{"id":7123,"date":"2014-12-09T11:55:24","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T11:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2014\/12\/09\/leicesters-mayor-locked-in-community-dispute\/"},"modified":"2016-01-07T14:14:24","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T14:14:24","slug":"leicesters-mayor-locked-in-community-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2014\/12\/09\/leicesters-mayor-locked-in-community-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"Leicester’s Mayor Locked in Community Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"
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HCA Funding Crisis Hits New Low<\/h3>\n

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Leicester\u2019s mayor, Peter Soulsby, is locked in an internal dispute with Highfields Community Association over the future of its funding. \u00a0<\/div>\n

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According to the mayor\u2019s office, Sir Peter has allegedly told Leicester City Council that it can \u201cno longer afford the annually \u00a3293,000 payment to the Highfields Community Association.\u201d<\/div>\n

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The two sides have remained in dispute together after a three year deal for the council to provide money for the association ran out more than a year ago. The latest update comes after the two sides exchanged solicitors letters. <\/div>\n

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Sir Peter says the deal was the HCA would be financially self sufficient after three years but the organisation denies this.<\/div>\n

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In a letter addressed to the association\u2019s chairman, Furzana Khalifa, addressing his concerns, Sir Peter said, \u201cI do have significant concerns about the extent to which the centre staff are adding to the services for the community.<\/div>\n

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\u201cThere is a widespread perception that the majority of use is the hire of space by other organisations including the council.\u201d<\/div>\n

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He added: \u201cThe public may well wonder what it is you wish to avoid us seeing.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Sir Peter told the Mercury he wanted to offer \u00a3200,000 of interim funding to the HCA.<\/div>\n

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He said: \u201cThey have written back but they didn\u2019t explain why they are making it so very difficult to give them help.<\/div>\n

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\u201cI recognise it has been tough for them meeting their initial of being self sufficient.<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt is an important asset and the last thing I would want is for it to collapse but if they are getting public funds they have to act in a way they is responsible.\u201d<\/div>\n

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He said, \u201cAre they making use of the money they are getting or are they stashing it away.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Sir Peter\u2019s assertions have infuriated the HCA.<\/div>\n

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Ms Furzana wrote to him saying it had withdrawn from the Local government Pension Scheme but added: \u201cIt has never been a case of us opting out of providing a proper pension scheme for our staff.\u201d<\/div>\n

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She added: \u201cWe have at no time said that we will employ people that have not had full DBS clearance and as an association we fully understand our legal obligations when it comes to safeguarding of young and vulnerable people in our care.\u201d<\/div>\n

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She said the HCA provides first class services to the local community.<\/div>\n

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She also said the HCA had nothing to hide and would continue to operate and open door policy but has suggested the council give prior notice when it wants to visit.<\/div>\n

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HCA head of centre Priya Thamotheram said the mayor was trying to bully the association by insisting on \u201cunprecedented and draconian\u201d terms.<\/div>\n

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He said: \u201cOur funding has been reduced by 28 per cent this year. What the mayor does not appreciate is that we are providing services to the community much more cheaply than the council can.<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe are saving them money.<\/div>\n

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\u201cHe must be the only person in the world who can\u2019t see what we are doing in the community.\u201d<\/div>\n

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HCA Funding Crisis Hits New Low Leicester\u2019s mayor, Peter Soulsby, is locked in an internal dispute with Highfields Community Association over the future of its funding. \u00a0 According to the mayor\u2019s office, Sir Peter has allegedly told Leicester City Council that it can \u201cno longer afford the annually \u00a3293,000 payment to the Highfields […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}