GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

nursery. We had our comrade at the back there, Roy, talking about ethical stuff

that we should be doing as an organisation. There is nothing more ethical than

helping the society where you are based, providing children places in nursery,

providing housing where it is generally needed, providing education where it is

needed. All those things to me are ethical and that is what we should be doing.

But we need hotel rooms. We know there is a demand within that area for

hotel rooms. The place at the top of the road, Quorn Country Grange, is a

dump, I have got to say. I have stayed there. It looks okay from the outside. I

have stayed there, it is a dump. Their executive rooms are worse than the

worst rooms they had in Quorn before we did them up. That is how bad that

hotel is. They are the best advertisement we have got in that area and by

expanding we can fill them up, but all the time if people did desert the hotel we

have got an asset that we can sell on and we have also got those ten houses

that we own. I hope that the Executive looks even further and that we have

some educational building on that site, because if we are an educational trust

and we are an educational provider, then what greater way of providing an

education than by having your own place to deliver that education rather than

just using the smallest rooms we have got. The biggest thing in there is that it

is ours. It is absolutely our place. We are right to be cautious, but, as I say,

look at what the alternatives are. We are making money now in the bank, the

chances are that money will go down in the future. Property keeps its value.

When Central House was bought it was not £13 million, it was a lot less, but we

got £13 million. We realised a big asset and that is the same with any of these

commercial properties. We have got something for the future. As I say,

everything else is an asset.

I am going to finish on this before I talk about Roy, because he upset me

before really, I was cut to the quick! My mum used to say empty vessels make

the most noise and, okay, you got away with it! (Laughter) The one thing I will

say about Quorn, we are sat in a captive audience here and we can all put our

hands up in support of what the Executive is trying to do and the Finance

Committee is trying to do, but it is not just about putting your hands up, it is

about doing something. We have an asset that is ours that we should be using

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