Some notes from the SSCF board meeting yesterday…

We’re still in a position where we’ve got to spend the investment before the end of the year – otherwise it’s taken back by the government. We’re getting there and we should be ok on the capital cash now. It seems that the revenue (wages) money is going to be difficult because we end up in a position where we have to spend nearly a year’s worth of revenue in the last quarter of the year.

This is honestly the most ridiculous way of running investment in a community. I’ve said before that Chris Skinkis is doing a great job locally to line everything up, but to be given four months or so to spend twelve months of cash – or it goes back to the government – is lunacy. We should never have been put in this position in the first place, and it’s down to the rules of the investment and local delaying that has left us here.

Still, there are projects in the pipeline from the police and possibly for some CCTV which will take the rest of the cash – but I don’t think that many of the people on the board are terribly happy with it.

We ought to be putting in the plans for next year’s spend now… but because we’re chasing our tail to sort out this year’s spend we aren’t getting a chance to lift our heads and look forward.

Other things to note were further discussions about CCTV and where any new paths and cycle lanes should be built.

Hopefully this will settle down in the new year.