Unacceptable problems with the financial relationship between Southwark Council have forced the JMB to adjorn its Annual General Meeting until November.
JMB members at the meeting voted unanimously to serve Southwark Council with a ‘Breach Notice’ – a formal legal document to say that the Council was not fulfilling its obligations to the JMB under the terms of the legal agreement between them.
Members then agreed that the AGM would have to be formally adjourned – until November – so that accurate figures could be produced.
Financial issues
In a letter to the JMB Directors, independent auditors Reeves & Neylan said the current relationship between Southwark Council and the JMB was “not working” and was causing the JMB severe difficulties.
“Due to the way that the finance department of Southwark Council appears to operate it is
not possible for them to provide any accurate figures within what would be an acceptable
timeframe in the commercial arena.” (Read the full letter to the directors)
Reeves & Neylan partner Peter Hudson told the meeting that a series of financial problems with Southwark Council had meant that the JMB’s accounts for the previous year would have to be ‘restated’ – so that the profit reported to the September 2008 meeting would now have to be reported as a £120,000 loss, and the JMB was set to make a substantial loss for the financial year 2008/09.
However Peter Hudson reassured JMB members that there wasn’t a problem with the financial management within the JMB. The auditors letter said “We have no concerns with regards to the finance function within the JMB”
An outline of the current financial situation was presented to the meeting (Read the financial outline) but Peter Hudson warned JMB members that this did not present the full picture as there were many issues still to be sorted out with Southwark Council, which would mean the figures could change substantially in the final accounts.
Peter Hudson also told members that the financial issues with Southwark Council would need to be resolved by the end of October 2009 if the JMB were to meet its obligations under company law.
Other issues in the meeting
JMB members were presented with the Agenda for the meeting and asked to confirm that the Mintues of the last AGM in September 2008 were correct
JMB Chair John Paul Maytum told the meeting that, despite the financial issues, he felt very proud to live on a JMB estate and that a recent Directors inspection found the JMB estates were looking in a much better condition than they had for many years. A number of members agreed that the JMB estates were continuing to improve and certainly looked better than the surronding estates.
John Paul also paid tribute to the hard work of the JMB staff who had worked with JMB residents over the past year to make these improvements happen.
(we hope to update this page shortly with more details of the September meeting and details of the November meeting for all JMB residents. Please come back and check for more information.)
