On Wednesday afternoon last week VB published an article about questions we’d raised in relation to the Ventnor Botanic Garden being unanswered by the Isle of Wight council.
It led to VB reader comments such as, “Either it’s signed, in which case they can find out the date with one phone call, or it isn’t. If it isn’t, what are they doing lying in official paperwork?” (link) and “What is it with this council, so many secrets. Simple questions can be easily dealt with.” (link)
For three weeks prior to that article, we’d been asking for the details of when the 10-year catering contract had been signed between the council and the Royal Hotel – as this had been cited in the Delegated Decision Notice (DDN) following Cllr George Brown’s approval of the Botanic Garden lift replacement.
As well as that question, on 20th October, we also asked a number of others in relation to the awarding of the contract.
Tiny nugget ‘1st April’ unclear
The following morning (Thursday) the head of the Isle of Wight council press office, Gavin Foster, replied with the statement, “the date you require is April 1.”
It was unclear whether the date he provided was that for the 10-year contract (as we’d asked for, remember it was cited in the DDN) or the date of a temporary contract.
We’re led to believe, that the cafe has been run over the summer on a temporary contract.
We replied to him to seek clarification, and have continued with regular follow-ups, but still no answers.
Other questions still unanswered
The answers to our other questions to IWC, in relation to the awarding of the contract, also remain unanswered.
We’d been told last Tuesday (26th October, 2010) by Gavin that he’d get them to us – “The full set will, I would hope, be with you tomorrow at the latest.”
The “full set” of answers didn’t arrive on the 27th, and neither did they the next day despite a gentle reminder from VB. On the 28th we finally received a email containing the unclear 1 April date, finishing with, “Will try and get the other questions to you today.”
The “full set” of answers still missing
To recap – after chasing on the 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th October and once again yesterday (3rd November), we have still not received answers from the council press office.
This morning, we received another email from Gavin simply saying, “Will respond as soon as we can.”
Still the “full set” of answers mentioned by him have not arrived.
Read into that what you will.
Image: A Journey Round My Skull under CC BY 2.0
