Terrain Aeration’s David Green seems to be suffering from ‘not a happy bunny syndrome’ as he turns his attention to late payment.
According to the Financial Services Bureau, it costs the UK economy £2 billion a year and still nothing gets done - and the list of excuses gets longer ... you probably get the picture by now!
AS a relatively small business there is a ton of legislation to deal with - Health and Safety, employment law, pressure vessel regulations and a string of acronyms - LOLA, PUWER, PAT, VAT, PAYE, NI, all of which we have to comply with and administer under threat of financial penalties or prison.
Why then has our legal system omitted
to create a sensible framework for the recovery of commercial debts? Late payment, according to the
Financial Services Bureau, is costing the UK economy about two billion quid a year and is responsible for sizeable numbers of small business failures. It is the supplying business that ends up paying high rates of interest on their overdraft, and enduring cash flow problems, simply because some other organisation either decides they will not pay on time or deliberately puts obstacles in the way of payment. The excuses are legion - cheque’s in the post (it never is), we’ve lost the
invoice, the cheque’s drawn up but unsigned, the director or supervisor is on holiday, I cannot find the official order, I’ve signed off for payment now, you need to speak to accounts, etc. etc. These excuses have been around for years and are bad enough, but there is now a new breed of excuse. Before carrying out the work for a particular customer my company had to be “approved”. Environmental and Health and Safety regulations, Equal Opportunities requirements etc., all had to be met to gain approval. We were duly approved at the time the job was done, but found that the approval had been magically revoked when payment was being pursued.
This change in status had nothing to do with the work, it was because the public and employee liability insurance renewal date had fallen after the job was done and after the due date for payment, but before payment had been made.
My argument was that we were fully
insured at both the time the work was carried out and beyond the due date for payment, but this fell on deaf ears The client demanded to see renewed insurance certificates before releasing the cheque. Now, I don’t know about your insurers, but my broker takes a good deal of time to send me the official insurance certificates following renewal and this is, normally, absolutely no problem. I had sent in copies of an email from
my broker confirming the receipt of the £6,500 cheque to pay for that renewal (further damaging my cash flow), but Mr. Jobsworth working for the client was not happy with that. Oh no, he wanted to see the actual insurance company’s letters confirming renewal, and the policy itself. Until he saw the renewal he could not release payment for the work carried out under the previous year’s insurance. This tactic resulted in a further thirty days of delay before the cheque finally arrived,
Unsung Hero retires after 40 years service
ARTHUR Williams was the Head Groundsman at Ynysangharad Park, Pontypridd for over forty years. During his career he worked in all aspects of grounds maintenance in the park, which include bowls, golf, football and rugby. But his first love was cricket. Ynysangharad Park cricket field is well
know in cricketing circles throughout South Wales for its excellent wicket, outfield and picturesque setting. Arthur prepared wicket for touring matches against South Africa and Pakistan, County Championship matches and one-day games. He was also involved in the
maintenance of Sardis Road Rugby Ground, home of Pontypridd RFC, commonly know in rugby circles as the ‘House of Pain’, and worked minor miracles on some occasions, to get games played.
He prepared pitches for the 1991 Rugby
World Cup fixture between Western Samoa and Argentina and touring fixtures for Pontypridd RFC against Australia, South Africa and many Wales ‘A’ internationals.
But, there is another side to Arthur which very few people know anything about, which was recognised by his managers at Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC, resulting in him being nominated for and winning ‘The Terrain Aeration Unsung Hero Award 2006’. He was nominated for this award for his
work with persons who came to work in the park and who had various problems and disabilities. He was a welcoming face to them, a mentor and a contact with their supervisors. Besides this, Arthur was always willing to share his experience and knowledge with all members of staff, and has helped many young groundsmen to
Grumpy
old Git!
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