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Lottery-funded bike hire and training scheme in Cornwall saw money "frittered away on non-existent project"

Par Bay Bike Hire received £33,200 in funding - but people are wondering where the money has gone

A bike hire scheme in Cornwall that benefited from more than £30,000 in funding through the National Lottery failed to get off the ground – and locals are wondering where the money went, with one person supposed to have been trained claiming it had been “frittered away on a now non-existent project.”

An in-depth investigation by Cornwall Live reveals that Par Bay Bike Hire received £33,200 for what was described as a “youth entrepreneurship training and bike hire project” in the Par area.

The money was awarded under a Big Lottery grant from Par Bay Big Local (PBBL), whose financial administration is handled by the Eden Project, to the scheme’s founder, Josh Taylor.

But according to Cornwall Live, no-one received training and bikes donated to the project by locals were left to rust in a barn.

In a report dated 31 May 2015, PBBL said that the scheme was intended to help under-25s “develop the skills and confidence to run their own ventures or to be part of a new bike hire business in the area.”

It claimed that 10 people had received training and some had secured new jobs or started their own businesses.

But one person who was supposed to have received training under the scheme said: “It is my opinion that £33,000 was a definite waste of money and, as anyone can see, the Par Bay Bike Hire project was not successful.

“This money could have been used elsewhere and, instead, it has been frittered away on a now non-existent project.”

The would-be trainee, speaking anonymously, said: “I only attended a maximum of two meetings, the first of which was a photo shoot and then coming up with ideas to generate sponsorship, which, in my opinion, didn’t make sense as PBBL has already provided £33,000 towards this project."

They added that Mr Taylor had set up a secret Facebook group to communicate with people involved in the scheme.

 “Josh messaged the group to tell everyone that he and Trudy [Thompson, his business partner] would be taking over the project but we would still receive updates on how it was coming along. I do not recall receiving any updates and the secret group was deleted shortly after this.

“As it was a secret group, there are no traces of its existence on Facebook, not within the messages or the group function. In my opinion, this was done to sweep it under the carpet so people would forget about it.”

Another supposed trainee said: “I was approached by Josh and shown wonderful plans and ideas of how the scheme was going to benefit not only the young people who would work within it but the whole community.

“I only ever had two encounters with the bike scheme since that initial conversation – a photo shoot to promote the bike hire company and being asked to get stickers produced to put on the bikes. The promise of training or a future business project within it was never spoken of again.”

“Over the months, local people kindly donated their old bikes. Josh soon realised that he couldn’t use them due to health and safety and insurance reasons,” she continued.

“They were put into one of the barns to be used as training for the future bike mechanics. I never saw a single one of those bikes leave the barn.

“Slowly rusting and deteriorating, I always thought it was such a shame as they really were bikes in good order and could have been given back to the community.”

She added: “My personal experience of the matter led me to think that the £33k grant was not spent well. In fact, I cannot see where it went. How anyone from PBBL can justify the bike hire scheme was a legitimate scheme and benefited the community is beyond me.”

A separate venture that Mr Taylor operated with Ms Thompson, the Tywardreath Village Shop, closed without warning on Monday, according to Cornwall Live. The pair raised £470,000 from locals to save the shop, but people who loaned the money are now reportedly worried they will not see it again.

Former shop manager Tom Larkin recalled a barn there “filling up” with donated bikes, but said “nothing ever happened” with them.

By the end of summer 2016, the bike hire had wound down to virtually nothing at all … and the following year it was effectively non-existent,” he added.

“As far as I am concerned nothing ever came of the £33k grant. All that remains are a fleet of rusty bikes. I fail to see how anyone accountable for this money can justify it as money well spent.”

In a statement, the Local Trust which oversees PBBL confirmed that in April 2015 it “agreed an award to Josh Taylor for £33,200 to develop a youth entrepreneur project which used a bike hire scheme as a vehicle to deliver training to young people.

"The Partnership is satisfied that the funding awarded was spent directly on the delivery of both aspects of the project. Investment in local young people was a particular feature of this project and the Partnership is satisfied that the entrepreneurial training has had a positive impact on many of those who participated,” it added.

Cornwall Live said it had requested evidence that the project was delivered but had not received a reply.

While Mr Taylor did not reply to a request for comment, Cornwall Live received an email from Ms Thompson, who said: "If you want answers about our shop, funding or even the bike hire scheme all you need to do is read back what we have already been very publicly and openly saying in updates for the last year here."

The website she linked stated: "The bike scheme is fully operational, it has been run by Josh as his own project with help from local young people for over two years,” and claimed that more than 50 young people had benefited from training during that time.”

Cornwall Live added that a link on that webpage to parbaybikehire.com resulted in a message saying  “this website is under construction.”

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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13 comments

Avatar
Gs | 5 years ago
0 likes

This bike project was all about mentoring 10 young people to set up a small business and help them into employment. It was an exact copy of another very good project in Guildford that still runs. Nothing wrong in copying something that works and does good.

It didn’t need £330,000 as mention by another reader. Premises were provided, bikes were donated and others were purchased from another Bike hire company in Padstow (15 bikes costing about £2000)...Wages are not relevant as the trainees were to do the work. Mr Taylor goes on record as saying he would give his time for free...He invoiced the project for £14k for doing nothing.

This is a shocking waste of money and even more shocking that The funders are refusing to accept they have been scammed.....Think what £33k could have been spent on in your community, i don’t think you can brush this under the carpet saying it is small fry.

Local trust should take responsibility and accept they need to up skill there Local funders rather than accepting the fraud and quoting the use the ‘Light Touch’.

 

 

Avatar
Gs | 5 years ago
1 like

This bike project was all about mentoring 10 young people to set up a small business and help them into employment. It was an exact copy of another very good project in Guildford that still runs. Nothing wrong in copying something that works and does good.

It didn’t need £330,000 as mention by another reader. Premises were provided, bikes were donated and others were purchased from another Bike hire company in Padstow (15 bikes costing about £2000)...Wages are not relevant as the trainees were to do the work. Mr Taylor goes on record as saying he would give his time for free...He invoiced the project for £14k for doing nothing.

This is a shocking waste of money and even more shocking that The funders are refusing to accept they have been scammed.....Think what £33k could have been spent on in your community, i don’t think you can brush this under the carpet saying it is small fry.

Local trust should take responsibility and accept they need to up skill there Local funders rather than accepting the fraud and quoting the use the ‘Light Touch’.

 

 

Avatar
ClubSmed | 5 years ago
2 likes

£33k is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, that would soon go in administration, bike mechanic wages and storage costs.

The other story hiden in the article regarding the local shop seems to be the big story worthy of investigation, this is just small fry really.

Avatar
Htc replied to ClubSmed | 5 years ago
0 likes

ClubSmed wrote:

£33k is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, that would soon go in administration, bike mechanic wages and storage costs.

The other story hiden in the article regarding the local shop seems to be the big story worthy of investigation, this is just small fry really.

 

Agreed - 33k goes nowhere. 330k would have a been a more realistic figure for setting something like this up.

Avatar
Dr_Lex replied to ClubSmed | 5 years ago
1 like

ClubSmed wrote:

[…]

The other story hiden in the article regarding the local shop seems to be the big story worthy of investigation, this is just small fry really.

Especially since the shop was owned by one of the pair mentioned in the article. Good to see a local news site do something investigative, rather than rehash some press releases and repeat traffic news and Court cases with zero editorial input.

Avatar
Gs replied to ClubSmed | 5 years ago
0 likes

The issue with this story that he scammed a local community out of £33k. I don’t agree this is small fry, this money went into one individuals pocket rather them help set up a very worth while project....He actually went on a road trip to USA shortly after receiving the money,,,,,and not on a bike!

£33k is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, that would soon go in administration, bike mechanic wages and storage costs.

The other story hiden in the article regarding the local shop seems to be the big story worthy of investigation, this is just small fry really.

[/quote]

Avatar
burtthebike | 5 years ago
1 like

Reminds me of when I worked for a local authority, promoting active travel.  Someone came up with a clever phrase about active travel and got a large grant to start a campaign based on that phrase, despite having no experience or knowledge of running anything similar, and what they would be doing replicated what the council was already doing; but they did have friends on the council.

It sank without trace, along with the money.

Avatar
FrankH | 5 years ago
1 like

Lottery money. Why am I not surprised?

I used to play the lottery. It was a bit of fun and the proceeds (I thought) were going to good causes.

I stopped playing when I realised that my definition of good causes differed from the people tasked with spending the money.

Avatar
Bungle73 replied to FrankH | 5 years ago
0 likes

FrankH wrote:

Lottery money. Why am I not surprised?

I used to play the lottery. It was a bit of fun and the proceeds (I thought) were going to good causes.

I stopped playing when I realised that my definition of good causes differed from the people tasked with spending the money.

Like what? Sounds that you’re just another person who has succumbed to tabloid sensationalism.

Avatar
FrankH replied to Bungle73 | 5 years ago
1 like

Bungle73 wrote:

Like what? Sounds that you’re just another person who has succumbed to tabloid sensationalism.

Like what? Like buying Olympic medals with lottery money. I quite like Britain winning Olympic medals but paying people to do what most of us do for free doesn't align with my definition of a good cause.

Avatar
Bungle73 replied to FrankH | 5 years ago
0 likes

FrankH wrote:

Bungle73 wrote:

Like what? Sounds that you’re just another person who has succumbed to tabloid sensationalism.

Like what? Like buying Olympic medals with lottery money. I quite like Britain winning Olympic medals but paying people to do what most of us do for free doesn't align with my definition of a good cause.

So inspiring  more people to take up sport is not money well spent in your eyes?

Avatar
cqexbesd replied to Bungle73 | 5 years ago
1 like

Bungle73 wrote:

So inspiring  more people to take up sport is not money well spent in your eyes?

Presumably it comes down to how much inspiration for how much money.

My understanding is that putting money into elite sport does not encourage grass roots participation as much as putting moeny ito grass roots sport. I imagine its a hard thing to qualify though and my opinion is based soley on a vague impression of articles I have read so maybe I am wrong.

https://road.cc/content/news/218091-do-olympics-really-motivate-people-t...

Avatar
Bungle73 replied to FrankH | 5 years ago
0 likes

FrankH wrote:

Lottery money. Why am I not surprised?

I used to play the lottery. It was a bit of fun and the proceeds (I thought) were going to good causes.

I stopped playing when I realised that my definition of good causes differed from the people tasked with spending the money.

Like what? Sounds that you’re just another person who has succumbed to tabloid sensationalism.

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