Projects Destroyed
A lesson on co-operation and the destruction of the Charity's manual training activities
For 16 years the Charity ran training projects, Pitstop and Skillshop, for young people with few prospects at derelict sites LBN encouraged it to use and which it restored with £200,000 worth of non-council grants. These projects paid their own way and so did not need grant funding. The London Borough of Newham (LBN) encouraged Pitstop to move to and share a depot with Newham Community Transport (NCT) as that saved on rent which LBN paid on NCT’s behalf. In 1998 the Charity mistakenly trusted LBN and under duress agreed a joint and several lease with NCT in the belief that it would be fairly treated.
In 2007 LBN became belligerent. It tried to impose £30,000 back rent on Skillshop forgetting it didn’t own the building and that the land was let at a peppercorn and so was defeated in court. It also announced a 6 year backdated rent increase on the depot site where the CH&CTCRP was paying its 40% share of the rent. LBN then forced NCT to close so it could load all the back rent on to the CH&CTCRP. This was contested but LBN evicted Pitstop in 2010 and claimed £110,000 from the
CH&CTCRP. This was resisted but the court order which guaranteed protection was complicated and expensive so the Charity in 2016 agreed to pay £50,000 as it would have cost more to win in court.
When LBN took the Hallsville site it broke its contract for training services and destroyed Pitstop’s garage business. After forfeiture LBN connived to establish and fund a project with the same name and in 2013 the Charity heard that its valuable garage machinery, unmovable because of the road widening scheme, had been included in a lease to another tenant. Apart from destroying a valuable and well run project, LBN made a considerable income from forfeited equipment and buildings built with charitable funds.
Skillshop kept operating at the green shed (still empty to date) but was forced out in 2015. It moved to St. Luke’s but after 2 years it was realised that the project could not operate there. The project was closed in July 2017. Thus ended 16 years of manual training for local young people by this Charity.