The government awarded the Hamp Ward in Bridgwater Somerset a Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) of about £3.6 million covering the years 2000 to 2006. Some of the exit strategies included a free internet dome to cover the whole estate, a website to connect the estate, a radio station to inform the estate, plus many other smaller projects to improve the estate.

None of these things materialised, and many members of the public are questioning why?

Sedgemoor District Council and Hamp Community Association were responsible for the implementation of the funding to overlook and assure that the exit strategies were met. The end evaluation says everything has been accounted for but none of it exists. If you look on page 74 (blue area) you will see the figures that were spent on these, and other, projects.

 http://www.box.net/shared/vt1sdhabdq

The evaluation itself was conducted with surveys completed by 113 people, which is less than 1% of the total population of the Hamp Estate. Some of the facts and figures in the evaluation are out-of-date and no longer valid and those that were interviewed for the evaluation had a stake-holders interest either as a member of Hamp Community Association or Sedgemoor District Council. This one-sided form of interview is highly frowned upon and unethical when evaluating. Outside sources were not interviewed and households were not asked to take part.

The board of Hamp Community Association also comes into question; the original board, those that oversaw the funding; as to how they managed the funding and who they employed to conduct the implemtation of the exit strategies. Also the original board were largely local labour councilleers who had a vested interest in community assets such as the local Information and Advice Centre in Edinburgh Road. It is quite ironic that if you type 'Hamp Information and Advice Centre' into your search engine the Bridgwater Labour Blog appears.

The radio station (Visit Healthy FM’s website) is a dead link and doesn't exist although Sedgemoor District Council says it does.  http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=6018337 It did exist all but briefly.

There is no Hamp website and no website to Hamp Information and Advice Centre, the google searches repeatedly bring up Labour Blogs and Hamp Community Association.

 http://hamplabour.blogspot.com/

Some members of the Hamp Community Association have resigned but are still active in other community funded projects.  http://tinyurl.com/2vds4n6 and are currently re-grouping to form yet another board. Again several of these members are labour councilleers.

Many members of the local community have been asking questions and many are personally involved in one way or another. There is a Facebook Group which shows many are outraged by treatment they have recieved and als that accusations have been made to key members of the local community.

 http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=220205962537

The Hamp Community Association has, it is believed, failed the local community. Volunteers have spoken of being treated badly by members of the board and even been shouted at or accussed of serious crimes.

When the money was first believed to have gone missing, documents were removed from the Hamp Community Associations headquarters at 1 Edinburgh Road. The police were involved but members were told that they didn't investigate this type of crime. An audit was carried out by Sedgemoor District Council and again members were told that nothing was amiss. A protest march was held by local community member and the local paper briefly mentioned this.  http://tinyurl.com/32oyjag

The protesters never had their questions answered "Where did the money go?"

Another question that needs answering, why is Sedgemoor District Council helping a new board regroup? Surely if they help one charity they should help all? There seems to be a lot going on in this small town that a lot of people are unaware of.