RCD closure process questioned

Councillor Colin Lambert

Labour councillors are questioning the reasons and the process which has lead to the coming closure of Rochdale Centre for Diversity (RCD) following a meeting at which a council officer explained why the council had taken the decision not to advance extra funding of £60,000, which means that the organisation will not be able to pay staff or remain open.

The Labour councillors are calling for staff wages to be honoured are least until the 15 August, and if possible to honour the 90 days notice which we believe staff have been issued with and which will expire on 30 September.

Labour Leader Colin Lambert said: "These workers have families and children and they have rent or mortgages to pay.

"We are also demanding that replacement services are in place before the organisation is forced to close its doors which may be as soon as this Friday.

"Sadly we find that a pattern is developing in Rochdale Council, which is showing worrying results in areas involving parts of the voluntary sector.

"We must also question the 'compact agreement' which the council signed with the voluntary sector, which states that 90 days notice would be given before any grant or funding was withdrawn.

"We criticise the way the council have monitored the areas of the voluntary sector which are suddenly finding themselves in trouble.

"The council appears to have lost control of spending public money, and it is time action was taken to monitor spending both within the council and its arms length organisations.

"Many of these organisations are run by volunteer boards, what training is given to them, to effectively run a company? How are the success or failures of these organisations measured by the council?

"The closure appears inevitable, but let's have an ordered close down and lets work together to put in place all the measures that are required to continue the good things that RCD have done over thirty years of providing this vital service across the borough."

Councillor Mohammad Sharif, Cabinet member for Rochdale Borough Council, said: “Whilst we sympathise with the plight of RCD, and more particularly its staff, we must ensure that public money is spent on services that give the best value possible to the people of the borough. To date we have paid RCD a significant part of their annual grant to ensure that RCD staff would be paid between May and July. Without that support salary payments could not have been made.

"RCD did ask for extra funding, in addition to their grant, but even if the Council had agreed to this, the organisation would still have made five of their eight staff redundant. This meant that though the Council would be paying much more to the organisation than had been agreed, the service provided would have been drastically reduced. This would not have been in the interests of the people of the borough.

"The Council is committed to continuing the service currently provided by RCD, and hope to announce interim plans imminently. My officers will present a plan to Cabinet in early September proposing how such a service can be delivered in the longer term.

"I am aware that the some of the people who may suffer most in this situation are the staff of the organisation. The Council will give any assistance it can to staff who are made redundant and are looking for work.”