Council to buy T&A for Â£4m?

Wed, 28/02/2007 - 15:20 — Baht At

OK it's actually only the building but the T&A couldn't get more supine in its reporting of council affairs if it were owned by them. As the budget extract shows there seems to have been a rather interesting development on the T&A forum where allegations have been made about the ethics of the T&A in its support for the council by a poster "odeon crusader"

I have discovered some very important news from my sources... this is explosive news indeed! I also expect this posting to be removed for that very reason...

You may remember that about a year ago the T&A reported that St George's Hall was to be revamped and extended... The decision to jazz up St George's Hall rather than the Odeon - or even build a brand new concert venue from scratch - was made by a panel of theatre "experts" on a steering group that had apparently looked at all of the options.

Among the nameless persons on that panel of "experts" was the (recently departed) BCR director Marc Cole and the editor of the T&A, Mr Perry Austin-Clarke... And how was St George's Hall to be extended? The answer, of course, lies next door in the form of the T&A building.

No wonder the editorial stance of the T&A has been feverishly in favour of demolition of the Odeon!!!

It gets more interesting...

A Bradford Council budget report for the next 12 months has been leaked to interested parties within this budget proposal is a section that states:

"The capital required by BCR from BMDC (Bradford Metropolitan District Council) in the 2007/08 finacial year has been calculated as follows:"

There are five BCR projects highlighted, including...

"Acquire T&A building for Concert Hall project - Â£4M"

That is four million pounds of Bradford Council cash = four million pounds that Bradford taxpayers have poured into their coffers!

I would greatly dispute that the T&A building is worth four million quid and so I suggest that this over-inflated monetary bid actually includes a reward for the T&A's unquestioning and unflinching support of BCR and its plan to demolish the Odeon.

These budget proposals are due to be discussed within a full council meeting tomorrow in City Hall...

I am told that the editor of the T&A has more ethics than that! A copy of the relevant extract from the budget can be accessed by clicking on the image above/below. Proof of old Allegro-Hushpuppy's involvement Here. No doubt like many other businesses the T&A would be able to find alternate premises in Leeds.

With a little luck there will also be a pdf file of another Bradford Council bit of paper (heavily censored because they don't want to tell you who they are bribing or something equally commerically sensitive) available as a link from this item. Or by clicking here this is about 3mb in size though. I would point out that there is something a little odd here in that the company mention Bonner Keenlyside Ltd doesn't appear to exist or ever have existed, it might however be Bonnar Keenlyside Ltd of Fife ... now who else in the Bradford redevelopment mafia do we know who is from Scotland? Regretably the company website is still underdevelopment and tries to conceal its location behind a London PO Box.

Fripperaria

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Comments

Fri, 02/03/2007 - 21:26 — Pink Demon

Nice post

Exactly the kind of thing you'd expect to see in a local newspaper if the paper wasn't;
A) In on the deal and
B) ravaged to the bone by cut after cut to editorial resources despite having a level of profitability that most firms in Bradford - or anywhere else - would kill for

More on Newsquest, the rapacious American-owned firm behind the T&A, at my blog www.newsquestwatch.blogspot.com/ - I've also followed up your post - what exactly is Newsquest planning to do with the loot?

The Devil's Own Blog From God's Own County

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