Ageas Bowl Development, Rev. Paul Flowers and Eastleigh Borough Council

[Guided Missile]

I said to a mate of mine a while ago that any banker who agrees to fund that large white elephant in West End must be on drugs.

 

According to this article, it appears I was right:

 

The former banking boss who is currently the centre of drug misuse allegations has strong local connections it has been revealed.The Rev Paul Flowers’ father worked for Eastleigh Borough Council and Flowers himself was a student at Barton Peveril before becoming a Minister at Hedge End’s Methodist church in 1978.The Reverend’s local ministry was cut short in May 1981 after he was caught having sex in the public toilet on Mortimer Road, Botley and was convicted of indecency.Flowers had also been elected as Vice Chairman of Eastleigh Labour Party and at the time was contesting Bishops Waltham in the county council elections.

 

After his conviction Flowers left the area and moved north but stayed active within the Labour and co- operative movement, winning a number of council seats.Eventually he served 10 years as a councillor at Bradford but was forced to resign in 2010 after ‘inappropriate’ material was found on his council laptop.He became as Chair of the Co Op bank in 2009, just after it had acquired the Britannia building society. In 2012 the Co Op came to the rescue of Eastleigh Borough Council by agreeing to fund the construction of a planned £28 million hotel at the cricket ground after original backers Allied Irish Bank had pulled out.By June this year though, the Co Op bank had lost £700 million and after a £1.5 billion hole was found in the balance sheet Flowers resigned from the board.

 

Who's going to dig Eastleigh Borough Council out of the sh !t, but more importantly, how much more money will the Eastleigh taxpayer lose. It would be interesting if the Reverends local "links" influenced the banks' decision to spunk £28 million and counting.

[ecuk268]

I was in the same year as him at Barton Peveril in the 60's.

 

Funny sort of nipper, never really fitted in and was probably mildly bullied.

[bridge too far]

I have a very slight suspicion that I might have known him via Eastleigh Labour Party.

[Minty]

Sorry, that article casts plenty of aspersions on Flowers, but in what way does it suggest the Ageas Bowl development is in trouble, or that EBC need digging out of the sh!t and taxpayers will lose more money?

[Guided Missile]

Sorry, that article casts plenty of aspersions on Flowers, but in what way does it suggest the Ageas Bowl development is in trouble, or that EBC need digging out of the sh!t and taxpayers will lose more money?

 

• The Co-op bank have funded the hotel build at the Ageas bowl.
  
• The developer, Denizen, has gone into administration and work on the £28m development has stopped.
  
• Completion on budget relies on another developer taking up the contract and the Co-op bank or someone else financing the rest of the build.
  

My gut feel is that none of the supposedly 8 developers willing to jump into Denizens shoes, will do it for anything like the original build cost. I also think Co-op bank is in no position to extend/increase the funding for this project.

 

I am also suspicious that, with no sane bank on earth willing to finance a hotel to supply the 3 men and his dog who want to stay in a hotel in West End to watch cricket, the additional cost of the completion will fall onto the Eastleigh taxpayers.

 

I would also like to know, as a Co-op member, what Rev. Paul Flowers role was in approving this loan and whether it relied on his prior contacts with Eastleigh Borough Council.

[dubai_phil]

 

I would also like to know, as a Co-op member, what Rev. Paul Flowers role was in approving this loan and whether it relied on his prior contacts with Eastleigh Borough Council.

 

To be fair GM I think a LOT of people have more worrying questions to answer about Rev Flowers and how the hell he EVER got such a job with such a track record.

 

He may well have wielded "influence" but how could someone with his track record and who ONLY passed his 1st year Banking exams and did not even know the simplest basic fact about the Asset Value of his "Employer" get such a role.

 

Or did "others" wield influence.

 

Just seems to me to be another crack in the veneer of some "Old Boys Network" that was broken open with the Saville expose.

 

Good luck to the tax payers of Eastleigh, (and to RB in finishing the Development) but he equally will have harmed many innocent savers or Pension Holders who's money was put into the Coop Bank willingly or otherwise.

[Guided Missile]

Good luck to the tax payers of Eastleigh, (and to RB in finishing the Development) but he equally will have harmed many innocent savers or Pension Holders who's money was put into the Coop Bank willingly or otherwise.

"RB" has, after nearly losing his shirt at the Rose Bowl, already been bailed out of his egotistical folly, by the taxpayers of Eastleigh. With the Rose /Ageas Bowl losing money hand over fist, it beggars belief that Keith House didn't want Southampton Football Club any where near Eastleigh, but preferred the financial model that is county cricket.

 

Cricket ground? This is a cricket ground...

[Viking Warrior]

I suspect there are a lot more stories to come out about the holy rev . And not to do with banking

[bridge too far]

And I bet there are a lot more stories to come out about bankers and illegal drugs. And banks that make silly loans (think the toxic debts that are being ringfenced). I'm just very sad that this silly man has damaged a bank that was basically ethical and fair.

[sunrise]

There was something in the Echo a few weeks back that the final cost of the hotel may end nearer to 40million, which is an outrageous waste of money. Its money that couldve either have been better spent elsewhere or not spent at all.

[Special K]

• The Co-op bank have funded the hotel build at the Ageas bowl.
  
• The developer, Denizen, has gone into administration and work on the £28m development has stopped.
  
• Completion on budget relies on another developer taking up the contract and the Co-op bank or someone else financing the rest of the build.
  

My gut feel is that none of the supposedly 8 developers willing to jump into Denizens shoes, will do it for anything like the original build cost. I also think Co-op bank is in no position to extend/increase the funding for this project.

 

I am also suspicious that, with no sane bank on earth willing to finance a hotel to supply the 3 men and his dog who want to stay in a hotel in West End to watch cricket, the additional cost of the completion will fall onto the Eastleigh taxpayers.

 

I would also like to know, as a Co-op member, what Rev. Paul Flowers role was in approving this loan and whether it relied on his prior contacts with Eastleigh Borough Council.

 

Probably the reason they went pop in the first place - too cheap.

 

I was suprised to see that when Denizen went into administration the project was deemed to be 75% complete, which indicates they were probably paid 75% of the total value, but from the photos that were taken at the time the gates closed on the build, it seems it was far from that %age complete.

[sandwichsaint]

I'm sure it's only a coincidence that this has come out just at the same time as the NoTW/Brookes case gets going.

 

'Busted-Banker, rubbish at his job, free'n'easy with the expense account, a taste for the high-life and an obscene amount of money to fund that lifestyle choice, and with an interesting back-story', he can't be the only one can he?

[Seaford Saint]

Radio interview with Tom on TNS Radio

http://www.tnsradio.com/truthful-irish-pods.html

 

Slightly off topic but interesting none the less.

[dubai_phil]

And I bet there are a lot more stories to come out about bankers and illegal drugs. And banks that make silly loans (think the toxic debts that are being ringfenced). I'm just very sad that this silly man has damaged a bank that was basically ethical and fair.

 

Think what has come out this morning is FAR more worrying than how much Coke they snort or how much they enjoy Rent Boys.

 

Deliberately destroying viable businesses to rape their assets and "for personal gain"........

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2512791/Banks-ruin-firms-just-make-killing-RBS-Lloyds-branded-unscrupulous-profiteers.html

 

Britain’s two State- backed banks have been accused of ruining thousands of small firms by using ‘unscrupulous’ business practices.

 

Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds ‘harmed their customers through their decisions and caused their financial downfall’, according to a bombshell report released today.

 

RBS is said to have acted like a ‘hit squad’ by deliberately causing healthy businesses to go bust for its personal gain.

 

In the worst cases, the bank withdrew lines of credit for previously solvent firms by charging eye-watering fees and charges so it could then seize their assets – typically property – at knockdown prices.

 

Lloyds Banking Group is also singled out in the extraordinary allegations in an independent report commissioned by the Government.

 

Entrepreneur Lawrence Tomlinson was asked by Business Secretary Vince Cable to look into small business lending.

 

He accuses many of Britain’s banks of ‘heavy-handed profiteering and abhorrent behaviour’. Last night Mr Tomlinson said if it was proved there was ‘systematic and institutional fraud’ at the banks, ‘you should see people going to jail’.

His report reserved its most damning criticism for taxpayer-backed RBS and Lloyds. He said: ‘It is undeniable that some of the banks, RBS and Lloyds in particular, are harming their customers through their decisions and causing their financial downfall.’

The allegation will be a major embarrassment for both lenders and the Government, which owns an 82 per cent stake in RBS and 43 per cent in Lloyds.

 

 

[RedFear]

I'm sure it's only a coincidence that this has come out just at the same time as the NoTW/Brookes case gets going.

 

'Busted-Banker, rubbish at his job, free'n'easy with the expense account, a taste for the high-life and an obscene amount of money to fund that lifestyle choice, and with an interesting back-story', he can't be the only one can he?

 

exactly. of course hes not

im sure his links to the labour party didnt help him here. who of course stood up against the papers more then any other party