Saturday 7 September 2013

Meryl and Dr Doolittle - Pets mean Prizes!

Following on from the last post a quick inspection of the most recent Decision Meeting record by Cllr Meryl Gravell (Executive Member for Regeneration and Leisure) shows July's crop of grant awards.

One of the largest was £75,000 to a company identified as Dr Doolittle Pet Foods Ltd. in the council minutes for the conversion of a stone barn into office accommodation, kitchen, WC and foodstore.

There are quite a few companies with fairly similar names, but the most likely candidate would appear to be a company called Dr Doolittle's Pet Products Ltd of Llanwrda.

Unusually in this digital age, the company does not appear to have a website. Perhaps it has not had time because it was incorporated only in October 2012 with a paid up capital of £1.

Another company registered at the same address is Voda Feeds Ltd, and both share the same director.

Voda was incorporated back in 2010, and its latest accounts show a net asset value of -£28,494 (yes, that is a minus).

Of course there is nothing in any of this to suggest that the grant was in any way inappropriate or undeserved.

It's just a pity that there are so many question marks hanging over the way in which the council processes grant applications, but no doubt the officers did their homework on this occasion.

Staying in the Llanwrda area, another barn conversion scooped £123,000 in grants.

The award was made back in 2012 and identified in the meeting minutes only as CAR52-102, but the Press Office recently blew the cover of the claimant when it announced that the dosh had gone to a firm of solicitors specialising in agriculture.

Another award made last year was £23,000 to purchase a "wedding reception tipi". No details were provided at the time, but the the Press Office has just announced that the lucky winners were a company at Drefelin near Newcastle Emlyn.


This venture has received £78,000 in council grants since 2004, we are told.








6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How apt it is that Carmarthenshire County Council have donated £23,000 to Roger Broome to buy a tent in a field in Drefelin.
This is obviously the Ceridwen Centre, named after Ceridwen of the Taliesin mythology.

According to Taliesin, Ceridwen gave birth to a hideous son who went on the run, and as the ledged explains, can turn into a hare to run across fields, turn into a fish to swim across rivers, and turn into a bird to scale cliffs. Once caught, the wayward chap was turned into a chicken by Ceridwen, then to be eaten by his mother, who fell pregnant, and decided to sew the cannibalised offspring into a gold encrusted leather purse.

Strangely, Roger Broome is a software technician from Berkshire offering a number of 'business solutions' now dissolved. He eventually transformed himself into 'Facilitate Limited' of Reading. After arriving in Carmarthenshire, Roger Broome now creams Welsh grants to run courses in various skills including Reflexology, Yoga retreats, and Lucid Dreaming Workshops. Only Carmarthenshire County Council can regard getting hitched in a tent as major business infrastructure investment. They recently donated £5,000 from the Local Investment Fund, a £30,378 Rural Conversion Grant and £20,056 towards an extension (conservatory). The latest £23,085 is to support "Welsh Green Weddings".

There is truth in old Welsh legend after all!

Cneifiwr said...

Brilliant! That's just the sort of thing that keeps this blog going. Diolch yn fawr iawn iawn am wneud i fi chwerthin.

Anonymous said...

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Roger/Broome

http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/close/xpd46/mem020.htm

Mrs Angry said...

If you have a spare field, Cneifiwr, I thought I might move over to Carmarthenshire, demand a grant from your generous council for a tent, and set up some 'lucid blogging' workshops. I might be persuaded to give you a free lesson, in return ...

Cneifiwr said...

Well, Mrs A, I have to admit that I have been eying up my redundant outside privy as a possible tourist experience.

I'm not so sure about lucid blogging. I used to think my blogposts were a little on the long side until I read yours.

Mrs Angry said...

Well, mine are not so much blogging as a saga, a mythical story telling on the Taliesin model. Hard to edit, see? But anyway: if only you had a bespoke falcon rearing facility, I might be tempted to pitch my tent in your field. And don't pretend you have an outside loo, you show off. Nothing wrong with a chamber pot under the bed, is there?