Castle Bromwich Community Website

Why are the offices at Arden Hall only open for fours hours a day, Monday to Friday?

How can the Clerk of the Parish Council justify this?

Closed doors, mean no bookings.

No bookings means no income.

No income, and wages to be paid, means more tax money from us , the residents.

More demands for money from us, means that Arden Hall is a drain on rescources.............mine and your  rescources.

Close the doors for good, or open the doors for longer hours.

It is a white elephant, no one can deny that.

Before any points out that the table top sales are well attended, that income goes to the Chairmans Charity Fund, and on to Castle Bromwich Hall and Gardens, in part. ( A thriving business, open seven days a week)

Colin, are you and Heatproof one and the same person? He posted this comment in the "other" Castle Bromwich website two days ago also:-

Arden Hall, is where we, the tax payers, hope to recoup some of the money we are charged for to keep it open.

How can a business, ( and it must be seen as a business) hope to generate any money, if the offices are only open for four hours a day, five days of the week?

The staff levels have never been higher than they are at present.

Overheads fall on us, the residents of Castle Bromwich. £54.64 per band D household.

Arden Hall is a truely white elephant.

Talk about a soft job? Employees of Arden Hall have it down to a fine art.

Twenty hours a week, if they turn up at all.

Now my wager is that I dont get a reply to this note from any Arden Hall employee.

This was my reply to him:-

First of all Heatproof, how do you hope to recoup some of your money from Arden Hall? If you wish to use the facilities Arden Hall provides you have to pay for them. Admittedly Castle Bromwich residents get a discount on the hire charges.

Secondly, how can you expect the offices to be open for eight hours a day for the occasional resident to pop in to make a booking etc. I have made several bookings to use Arden Hall over the years and when I've gone there I have never seen a queue of people lined up doing likewise.

The majority of the employees are part time. If you wanted it staffed full time it would cost tax payers a lot more than £54.64. I think the opening hours are perfectly adequate for purpose. I also believe the precept we pay is good value for the Arden Hall facilities and for the parish council to maintain the various locations in the parish, Whateley Green, The Village Green and War Memorial, Bradford Gardens and Hob Farm open space.

If you don't agree you can always take your own advice and attend the Parish Council meeting to voice your opinions.

I am NOT an Arden Hall employee.

Let's see some figures then. One of you show me that it is worthless, the other show me it is cost effective. No rhetoric just hard facts. I went to a Castle Brom Parish Meeting some time ago and I was appalled by the standard and this website is full of the same sort of small minded crap that is everyone in this largely wealthy borough. I've not been to any other Parish Meetings elsewhere so I cannot compare, but it made 'The Vicar of Dibley's parish meetings seem like PM's Question Time. I stopped drinking Castle Bromwch tap water for good after the meeting lest I succumb to the same retardation that seemed to blight the panel.

Just to clarify a few issues. Castle Bromwich Parish Council employs a FullTime Clerk , a part-time Assistant Clerk and a part-time Book Keeper to run the administration of Arden Hall. In addition, there is an Assistant who allocates their time between the Hall Administration & the Council Administration.

There is also a Hall Manager, Assistant Hall Managers and staff employed as cleaners and bar staff employed as and when required. This relates to ArdenHall only. The Facilities in the Park are over-seen by Park Wardens who are employed in addition to these.

I therefore think it is entirely reasonable for the public to have access to the Parish Council Clerk either in person or by phone at times other than between 9am and 1pm, after-all not everyone is able to use these hours to make contact., especially as they are within normal working times.

In terms of booking Arden Hall, I think in this day and age, it is unreasonable to expect people to book in person and during restricted hours,although, I accept that extending the hours that the Hall Manager is available to take bookings would have cost implications. I personally feel that there should be an online booking facility and this has been raised in Council and dismissed.

Facts and figures for you to judge value for money for yourself.

When first built - Arden Hall was a profitable operation and not only covered its operating costs but made a contribution towards other facilities which kept the precept low. This has not been the case for many years. However, the amount of money that is used from the precept to cover the losses made by Arden Hall is still increasing. In 2008/2009 it lost £63, 161 which meant that 30% of the precept was used to subsidise Arden Hall. This does not include the cost of the Parish Council Administrative Staff only the wages directly involved in running Arden Hall. Nor does it cover the cost of running and staffing the playing fields.

How does this compare with previous years.

2003/2004 - Operating Deficit £9, 818 % of Precept 8%

2004/2005 - Operating Deficit £39,651 % of Precept 33%

2005/2006 - Operating Deficit £27,022 % of Precept 17%

2006/2007 - Operating Deficit£30, 561 % of Precept 23%

2007/2008 - Operating Deficit £30,762 % of Precept 15%

2008/2009 - Operating Deficit £63161 % of Precept 30%

I suppose it is a matter of opinion as to whether or not this represents value for money and whether or not the facilities should be subsidised from the precept to this extent. I would query whether or not the subsidy is meeting a social need and if not why is the precept payer subsidising it? If it is, could that social need be fulfilled cheaper in any other form?

The above reply only serves to reinforce my long held belief, that at present, and in all the last seven  preceding years, Arden Hall, under the present mis management, is a white elephant.

What I term as a bucket with a hole in it.....a drain on tax payers money.

This "problem", (and it is a problem) needs to be seriously addressed, before it gets worse to the point of an investigation by SMBC.

Anyone listening?