BPA Ltd failing to pay London Councils for POPLA Service

bazster

London Councils initially proposed to hide this shortfall by distributing it around other budgets but thanks to interference by those pesky kids it's out in the open now and they've been forced to take the stance that it's a bad debt they will seek to recover.

More popcorn ordered...

Aaron_Aadvark

Let us remember that Mr Lester assured members of the London Councils' Transport and Environment Sub-Committee in his briefing for the meeting on 11 September 2014 that:

"Financial implications for London Councils

There are no financial implications for London Councils from this recommendation"

http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/node/23182

Also, the set up approval for POPLA was clear that:

"Criterion 4: Is the service fully funded?

The proposed tender would be priced so that all costs identified by London Councils would be met, and in particular set up costs would be met immediately rather than paid for over the life of the contract."

http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/node/21307

peter_the_piper

anyone squealed to the MP's who were on the committee?

Castle

Maybe London Councils could assign the debt to "Deal" or "MIL"; would make a change for them to deal with a real debt for once!

nigelbb

Why am I not surprised that a collection of crooks & scammers should welch on their debts?

peter_the_piper

Pity that company ccj's don't flow through onto the owners/directors, not that there any (Yet).

Ed2000

You have half the picture.

Patrick Troy of BPA raised objection in JUNE 2014.

London Councils could have taken BPA to mediation in August 2014 but have not done so.

London Councils is clearly not confident of its chances in court.

Nick Lester used to be a board member of the BPA and is besty mates with Troy........... for now.


I trust that London Councils will shortly be taking enforcement action

Gryphon005 wrote: »

From the Pranksters Blog (comments section) it is reported that an FOI request has revealed that BPA Ltd currently owe around £168k to London Councils for POPLA appeals.
Also that BPA Ltd first defaulted on their payments on 20th Feb 2015.

See:https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/290903/response/710349/attach/html/2/Green%20response%20FOI%202015%2057.pdf.html



:rotfl::T.

Grimble

BPA are claiming it is a speculative invoice, they did not see the signage, there was lots of small print, therefore a contract could not be formed.

Gryphon005

Although there is some doubt as to whether London Councils had the authority to offer POPLA services from the outset, the fact is that they won the contract and operated POPLA for three years.

It is clearly "In the Public Interest" that London Councils should recover the £168k owed to them by BPA Ltd, and as a London council taxpayer myself, I resent even 1p of my council tax being used to fund such a despicable organisation.

The courts are always a lottery (as we have seen with PE v Beavis), but with £168k at stake, it is more than worth a try. I would like to see London Councils make strenuous efforts to recover the sum owing, and I shall be writing to my London Assembly member to tell her so.

bazster

Gryphon005 wrote: »

Although there is some doubt as to whether London Councils had the authority to offer POPLA services from the outset, the fact is that they won the contract and operated POPLA for three years.

It is clearly "In the Public Interest" that London Councils should recover the £168k owed to them by BPA Ltd, and as a London council taxpayer myself, I resent even 1p of my council tax being used to fund such a despicable organisation.

The courts are always a lottery (as we have seen with PE v Beavis), but with £168k at stake, it is more than worth a try. I would like to see London Councils make strenuous efforts to recover the sum owing, and I shall be writing to my London Assembly member to tell her so.

You should write to your local councillors. It's your council (and all the other London councils) who pick up the tab for London Councils and it's quite possible that they are not up to speed on this financially-catastrophic, pointless Nick Lester vanity project.

You need to get them to lean on LC as hard as possible to get this money back. Unfortunately I believe the days of surcharging are long over so probably there's no way to make Lester personally liable for it, unless anyone knows better?