Final Bristol Bedminster TMO Assessment Released

March 6, 2012 - PRLog -- The Final Assessment of the Bedminster TMO (Tenant Management Organisation) in development, which wanted to take over management of 1842 homes from Bristol City Council, has been obtained by campaigners against it under the Freedom of Information Act. The TMO failed two final assessments, which legally should have been the end of the process, but the group appealed and had a third one.  The independent assessor lists a huge number of problems and missed requirements. The report reveals that the project spent £212,339.64 in direct costs since they started the Feasibility and Development stage in 2008.

"This review fully supports the Approved Assessor’s judgement in the Stage 3 reassessment that based on the evidence provided; Bedminster TMO is not competent to manage the housing. "

The problems included an unrealistic business plan, a lack of community support, and difficulties in almost every area of planning and delivery of services, from budgeting, through auditing, fraud prevention and human resources management.  The TMO board had few members, with people leaving because of the workload, which was very heavy for unpaid volunteers.

The report says, "The group also claimed a lack of funding although they must have been aware that they have received considerably more grant than any other group in TEP history."

The report also states "Residents in the area of benefit are overwhelmingly satisfied with the service the Council provides. "

Because of the lack of credible membership information, and with a claimed membership of 347 residents, which is short of the 20% needed to launch a Right-to-Manage proposal there is the suspicion amongst the Anti-TMO campaigners that the development never had sufficient support to start up in the first place.

Mike Chappell, Redcliffe Tenant and the acting Chair of The Redcliffe Community Forum, who had opposed the TMO from its inception, said, "The Bedminster TMO steering group did not understand the crucial need to bring grass roots support to this process, when initially over 3000 homes were involved. It should have been critical in the early stages of this TMO to make sure there was valid membership before issuing it's proposal - the Bedminster TMO did not get this and hence it was doomed to fail from the start."

A huge sum has been spent on a project which was not wanted and funded at least 25% by the City Council in hard financial times. When the City Council are closing Customer Service Points and proposing an 8.4% rent increase for it’s tenants, they should at the same time scrutinise very carefully the three remaining Bristol TMOs that are currently in development. They should also implement more detailed scrutiny of future RTM proposals to weed out those, like Bedminster TMO, that are never going to be viable to avoid this terrible waste to the public purse.

Websites: http://www.bedminstertmo.co.uk,  http://www.notmo.org.uk

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