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SALFORD COUNCIL BAILS OUT STADIUM WITH ANOTHER £200K
 

Star date: 2nd April 2014

AS CUTS BITE VULNERABLE ADULTS AND CHILDREN COUNCIL FINDS FUNDS FOR SALFORD REDS STADIUM

Tomorrow night representatives from virtually every campaign against Salford Council cuts will be speaking at a public meeting in Swinton – from the mums fighting Sure Star cuts, to families fighting cuts to transport for vulnerable adults and mental health services.

Meanwhile, over at the Civic Centre, Salford City Mayor, Ian Stewart, yesterday posted a decision that he has agreed to bail out Salford City Stadium – now known as the AJ Bell Stadium – with a further £205,362, which is on top of a £600,000 loan last year.

Full details here…

Go to any public Salford City Council meeting and you will hear Salford Mayor Ian Stewart bleat about the hardship being caused to Salford people by over £100million cuts imposed by the ConDem Government…

…At the last Salford Council meeting, Stewart was bemoaning another £31million cut to services next year and telling how he was going to slash services "as sensitively as possible"…

…Then yesterday came the slap in the face for all those Salford people fighting cuts – from the Salford Children's Camp campaign looking to raise £50,000 to keep the `Jam Butty' camp alive, to the Irlam Sure Start campaign trying to find solutions to their cuts, to angry mums and carers of vulnerable adults facing losing help with transport to day centres and those fighting cuts to mental health services…

It might have been April Fools Day but it was far from a joke as the Salford Mayor posted a `decision notice' stating that he had agreed a further loan of £205,362 to the `City of Salford Community Stadium (CoSCoS)'.

The Stadium is now known as the AJ Bell Stadium, with any notions of `Salford' or `Community' long dropped – except when it comes to public financing.

This time last year, Salford Council poured a £600,000 loan into the loss making Stadium to match joint owner Peel Holdings' contribution (see here). Now, the Council has again matched Peel's £205,362 loan because, the decision notice states, "Unless further finance is provided by the Shareholders, the Stadium Company will be unable to continue trading, resulting in a default on the existing loan agreement."

The `existing loan agreement' is actually to Salford City Council itself and is somewhere in the region of £22million. The Council is borrowing the £205,362 for the new loan to the Stadium. In other words, Salford Council is borrowing £205,362 to pay off its own loan to the Stadium…

The Council has now ploughed over £800,000 in loans to the Stadium, on top of the £22million it originally loaned.

It has got to the point where Salford Council's own auditors, Grant Thornton, has ordered a "Full scope UK statutory audit" of the City of Salford Community Stadium Limited by an independent auditor that will be `Targeted' and `Significant'.

The audit won't help the families of vulnerable adults and children in the city who have declared themselves `horrified' by cuts to their services.

Meanwhile, Mayor Ian Stewart insists that he is approaching the cuts "as sensitively as possible"…

NO MORE CUTS! Public Meeting
Thursday 3rd April 7pm
Swinton British Legion, Cheetham Road,
Swinton, Manchester M27 4UQ.

There will be speakers from services at risk, including…

Supporting People/Homelessness prevention
Cuts to Transport for Vulnerable Adults
Mental Health Community Support Services
Care on Call
Welfare Rights & Debt Advice
Neighbourhood Management
Children Centres
Children Residential
Youth Services

The meeting is supported by Save Our Transport Campaign, United Service Users Committee (USUC), Salford Against the Cuts, Salford City UNISON and Salford Unite Community Branch.
slurp wrote
at 18:35:57 on 05 April 2014
#Steve Broomhead If Koukash gets the ground the council will have to sell cheap and effectively write off a substantial proportion of the cost. Effectively meaning the council give Salford RLFC in all their guises millions of pounds. If Sale leave or are turfed out the financial status of the stadium company will get worse and they will become even more of a financial burden. Economic illiteracy wracks Salford from top to bottom. From the council leadership to the average poster. It's a basket case. It has practically surrendered the right to criticize central Govt when its so obviously incapable of managing its own affairs properly. How has so much money been lavished on a rugby club in a midst of the worst recession in living memory. Incredibly it has been made a priority and it will NEVER pay back the money thrown at it.
?
Steve Broomhead wrote
at 14:58:43 on 04 April 2014
Thought the Mad Doctor Kouksah was gonna buy the stadium? Thats the only way out I can see for Salford and to get the rah rah union boys from Sale off the ground, the general Salford public doesn't want them here! Why did they build the ground there in the first place amazes me its a horrible part of the world in an even horrible location transport wise.
?
Paul wrote
at 14:58:18 on 04 April 2014
Why all the comments abouts Salford Reds ( actually Salford Red Devils for last 12 months), this loan has nothing to do with them. This is a loan to a the company who own the stadium (50/50 council/Peel). The rugby clubs are only tenants who pay rent. Having a go at a tenant because their landlord is losing money - really?
?
andy wrote
at 14:58:00 on 04 April 2014
So the tory filth government are saying that they gave Salford council a sum of money to reduce the cuts . So where is it then ? Wakey wakey Salford council . Better start explaining where this money has been pissed away . Salford Reds ? Peel ? Or some other braindead project that will never benefit the ripped-off taxpayer ?
?
not happy wrote
at 11:07:59 on 04 April 2014
Here we go a gain Salford Reds getting money to pull them out the shit when sure start in Salford are being threatened by closure not only that mental heath cuts, the jam butty camp to be closed if they can’t get the funding; I was watching the news last night 2/04/14 when the Prime Minister said we have given money to the Salford council to save some of the cuts but it up to them how to use it so where’s it gone then??? JUST LET ME THINK
?
Salford onion wrote
at 11:07:56 on 04 April 2014
many of the labour group in Salford Council are seasons ticket holders. The Deputy Mayor David Lancaster has a big presence in the stadium as he takes up his season ticket seat alongside his labour buddies including the mayor and tony loyde the police crime chap.its little wonder that by sleight of hand mor money is slid into the stadium with no accountability. A scandal!
?
scott wrote
at 07:52:21 on 03 April 2014
Stewart has said in the past that he is a big fan of rugby....No wonder he keeps ploughing money into the sport. Vested interest in the stadium one might say!!
?
sick of em wrote
at 07:52:15 on 03 April 2014
Agree with Stephen Robinson - start asking and looking for evidence and looking into things at deeper levels, these people need to be inventive and make difficult decisions if they are honest, but looking after their mates cos they can and leaving the vulnerable people on this cuts list....it aint rocket science its there for all to see, get people in who care, money is being sucked out of Salford by the same people day in day out and not where its most needed maybe
?
Joe oneill wrote
at 07:51:19 on 03 April 2014
I can honestly see Salford Labours fear that the Star goes main stream and gets back in print, because if more people read the facts they would face political oblivion,
?
Catherine Hickey wrote
at 15:47:32 on 02 April 2014
How can this be happening. I work 12hr shifts and can just about pay my bills. They are closing beds on NHS Wards. Please get ur priorities right. The next election can not come around quick enough.
?
Steven Robertson wrote
at 15:46:39 on 02 April 2014
Will you people please stop going on about the cuts and start getting to Ian Stewart right where it hurts? Ian gets the cuts, he has become a master at twisting and turning in the face of them and he really does not care what you think. Turn up tomorrow waving your "No Cuts to Sure start, No Cuts to Mental Health Services, No More Cuts" banners and placards all you like and all you will get is the same old dreary response. Try instead waving banners and placards all about dodgy council deals, start backing him into a corner. How about a few banners saying "No more cash for AJ Bell", or "Stop the loans to Salford Reds" or "Stop giving our Cash to Peel Holdings". Get them where it hurts and make them squirm.
?
Sue Campayne wrote
at 10:45:28 on 02 April 2014
I am absolutely speehcless. £22 million!!!! For £1 million we could keep our entire Surestart up and running. People have already lost jobs and sessions have already been cut, this is such a slap in the face for all the people affected by the cuts.
?
Brian F Kirkham wrote
at 10:45:06 on 02 April 2014
Hmmm....another example of our beloved rugby club doing us over for more money. Strange really...we seem to have money earmarked for a stadium and its residents whilst cutting services for those paying the council tax to hand over to Salford Reds...I saw somewhere a facsimile copy of Salfords original charter to be a city - one suggests our mayor pulls this out of the archive and reads it...because I was under the impression that if you take out a loan (Rugby Club) with a lender (council)...You kinda PAY IT BACK - With Interest...not go back to the lender and tell em to pay it themselves - that behaviour normally makes banks default the loan.
?
Len wrote
at 10:43:59 on 02 April 2014
Remember this outrage when the parasites are crawling and grovelling for our votes people .
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