agreed to throw the equipment down the drain actually live in Sandwell, so what do any of them care, it’s not their money.
Sandwell Council and the “spin off” Sandwell Homes are the most incompetent bunch that have ever been allowed to run anything, they are both full of unelected idiots that, contrary to what you may believe, have way more power than the elected Councillors. If either Sandwell Council or Sandwell Homes was a private business, 99% of the management would have been sacked long ago. How do I know? Simple, I work for them and see the blatant waste and costly in fighting every day.The budgets are managed by Department heads that are scared to say boo to a goose and more money is spent each year on “diversity training” than goes in to running the security for it’s residents.
The consistently bring in outsiders (i.e. none Sandwell residents) to tell them what to do with the money, as was the case with the Public and the CCTV system and then blindly follow their orders with no consultation whatsoever with the voters and, usually, with no consultation or intervention from the so called representatives called Councillors.
Don’t think for a second that Sandwell is a Democracy or that councillors have any power, because trust me, I have seen it from the inside and the Councillors have about as much clout as a wet puppy.
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Rights for knitters! I know..let’s spend ridiculous amounts on money on an exhibition to emphasise struggles faced by this and other, minority groups. Sounds like good value to me.
Yours sincerely, an insane person who feels right at home in Sandwell.
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