Sham democracy? 

Fulham Town Hall was first built in 1888 and has been a prominent landmark in the centre of Fulham ever since, but today the much-loved building is boarded up and empty, its future hanging in the balance. 

The grade II* listed building is being sold as part of Hammersmith and Fulham council’s policy to sell off underutilised public property to balance the books. The buyer is Dory Ventures, an American private equity company with a controversial history.

After what was described by the council as a rigorous selection process, Dory Ventures was shortlisted as one of two final bidders, the other being a hotel group with a proven track record in converting similar buildings.

The council had appointed a “special forum” of local stakeholders to assist with the sale, but it seems the views and recommendations of the forum had little impact on the council’s decision. The group expressed preference for the town hall to be sold to the hotel group, a recommendation apparently ignored when the council announced that Dory Ventures was the preferred bidder in February 2012.

Members of the public also said they were sceptical about Dory’s plans to convert the town hall into 15 private apartments and a shopping mall, at a time when Hammersmith and Fulham council faces a housing crisis. A freedom of information request in fact revealed that out of the 35 residents who answered a question about which bidder they preferred, just one single person said they preferred Dory’s proposals to the hotel. One resident called Dory’s proposals “An appalling exhibit”, while another rejected it “on all counts”.

And in comments that raise a question mark over why the council appointed the “special forum” to assist with the process in the first place, the leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council, Nick Botterill, said that those who oppose sale of public buildings are naïve.

He said: “Look– people are very naive about what they think. It would be ‘nice’ [to keep public buildings like the hall]? Well, you know, ‘nice’ apple pie, ‘nice’ motherhood.

“But we’re in a realistic, fairly hard world and clearly an offer that is considerably more than another speaks for itself.”

Fulham Society, which was part of the special forum, is among those groups concerned that the integrity of the building will be compromised under Dory’s proposals. The society is made up of 400 members including Greg Hands MP, Andrew Slaughter MP and the Bishop of London.

The Honorary Secretary of Fulham Society, Maya Donelan, who was awarded an MBE in 2010 for her services to youth work, says that the group has “grave concerns” about Dory’s proposals. Her fear is that the retail element will fail.

She said: “It’s a mad idea… I wish I understood what their motives were. Dory was not the first choice for Fulham Society and we are very concerned about the viability of the scheme.

“When the council set out to sell the town hall the aim was to provide the best possible future for the building, and they’ve certainly compromised the building and gone for money.”

As part of Dory’s plans, a large section of the ground floor will be converted into a showroom for one of its brands, Maclaren prams. Some residents are concerned about the corporate governance of the company.

In 2009, Maclaren was embroiled in a scandal when it was forced to recall 1 million prams because a faulty catch mechanism amputated the fingers of up to 20 children, a defect that lacerated, bruised and pinched the fingers of an estimated further 149. Several families of amputees launched lawsuits against Maclaren USA, some of which are believed to still be ongoing.

The term recall has a different meaning in the US and includes product modification – meaning that Maclaren was able to distribute protective hinge covers to consumers in the US. Interestingly, however, the company did not appear to be as concerned about the risk to children in the UK and didn’t issue a recall in the UK, a move that was met with outrage from some parents and consumer groups.

In a bid to justify the move, the owner of Dory Ventures, an Iranian born businessman called Farzad Rastegar told the Financial Times at the time that he didn’t think it was necessary to recall the products in the UK, because American children tended to walk at the side of the prams more often, suggesting that they were at higher risk. The company eventually conceded to pressure and agreed to issue families in the UK with protective hinge covers – but only if they went to the trouble to contact the company directly.

Despite the fact that the Maclaren recall was widely criticised for being poorly handled, Cllr Nick Botterill said he didn’t think it was a huge reputational issue for the company and was prepared to “in the absence of harder testimony” say it wouldn’t affect the council’s decision to sell Fulham town hall to Dory Ventures.

Interestingly, under Dory’s plans, part of the town hall will be used to create an exhibition space for Maclaren prams where members of the public can take part in safety demonstrations. Council leader Nick Botterill appears to find this plan entertaining. He laughed and joked it would be used to show people how to put the prams up “without slicing their fingers off”, before apologising for his “flippant” remarks.

Speaking about the defect he said:

“I’m none the wiser about how these things work but sometimes they do snap and I’m pretty sure that in the whole range of human life people have accidents as a result of it like they do with putting their fingers in car doors.

“[it is like] if you buy a motor home in America [and] it says ‘please do not leave the driving seat while vehicle is in motion’ and somebody [leaves] the wheel to make a drink and [the thing goes] careering off the road… the defence [is]: well it didn’t say you can’t do it! Never mind that it’s patently bleeding obvious.

I’m not trying to make light of people’s [accidents] but when we’re talking about chopped fingers I think we’re talking about slicing.

I do sailing and every year hundreds of people in this country lose bits of fingers in sailing accidents. Do we stop sailing? Do we sue the people that made the boat?”

The parents of children whose fingertips have been amputated would be unlikely to agree. One parent told the Huffington Post his son struggles at school because he can no longer hold a pencil.

Mr Botterill seemed to be equally dismissive about questions relating to the operations of Dory Ventures, which filed to bankrupt Maclaren USA under Chapter 7 in the USA just two months before the council announced it was the preferred bidder. Under Chapter 7, pending lawsuits can be halted.

A former employee of Maclaren USA, a designer called David Netto, claims that the bankruptcy is a fraudulent move to write off the company’s debts and lawsuit liabilities. He claims to be owed more than $1million by the company and attempted to sue Farzad Rastegar for fraud in June. Mr Netto’s legal counsel told the Huffington Post that Mr Rastegar had "methodically bankrupted Maclaren USA for his own personal benefit through a series of fraudulent transactions”.

Bahman Kia, a spokesperson for Dory Ventures, said the case had been thrown out of court but refused to comment any further, saying he was puzzled by questions relating to the bankruptcy of Maclaren USA, which he said were not relevant.

Referring to the move as “financial restructuring”, Nick Botterill said that the owner of Dory Ventures was a “very rich person” and that all due diligence had been observed in selecting Dory Ventures as the buyer.

He added: “The last thing we want [is for the sale to fall through] – not just because we don’t want council officers to waste time on a failed bid – but because equally it doesn’t look good.”

Mr Botterill suggested Dory Ventures had offered considerably more money than any other buyer, but Hammersmith and Fulham has so far refused to disclose the value of the sale on the grounds that it is commercially sensitive.

The press office said that the decision to sell to Dory was not purely a financially motivated and that the aim of the exhibition was to inform residents about the choice that the council faced. In fact, the council says it commissioned a retail viability report on the back of the event. This report is not in the public domain and has not been shown to members of the special forum.

Dory Ventures currently holds a period of exclusivity on purchase property and, subject to planning permission, the sale is expected to be complete in the coming months when full consultation will commence.

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