Recently released user numbers for the White Elephant Enclosure reveal that the Smalltown Permanent Arts Manager (SPAM), Susie Cookbook, has taken a leaf out of the previous Smalltown Culture and Arts Manager’s book.
Famed for using a counting system designed to make the WEE look good by exaggerating all figures the SCAM often talked in terms of percentage rather than actual numbers, so one extra person joining the Hurling Club would translate to a 25% increase in users.
Similarly the number of attendees at a weekly meeting would be multiplied by the number of weeks they attended to give an inflated view of the numbers. It is this tradition which has been continued.
Therefore user numbers for the three community groups which met at the WEE during the period 26th September to 14th November are quoted as a total of 239 people, which in itself is p1ss poor. However, it should be noted that these figures cover a seven week period and this is not the number of users per week as each user has actually been counted seven times. To arrive at the correct number of users the 239 figure needs to be divided by seven and then the true figure of 34 community users per week is revealed.
Thus Smalltown and Dullbridge residents are paying £1 from every £5 of Council Tax payments to subsidise the WEE for community use by only 0.17 percent of the community.
With hourly hire charges of £35 per hour for commercial use and community hire rates considerably lower, it is barely worth opening the WEE doors for a mere three community groups per week, all of which could easily be accommodated in any one of the other community facilities in Smalltown and Dullbridge. Does the WEE really fulfill its oft-quoted title as a community facility?