Lifeless Factory
The latest in our investigation into what went wrong at Glastonbury's Life Factory Project. We have asked a lot of questions, but right now no-one is giving us any answers.
Dear readers
Today’s issue of Somerset Confidential® is for our paying subscribers. It is an investigation into Glastonbury’s Life Factory project, an investigation which is still ongoing. Ordinarily we would have published this next week but it is a fast moving story and we felt we should give our readers an update.
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Lifeless Factory
For the past fortnight Somerset Confidential® has been investigating what went wrong with one of the Glastonbury Town Deal projects, the Life Factory. The project was due to be managed by the Red Brick Building, a successful project funded by the community and offering work space, gallery space and a well run café.
With an estimated cost of just under £6m the project was given the go ahead on the basis that it would receive £2.89m of money from the Town Deal Fund and would match fund the rest.
All Town Deal money was provided by central government. Glastonbury was awarded £23.6m to fund the various projects it put forward including the Life Factory.
Each Town Deal was required to set up a board to overlook and monitor the various projects. However because of the sums of money involved, the Town Deal funds were paid over to Somerset Council. The council was asked to act as banker to the project only paying money over in line with agreements between the projects, the Town Deal Board and the council and of course, against invoices.
By the end of the first quarter of 2024 some £2m of the £2.89m had been handed over to the Life Factory project. During the first quarter of 2024 concerns began to be expressed by Somerset Council that all was not as it should be. The Life Factory project was paused and since then no money has been paid over to the project.
On the face of it, sensible enough from a financial control point of view (but read on). But that left contractors who had acted in good faither and supplied services to the project unpaid and out of pocket.
The sums of money are not small and because the project had tried to use local businesses, it is those local businesses that are hurting. And some are hurting a lot. The wife of a suppliers who had got into financial difficulty because of the project was so distressed by the circumstances she and her husband found themselves in that she took her own life. We are not dealing with trivial issues here.
Meanwhile Somerset Council commissioned their internal auditors, SWAP, to carry out an audit of the Life Factory project and report back. They have now done so, but the detailed report has not been released to the public and Somerset Confidential understands that further work has been request from SWAP. However some details were released to the May Audit Committee meeting of Somerset Council and those details are very revealing.
In the meantime although large sums of public money are at stake and may have been misspent, the council are keeping the detailed report secret.
The few bits of information in the public domain are nevertheless interesting and important. SWAP tell us that:
1. A condition of the award of the grant (to the Life Factory) was that match funding would be obtained by the Red Brick Building.
2. There was no evidence of a delivery plan showing how the project will be delivered on time and on budget. This was a condition of the Grant Funding Agreement.
Hold onto those thoughts as we start to take a look at what did go wrong?
Glastonbury Town Board
Let’s start with the Glastonbury Town Board. Board members are not paid for their work and their role is advisory. Nevertheless it is an important role.
The terms of reference spell out what they should be doing. Here are the key things the terms of reference require of the board:
“The Glastonbury Town Deal Board will be the body that shapes the vision for the town as well as defining the strategy and steps that need to be taken to achieve that vision.”
“ The Board …… has a key role in fulfilling the community oversight of the development and delivery of the Towns’ Fund Investment Plan.”
“The Town Deal Board serves as an advisory function to Mendip District Council (MDC) as Lead Council”
“The oversight role of the Board sits alongside that of MDC which is the Accountable Body for the Towns’ Fund for Glastonbury. The Board will act as an important advisory and communication body for MDC”
The reference to MDC is because when the award was made, the district councils and county council still existed. When the merged to form Somerset Council on 1 April 2023, Somerset Council took over the responsibilities of MDC.
Importantly the Terms of Reference also go in to say: “The Town Deal Board will be expected to align with the governance standards and policies of the Lead Council, including around whistle blowing, conflicts of interest……”