THE OLIVE TRUST & THE KIDWELLY HUB<\/p>\n
In the previous post<\/a>\u00a0we renewed our acquaintance with Denise Kingsley Acton, former Green Party candidate in Watford, proprietrix of the Olive Trust (‘Smells ‘n’ chants ‘r’ us’<\/em>) who washed up in Wales (as so many like her do), struck up a curious friendship with an elderly Swansea Labour councillor, and then in 2010 applied for \u00a31,000,000 from the Welsh European Funding Office.<\/p>\n Last week I wrote to WEFO asking if this application had been successful. The answer I received seems very carefully worded. The underlinings are mine.<\/p>\n “Thanks for your email. I’ve\u00a0discussed with colleagues and as far as we\u2019re aware<\/span>, the Olive Trust does not appear<\/span> to have directly received<\/span> EU funding. For your information, the EU funds pages of the Welsh Government shows a list of all approved project through the current programmes<\/a>“.<\/em><\/p>\n “As far as we’re aware”<\/em> be buggered! Surely they keep records, they must know!<\/p>\n On the assumption that she did not get her million it could be that Denise Kingsley Acton believes the grass – and perhaps the funders – may be greener in Carmarthenshire, for she is now domiciled in Kidwelly. To be exact, in a detached house on an expensive new development near Mynydd-y-Garreg.<\/p>\n According to 192.com<\/a> Denise S Kingsley lives with the man to whom I assume she is engaged – for her Facebook page<\/a> informs us she is betrothed – and a Denise S Acton! M\u00e9nage\u00a0\u00e0 trois?<\/em>\u00a0Of course not – how dare you!<\/em> – but confusion is bound to result when you use different names; and when she gets married the confusion can only increase.<\/p>\n Kingsley-Acton has recently opined that Kidwelly is badly in need of a community building (the kind of thing she wanted a million quid for in 2010) but hasn’t she heard of ‘The Hub’? It’s all happening in the Kidwelly Community Hub . . . well, maybe not much is happening, but it provides photo opportunities galore for Labour politicians. So it serves its real purpose.<\/p>\n The curious thing about the Hub, or to give it its proper name, Ynghyd Community Interest Company<\/a>\u00a0is that the Companies House website tells us there are three people with the “<\/em>Right to appoint and remove directors<\/em><\/a>“<\/em> – Mrs Nicola Herbertson<\/a> of Surbiton, Mrs Diana Sylvia Groom<\/a>, now of Kidwelly but until very recently a psychotherapist in Oxfordshire, and a Mr Steve Jones.<\/p>\n Other directors or former directors are also recent arrivals in Wales. Which makes the claim on the Facebook page<\/a> that “Kidwelly Community Hub is a venture by Kidwelly people for Kidwelly people”<\/em> a load of old bollocks, as we students of the third sector are wont to say.<\/p>\n It’s all so reminiscent of another ‘community’ venture in Carmarthenshire, this one at Llandovery. There we find another Englishwoman, Jill Tatman, who has commandeered a building – the former YMCA – then demanded and received funding to pay herself a good salary for running the show, though the YMCA has told her she can no longer use their name.<\/p>\n That’s because there are suspicions that hubby’s interest in the children visiting the building is not entirely innocent. Though she is said to have defended him at a recent trustees meeting by arguing that he had suffered enough for “only rubbing up against the kids”<\/em>. So that’s all right then.<\/p>\n How many of these fucking memsahibs are there infesting our rural areas? Though some of them are not even living here, they seem to do it by remote control!<\/p>\n Firmly in Kidwelly, we find\u00a0town and former county councillor Phil Thompson<\/a>. Thompson is a barrister at law<\/a>, yet his Declaration of Interests tells us he lives in social housing provided by Pobl (formerly Gwalia). Can’t a lawyer afford to buy a place of his own?<\/p>\n It reminds me of someone else with a very healthy income who lives in social housing, someone who writes regular letters to Llais y Sais<\/em>. But then, former RAF Group Captain Kel Palmer of Mountain Ash is another Labour Party supporter, formerly involved with the doomed Communities First<\/a> programme.<\/p>\n Many assume that social housing is for local people who can’t afford to buy a home of their own, which is how it should be, but not how it works in Wales. Well-off people can get social housing – if they’re in the Labour Party.<\/p>\n But then, the social housing system fails Wales in so many ways.<\/p>\n Not far from where Phil Thompson lives in Kidwelly his landlord Gwalia housed a gang of paedophiles brought down from London<\/a>. Housing associations are bringing untold misery to Welsh communities by importing all manner of criminals, such as we see with Labour-controlled Wales and West in Lampeter<\/a>.<\/p>\n To the point where what we have in Wales is very often anti-social housing – paid for from the Welsh public purse. How stupid must we be to tolerate this?<\/p>\n UPDATE 15.03.2018:<\/strong><\/span> I have now figured out how Mrs Nicola Herbertson of Surbiton got involved with the Kidwelly Hub. A previous director was Jonathan Michael Hobden, along with his wife, Fiona Mary. Here’s his Companies House entry<\/a> and below is an extract from his Linkedin profile.<\/p>\n You’ll note, first, that he describes himself as a philanthropist! But more importantly, he is Director of Marketing at Hao2.eu aka 3DNovations<\/a>. Now the CEO and founder of Hao2.eu Ltd<\/a> is Nicola Herbertson. (There is also a Hao2.eu Foundation registered with the Charity Commission, No 1153397.)<\/p>\n So it would appear that Ynghyd Ltd \/ Kidwelly Hub is a creation of, and controlled by, a company based in London. Which reminds us yet again what a load of old bollocks is the claim on the Facebook page that,\u00a0 Kidwelly Community Hub is a venture by Kidwelly people for Kidwelly people”<\/em>. I doubt if there’s one genuine Kidwelly local involved.<\/p>\n So does the Kidwelly Hub exist for the people of Kidwelly or for the benefit of Hao2.eu and ‘Welsh’ Labour?<\/p>\n \u25ca<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n K SHARP<\/p>\n Another recent arrival in the area is a company called K Sharp Ltd, and once again we should thank Llanelli Online for bringing us the news<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to the story, attributed to Iwan Lewis, “K Sharp has spread its footprint by opening a new office in Llanelli, South Wales, whilst keeping an office in Gloucester”<\/em>. This is clearly a regurgitated press release, for readers of Llanelli Online<\/em> should not need to be told that their town is in south Wales. (Many would prefer ‘west Wales’.)<\/p>\n Though if we go to the Companies House entry for K Sharp Ltd<\/a> we see that on 11 January the company changed its address to Suite 2, West End Yard, West End, Llanelli, which suggests a complete move rather than opening a branch office.<\/p>\n So what do we know about K Sharp Ltd?<\/p>\n Well, the website<\/a> suggests it’s a company concerned with human behaviour, including, ‘Cultural and Behavioural Analytics’, and that the head honcho is\u00a0Barry Kirby,<\/a> assisted by his wife and two other women. Much of their work seems to be police- or defence-related.<\/p>\n So who is Barry?<\/p>\n Until quite recently Barry was Deputy Leader of the Labour group on Gloucestershire County Council,<\/a> and a general election candidate to boot, until he threw it in last October<\/a>. This rupture with the Gloucestershire Labour Party and the move to Llanelli in January (or earlier) are surely connected.<\/p>\n So why was Llanelli Online<\/em> so late with the news?<\/p>\n Given K Sharp’s line of work is there any link with the Local MP, Nia Griffith, being shadow defence secretary? Or is Barry hoping to cash in on the Coffin partnership’s\u00a0Wellness extravaganza<\/a>?<\/p>\n I think we should be told why a company based in Gloucestershire, working with Gloucester University, suddenly ups sticks and moves 110 miles down the M4. Nobody makes a move like this unless there’s some advantage in it for them, so what has K Sharp Ltd been promised, and by whom?<\/p>\n Another mystery is that the Micro-entity accounts available on the Companies House website for K Sharp Ltd deal in peanuts, so where’s the money to run a company like this and pay four people’s salaries?<\/p>\n Looking at the bigger picture, is Labour perhaps fearful of electoral trends elsewhere in the county infecting Sosban and now attempting to strengthen its hold on the constituency? A project greatly helped by Plaid Cymru destroying itself in the area<\/a>.<\/p>\n But with all the memsahibs, snake oil salesmen\/saleswomen, and outright crooks now sucking on the teat of public funding, and with so few of them having true local connections, this ploy could backfire. Because people aren’t that stupid, not even lifelong Labour voters.<\/p>\n But whatever the future holds we can rely on Llanelli Online<\/em> to bring us all the Labour Party news. It’ll be up to people like me to give you something closer to the truth.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u2666 end \u2666<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ‘DO YOU WANNA BE IN MY GANG?’ We all belong to some kind of network. It can be as obvious as family or friends, or else it’s neighbours, workmates, political associates, other fans of the teams you support, fellow-worshippers at your chapel or church, even the people you play darts with down the pub. And … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/jacothenorth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Olive-Trust-WEFO.png\")
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