Just seen this ! Grateful if anyone trying to send messages to the
group would use Yorkhall@... address as I seldom use
mark_yorkhall@....

Thanks Mark



From: "John Griffiths" <johngriffiths@...>
Dear all

The draft report of the Consutltative Group on the future of the
York Hall was due out this week. Unfortunately, owing to the
Council's ongoing negotiations with the two final short-listed
bidders for the new leisure contract they are are unable to release
the report at this time. (For those who are interseted I have
protested against this decision - see below - the community reps on
the Group were not even allowed to take a copy to read in private.
Fortunately the Council looks as though it will relent on this!)

However, what this means is that the consultation meeting with the
York Hall Users Group which was scheduled for next Tuesday 14th
October will not now take place until mid/late November (I will
notify you and publicise the date in the next few days).

Copies of the final report will be publicly available (I hope also
electronically - if only an executive summary) from 10th November
once the "best and final offers" from the tenderers for the leisure
service contract are in (these plans and offers include the future
running of York Hall which the Consultative Group has discussed with
the shortlisted bidders).

An open public meeting along similar lines to the meeting we held
back in July will now take place in early December and complete the
consultation process. The Report along with a recommendation of the
company to run leisure services in the Borough for the next 10 years
will be made to the Cabinet and the Full Council in February.

Sorry for the delay which is entirely out of our control. We will
be sure to give plenty of notice of the dates of meetings coming up
and to make the Report available once the contracting process is
complete.

Many thanks!
JOhn

Cllr. John Griffiths
(Bethnal Green North Ward)
134 Old Ford Road
London E2 9PW

T. 020 8980 2814
M. 07887 643980
E. johngriffiths@...






----- Original Message -----
From: John Griffiths
To: Ray Gerlach
Cc: Paul Martindill ; Robert Ebdon
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2003 12:24 AM
Subject: York Hall


Dear Ray

Following the meeting of the York Hall Consultative Group last
evening, I am writing to you to protest against the decision to
withhold the draft report and also at the way in which the Council
is treating the Community Representatives on this Group. As you
know, several representatives of the local community and users of
York Hall have voluntarily given up hours of their time over the
summer and early autumn to partake in the work of the Group. Last
nights meeting was our 12th!

The decision not to release the draft report to the representatives
on this Group is ill considered and does a disservice to all those
who, in good faith, entered into this process and have given up
their time to work on this project alongside the paid
professionals. I can understand the reason why, following legal
advice, you do not want certain information in the Report to be
publicised at this time given that we are at a particularly
sensitive point in the process of recontracting the Council's
Leisure Services. However, yesterday's meeting again left me
exasperated by the Council's secrecy and there are a number of
questions which I would be grateful if you could address at your
earliest convenience:

1. Why was it only on the 6th October that the Council realised that
releasing the York Hall Report might be problematic given the
ongoing contracting/negotiations? You have known for weeks that
these two processes have been running in parallel. Each of the
Consultative Group reps had already lined up meetings (the Sports
Council was due to meet tomorrow!) with their various
constituency /community /user groups. These now have to be postponed
and rearranged. This is an unnecessary hassle; worse it immediately
raises people's suspicions again about the whole process; it gives
the perception (however unfounded) that you are hiding information.
You only have to look back and learn from the experience of having
withheld the original Hillier Parker Report to know what damage and
ill feeling this approach can create.

2. I have argued all along (an argument that I thought I was winning
given the success of the Save York Hall Campaign) that the Council
should look on the community and users of York Hall as an invaluable
asset - a source of ideas, enthusiasm and experience which they
could bring to this project. Suppressing information (however
commercially sensitive it might be) immediately creates barriers
between the professionals and the people; it also gives the
community the impression that it has second-class status. Surely
this report could have been released with the commercially
confidential information ommitted at this stage? I know that we
have now re-scheduled the community consultations and public meeting
for after the deadline for Best and Final Offers from potential
contractors, however, we have already told our various networks and
constituents that the Report is due out this week!

3. Most frustrating and insulting of all is the way the Council is
treating the community reps on the Group. I would like to point out
that when we agreed to join this Group, CM Parker Brown produced
Terms of Reference and a Project Execution Plan which impressed upon
all members the need for confidentiality and probity. The way the
Report was produced yesterday, but then not released for Group
members to read and digest in private smacked of paranoia. It was
also very insulting. If you want these sorts of community
consultation exercises to work you have to trust people to work with
you.

I would be grateful if you would reconsider the decision to withhold
this report from community members of the Consultative Group. It
should be possible to release at least a controlled number of
copies - one to each member of the Group so that we can read and
digest the report at our leisure and begin to prepare for the final
phase of community consultations.

I look forward to your reponse.

Thank you

Cllr. John Griffiths
(Bethnal Green North Ward)
134 Old Ford Road
London E2 9PW

T. 020 8980 2814
M. 07887 643980
E. johngriffiths@...