Tales from the River Bank.

Part 1 The contract that wasn’t

This is a story which our local paper should have dug deep to find. Instead, the investigating has been left to outraged local residents – outraged because they have watched the council declare the need for cuts, while allowing shameful procedures to go ahead, with money thrown away on what dubious contracts. Since it is a very long story, and I have other projects I should be working on, i will put it up in instalments.  Here’s the first.

In March last year, David Lawrence, the then divisional director, tourism, leisure and culture, announced that he had made a contract with a company which was stated to be Bath Boating Limited, to run the moorings.  No such company existed then or has ever existed. The first essential of a contract is that the names and addresses of all the contracting parties should be clearly stated. Therefore, the contract is invalid.  It’s basic O-level law.  The council’s legal department seems to be having trouble with this simple concept.

The reason for the contract was also very dubious. Allegedly, the system under which Aquaterra was collecting the moorings wasn’t working. Both Mr Lawrence and his boss Glen Chipp stated this on a number of occasions.  As someone who knows quite a number of the boating community, I can state that this was not, according to those I speak to, true.  Everyone says how well the system with Aquaterra worked. Not only that, but boaters were allowed to use the showers, and other sports centre facilities.  It was perfect.  The councillor who now oversees all this, David Dixon, has admitted this to me in a tweet. His words are: ‘Previous operation did work quite well.’  So why, you may ask, change it?

What’s more, why choose Messrs Hemmings and Hayter? The former, in particular has a sorry tale of dissolved companies. Mr Lawrence says that he checked them out and ‘found no reason not to deal with the individuals.’ Now, the resume on DirectorCheck says this: ‘Andrew Hemmings holds 0 current appointment, has resigned from 2 companies and held appointments at 11 dissolved companies. Andrew began his first appointment at the age of 32 and the longest current appointment spans 3 years and 5 months at 4 WORD LIMITED.

The combined cash at bank value for all of Andrew's current businesses is £0, with a combined assets value of £0 and liabilities of £0. Roles associated with Andrew Hemmings within the recorded businesses include: Company Director , Director , No Function , Accountant’.

I think that would make me have considerable concerns.  If I then found out that he was being investigated by Wiltshire Police over his role at Cromwell Press, I think I would have second thoughts about him.  Mr Lawrence, however, granted him a contract which gave him power to collect moorings, hire out bicycles supplied at the council’s expense and run water taxis and hire boats.

Why didn’t it go out to tender?  Good question. Because, said Mr L and his boss, the now departed Glen Chipp, it wasn’t worth over £5000 annually.  Well, that’s very surprising, because it doesn’t take a brilliant mathematician long to work out that the mooring fees alone would soon run over that.

And, as Mr Hemmings bragged to a number of people along the river bank, he got the whole shebang for £1. Yes, folks, that what he paid for all these rights.  Even so, he’s managed to go bankrupt.  Again.

Mr Hayter, meanwhile, is now trading under an unregistered company name, AH Corporate, which belongs to a perfectly reputable finance company, and neither Hayter nor Hemmings put down their middle names when setting up Riverside Leisure Management – as far as I can tell, that’s illegal, but it certainly gave them two new and blemish free personae.

So who is this David Lawrence who granted this amazing contract to this shady pair? Find out in the next exciting episode of Tales from the River Bank.