Protesters frustrated after Palfrey Community Association march
Angry workers and parents affected by the closure of a once thriving community association were left frustrated after marching to a public meeting in protest.
Councillors on all sides of Walsall Council voiced sympathy for the 36 staff at Palfrey Community Association who lost their jobs and the 128 families whose children have been left without a nursery place – including 10 disabled youngsters – following the organisation’s collapse earlier this month.
At a special meeting of the council, a unanimous vote was passed to help workers find alternative employment and parents seek out new nursery places.
Councillors also pledged to try and recover any outstanding money.
The community association went into administration despite having £500,000 in its accounts just 18 months ago.
Among its creditors are Walsall Council, who are owed £146,000.
Protesters had marched from Palfrey Community Centre to Walsall Council House where around 60 of them packed the public gallery ahead of the meeting.
They witnessed Councillor Mike Bird, leader of the Conservative group, say: “Sadly this organisation has been dominated by people who didn’t have the right expertise.
“When a Sure Start contract was lost, there was no attempt to address the overheads and so Nero fiddled while Rome began to burn.”
He had been advised some members of staff had allegedly been paid despite not having attended for three or four years, he told the meeting. He called for tighter controls in future over the financial resources of all community organisations to avoid a repeat of the “reprehensible” downfall of the Palfrey centre.
Labour deputy leader Councillor Lee Jeavons described the centre’s closure as a “shattering blow” to staff and service users but warned against prejudicing an administrators’ investigation by speculating about the reason for the association’s demise.
He said he was “bemused” that the meeting had been called at this point, when the full facts behind the organisation’s failure were not yet known or whether any services could be saved.
After the meeting, resident and former Palfrey councillor Mohammad Yasia said: “The community association is a big loss and this meeting hasn’t given us any answers in terms of what went wrong.”
Mushdag Ahmed, president of the Ghausia Qasmia Mosque, agreed: “This was public money – and we want to to know where the money has gone. We want answers.”
