Smalltown resident Tiny Timham, famous locally for being called ‘silly‘ by Squire Teflon after Mr Timham previously criticised the amount of council tax money spent on the White Elephant Enclosure, has once again criticised Smalltown and Dullbridge Town Council.
Addressing councillors at Monday’s SaDTC Full Council Committee meeting held at the Hayloft Road Palace Retirement Home for Bemused and Bewildered BeFuddled Party ex-Teachers( and Others) Mr Timham said “It is over two years since I last brought the horrendous losses incurred by the White Elephant Enclosure to this Council’s attention. At that time Squire Teflon told me that I didn’t have the faintest idea what I was talking about. He said that the place wasn’t losing money and was a roaring success and now I find myself once again having to tell you all that it really isn’t.
The financial numbers for the WEE are horrendous given the low income and high running costs. The place has never and will never turn a profit and every year it costs us all more. This year you are having to increase our council tax precept by 7% to pay for it.
That seven per cent increase in our Council Tax rates will be one of the highest increases in Somerset. In an area that regularly appears in lists of the top ten deprived areas. Not even the All-New-Yet-Unimproved Somerset Cuonty Council can beat that.
You need some ideas. You can’t keep repeating the mistakes of the past. You should really look at selling off Hayloft Road Palace. How much can you continue to spend on doing it up?
You’ve already had big bills for the roof last year and in previous years and the toilets, and the heating system, and the windows, and bricking up doors, and a kitchen refurbishment. The bills are going on and on. And instead of using the facility you spend more money on hiring schools to hold meetings and workshops. What’s the point of having the place if you don’t use it?
I suggest you need a vision. I know that previous town council visions have seen you waste even more money on things like the ice rink and the town sign, so we don’t need any more of those visions, but a vision that could cut costs would be good.
I would strongly urge you get an Estate Agent in to Hayloft Road Palace to find out how much it is worth and then sell the place to the highest bidder. Many people have been saying the same thing for many, many years and yet no one does anything about it.
How much longer do we residents have to go on paying for SaDTC’s incompetence and inertia?”
Later in the meeting, Cllr Banish Barracuda who is Head of Mathematics and chair of the Town Council’s Finance and Misappropriation Committee, said “Tiny’s suggestions are worthy of consideration and we will make a note of what he has said and file it under ‘No Action Required’.”