Trouble at t'Mill

Well it looks like Action Deafness is closing the Loughborough Deaf Centre on Aug 31st.

On the one hand they say this is because it needs £300,000 of essential maintenance work.

On the other hand this could be complete b*&%"*&s.

One of the groups that use the centre put the estimate at £5,000. Some discrepancy here wouldn't you say?

Certainly Action Deafness's accounts have nearly always shown a deficit but in recent years this has become huge and it seems more likely it is a cost cutting exercise and they are using the maintenance costs as an excuse. In 2005/06 the deficit was £77,000. In 2006/07 it was £311,000 and for 2007/08 it was £328,000. Some would argue that this has to fall at the feet of the CEO who was employed in Oct 2005. Well, the buck has to stop somewhere you know.

As a matter of fact since October 2005 there have been at least 11 people on the wrong end of restructuring and redundancies there. Yet, no money saved. So how come?

In most organisations the goal of redundancies is to save money so why is this not happening at Action Deafness? As some of these jobs positions are not even 12 months old it begs the question who conducted a viability assessment prior to creating these jobs? Oh, that would be the CEO then.

In fact, it would seem that no one is asking the question of whether instead of making all these redundancies at the expense of staff, would it not be simpler to get a new CEO, one with better management skills. Except for one person, an unnamed crusader, Deaf Power who has set up a Facebook page dedicated to this question. Quite rightly, they are concerned that Leicester Deaf Centre is next on the list for closure. And with this amount of annual deficit they have every right to be.

There is an online petition to save the Loughborough Deaf Centre and I would also urge people to please sign it and show support. It may already be too late as this has been presented as a fait accompli with absolutely no consultation with the Deaf Community, however, strong resistance might finally persuade the trustees that they have the wrong person in charge.