Northwood House, Cowes

newcowesman · Joined: 07 Dec 2009 Posts: 18

The answer to that is 'NO' the trust is still subject to the same trade restrictions as before, it terms of trade, no they cant, but they can appoint some one to run the car park and pay them what is left over, we reckon about £35k a year will be left over.

Come on Felix, post something....

Wight Portal · Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 114 Location: Carisbrooke

So what's involved in running the car park?

I take it the machines are leased and so any repairs are covered by that. Consumables like ink and ticket reels are paid for by the trust.

So it's just a case of emptying the machines of cash and replacing the consumables.

Pay me £200 a week and I'll run it for you.

newcowesman · Joined: 07 Dec 2009 Posts: 18

There is a bit more to it than that, you need someone to be there to make sure people pay and display and then you need to enforce action against those that dont pay, so you will have to go round every 15 to 30mins and look at windscreens. Plus you need insurance and I am not sure but you might also need a licence of some sort?? dont quote me on the licence bit, i just remember the trouble all those parking firms got into a while back over clamping at random.

The other issue is repairs, you will have to make sure the site is safe for the public and trip hazards or big holes in the surfaces and clear signs.

If you still want the job for 200 a week i could put a word in for you??

Wight Portal · Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 114 Location: Carisbrooke

The £200 a week, it was my attempt at humour.

In fact running a private car park is a nightmare nowadays, especially now that everyone is law savvy. Councils have the road traffic regulations of the land behind them, where as the private car park company is only subject to contractual law, whereby the user of the land parks their car and by doing so is accepting the terms laid out on your car park signs.
If the user in essence breaks the contract, as in over staying their allotted time, there are all sorts of loopholes that the user can use if they decide not to cough up the fine.
Your biggest headache is proving who the driver was at the time of the contravention (not offence, this is contractual law between you and the driver not necessarily the owner). He or she can quite easily deny being the driver and unless you can prove otherwise you're up a gumtree. This is why most private car parks have CCTV installed.

If you want to implement clamping, you need a a licence from the good old SIA and need to pass a couple of examinations to gain your BTEC in vehicle immobilisation. The licence is renewed yearly.

TJ · Joined: 30 Jun 2010 Posts: 2

I have been reading this forum with great interest but am amazed to see that no-one commented on the article in the county press last month.
Felix seems to know a lot about what is going on and I was awaiting his input on the article about the house been extended in the original design.
How many people knew that the house was actually going to be extended years ago? I for one didn't and I consider myself fairly well learned on these matters.
Also the chap who wants to do this, wants to ensure funding for Cowes week too and yet no comments on this either?
What has happened to the passionate (and very passionate!) people who once were full of ideas/comments on what is going to happen to the House?

Felix · Joined: 17 Dec 2009 Posts: 7

Yes I too was surprised no one chose to comment on the article in the County Press, but it would seem people on this Island soon loose interest or move on to other causes when the mood takes them.

The main reason why I have not commented is simply because there is nothing much to comment on that has not been commented on already and now the County Press is printing anything it can to make up a story it would appear the medium for this subject has moved on.

The most contributory factor to the lack of postings is because the trustees have installed strict confidentiality clauses on everything and all the trustees are forbidden to speak to anyone outside the trust. Also the Council has washed it hands of the place completely and no one there is willing to comment as it is no longer their concern.

All this talk of an “out of the blue decision” is utter rubbish! The trust was set up for the purpose of taking control of the house but because they have back tracked and pursued petty issues and never once faced up to the task at hand, the council as you would expect them to, have lost all patience and just forced their hand. The hoo-hah being created by the trustees is simply because they didn’t get the house all neatly tied up in the package they wanted. Lets recap on just how unrealistic they have been shall we:

For the past 2 years they have been wasting the time of some very busy people inviting them to come and present their ideas, but as yet they have not even decided on a criteria for evaluation these proposals, so as you would expect, a lot who came forward right at the start have lost interest and moved on to other things.

In the 8 years the trust has been going it has achieved nothing, absolutely nothing, this is proved by the utter panic the trustees are in now due to their lack of preparation and inability to face up to reality and utter lack of professionalism and ability of any sort. All this has been to them is an old ladies coffee morning fuelled by the eminence and raised social standing of being a trustee to a large stately home, and now when they have been given what they were set up to take in the first place, they don’t want it, and are kicking up such a fuss about it.

The truth of the matter is that they had their chance, they had a company there willing to help and support them during the handover from the council to them, but they blew it. This was a company that had the money, not a loan or a mortgage or proceeds from any sale of land, they had the cash in trust and were happy to invest £12,000,000 over a period of 10 years and then hand them back a very valuable and desirable fully restored profitable house for them to do with as they saw fit.

It is a well known fact that due to the treatment Viyella got from the trustees when they went to meet with them, one of the founding trustees and the original instigator that prevented the council selling the house off as a hotel 10 years ago, tendered her resignation in protest, and was then immediately told to leave there and then by the new chair Ann Thwaites (so obviously no loyalty in the trust either).

Ann who appears now to every one as Liz Mackenzie’s puppet and a bit of a joke amongst the inner circles of the Isle of Wight Council, she seems to have adopted the working practices of Liz and is openly supporting and favouring the Robert Thompson Bid. A bid I might add, solely dependant on money raised from mortgaging the lease of the house and the sale of some of the park for the development of houses (this little point Thompson so rightly chooses to leave out of his County Press interviews), as by Thompson and his backers own admission, they don’t have the money to do the project and their proposal is entirely dependant on loans and the sale of some of the land.

The efforts and words of the trustees are purely for show, they only saw Viyella because Elizabeth Campbell was so insistent they did, and do date they have made no attempt to invite Nick Duffill to come and see them and present his proposal, but they have invited Thompson and his back on a number of occasions and the fact that they have allowed him to use the house as a pop up restaurant is a clear sign of their favouritism and bias.

This demonstrates that the trustees only choose to quote from the deed of gift when it suits them and when it doesn’t it simply doesn’t matter.

The trust will inevitably fail, once they do, the council will be able to sell the house off to the highest bidder and that will be that. As for Thompson, who in the eyes of the trust is the only bidder they want (I think they are expecting free meals when he opens) has to raise £3.5million to do the repair work, a further £4million to restore the house and an additional £3million to update it to modern standards, if he is to open it as a hotel then he will require additional bedrooms, at a further cost of anything between £10-20million, even if he does it on the cheap and only spends say £5million on the new build, this would mean he has to raise £15million on a house that is only worth £3million at the very very most! You do the maths people, and I will now take odds on how long it will take after Thompson takes over for a very convenient fire to start at the house……

Lets face it, Viyella are out, and Duffill, as much as I like the idea of the JJ Mair extension, he is out too, as the trust want to be in with the celebrity chef to boost their own feelings of self importance.

Felix

TJ · Joined: 30 Jun 2010 Posts: 2

Thanks very much for the update Felix.

Surely this cannot be allowed? Can the council not force the trustees hand into evaluating the most sustainable proposal, clearly either of the other two, NOT Thompson?

This surely can be stopped by contacting the charities commission. If the trustees are not abiding by the rules set out in the original deed of gift then they must surely be dismissed?

Felix, you seem to know much more than most others about this. Can you not contact someone who can stop this ridiculous scenario?

Get in contact with Viyella and Dufill to put their proposals to the council or charity commission, surely this would force the hand of the trustees?

Wight Portal · Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 114 Location: Carisbrooke

It seems the situation is no better now the Trustees are in control.

Like I've said before, the house and land are in the public domain, so the public should get to decide. It should go to referendum.

As it stands apart from here, a few other Island sites and the County Press
who have published stuff about what's happening, the public are in the dark. Something like this needs to be full on in your face.

I'm not saying a referendum would save the house, it would seem that the Island heritage is unimportant in this modern world, but even so it's a public asset and so the public must decide it's fate as leaving the decision to either the Council or the Trustees hasn't brought about any solution.