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Friday March 27, 2015
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No. 678
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SOMETHING FISHY GOING ON... Cops called over report of missing equipment worth £2.1 MILLION as Heckmondwike project folds By David Miller News Reporter davidmiller@thepressnews.co.uk
POLICE have been alerted over claims that more than two million pounds of goods may have gone missing from a Kirklees-funded regeneration scheme. It is alleged that equipment and scrap metal valued at £2.1m has disappeared from the ABLE2 regeneration project off Smithies Lane in Heckmondwike, over a number of years. Apart from the police being alerted, council chiefs have been asked to investigate where £1.25m of public money, awarded to ABLE2, has gone. The controversies erupted after it was revealed the job creation scheme – that could have seen caviar harvested in Heckmondwike – has collapsed. Coun Martyn Bolt (Con, Mirfield)
reported details to Kirklees Police chief Supt Tim Kingsman on Monday after receiving a tip-off. He then called a national fraud hotline before raising the issue at a council cabinet meeting the next day. Coun Bolt said: “I received an email which made a number of allegations, including the loss of £2.1m of equipment and scrap metal. “The only right and proper thing to do was pass this information on to the police.” He raised both matters with the cabinet on Tuesday, who subsequently approved a further £50,000 investment to complete ongoing work. This will complete a fishing lake which will be used by the Dewsbury and District Junior Angling Club. Council leader David Sheard (Lab, Heckmondwike) said: “I’m sorry ABLE2 is folding. “But I’m also thankful of the successes it’s had in helping young people with problems over the years
and that a derelict site is now a well-stocked lake.” He added: “I’m frustrated the fish farm was scuppered by (Secretary of State) Eric Pickles overturning a planning inspector’s decision.” Coun Bolt has now asked for an audit similar to the Muslim Mosque Burial Committee affair to see where the money went. In that instance the council found its own officers had systematically failed to collect fees or implement lease terms with private individuals running the Muslim cemetery in Dewsbury, including Labour councillor Abdul Patel (Dewsbury South). Council taxpayers were left tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket. Of the current situation, Coun Bolt said: “You need to know if any mistakes have been made and make sure they don’t happen again.” The full ABLE2 project would have brought a fish farm, bee keeping and horticulture projects to land bordering Dewsbury Moor and Ravensthorpe.
It was aimed at getting disadvantaged young people into jobs and involved the Calderdale and Kirklees Green Business Network, a publicly-funded quango. Coun Bolt said: “If the council chooses to do something now it will only be a rearguard action, seeing as they could’ve acted at the meeting but didn’t. “But it’s not me they have to worry about. It’s the public’s faith in their ability to deliver on major projects that should concern them. We’ve had the Local Development Framework, Building Schools for the Future and now this.” West Yorkshire Police had not responded by our deadline as to whether or not they had launched an investigation. A spokesman for the Green Business Network in Walkley Lane, Heckmondwike, refused to comment and referred us to Kirklees Council’s press office. A council spokeswoman said: “The council’s cabinet meeting in
Coun Mehboob Khan, former leader of Kirklees Council, dug the first sod on the ABLE2 scheme October 2009 allocated funding of £1.25m to the scheme. “This has been used to reclaim a long-derelict site compromising former railway sidings/embankments and a landfill site to establish a lake and associated eco drainage system. “It did not prove possible to produce a viable business model for commercial fish farming on the site as originally envisaged. “During the construction phase the works together with various research and prototype activities took place. “This included the creation of a replica rail coach to reflect the historic railway connections. “These activities created a number of job, training and apprentice opportunities for local disadvantaged young people, many of whom have since gone on to find alternative employment.”