Businessman talks about the doomed wi-fi project and bankruptcy (From Swindon Advertiser)
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Businessman talks about the doomed wi-fi project and bankruptcy
10:30am Monday 5th September 2011 in News By Barrie Hudson
Rikki Hunt, one of Swindon’s best known and most controversial business figures, whose bankruptcy hit the headlines recently
RIKKI Hunt believes we are shaped by our earliest deeds and experiences.
“When I was at junior school I used to get free meals. The system of the day was that it was two shillings and sixpence for dinner money.
“On dinner money day the teacher would call you out and you would have to pay your dinner money. I used to hate that day because every week I had to say, ‘free meals, miss’ in front of everybody.
“I only did that for six or seven weeks and then I’d say ‘Going home miss’, and sit outside at lunchtime and not have anything. It was better than baring your soul.”
The defiant child was to be a market trader at 15, a supermarket manager while still in his teens and Britain’s youngest oil company chief executive by the time he reached Swindon in 1991.
In Swindon, he was to become chairman of the football club, a prominent entrepreneur, an author and a ceaseless charity fundraiser whose most recent effort saw the 57-year-old come tantalisingly close to the summit of Everest, turning back only when the risk of death became too great.
Rikki is married to Laura and is a dad of two and stepdad of two, ranging in age from 17 to 22.
Originally from Kirkby in Liverpool, he was the fourth of eight children. His father worked for car parts firm AC Delco, and his mother was a factory worker at Kraft.
His schooldays were marked by non-conformism and an inability to resist a dare.
A challenge to jump from an upstairs window at the school cost him a broken ankle. Then there was the game in which boys would put their hand in the path of a slamming iron gate, competing to pull away at the last minute.
That cost him a fingertip, although it was retrieved by his brother and stitched back on after a bus trip to the hospital.
His public profile has lately been overshadowed by the spectres of his bankruptcy and his former leadership of Digital City, the wi-fi company in which Swindon Council is a major stakeholder, and which has been mired in political controversy throughout most of its existence.
The firm was set up to provide coverage for Swindon and Highworth.
Three years on, only Highworth is covered, debate rages over the council’s £400,000 investment and council leader Rod Bluh says a mystery investor has come forward to get the stalled project moving again.
Rikki, who handed over his Digital City stake to the council earlier this year, has long been in the firing line over the wi-fi project, but insists: “Digital City was a fabulous opportunity.”
Pointing out that it was backed not just by him but also by Coun Bluh, the council’s executives and technical partners aQovia, he added: “You cannot take risk out of life or business. You’re trying to minimise risk.
“What people do not appreciate is that I was talking for a long time about the concept, and the executive of the council approached me.
“We all looked at the risks and rewards and decided it was worth doing. It was a good idea and it still is.”
So what went wrong?
“It went wrong almost from day one. That was because some people didn’t agree with the internal process within the council to making this decision.
“Quite frankly the Labour Party decided to capitalise on some of the questioning that was going on around the policies. The rest is history.
“I don’t support any political party. I think some things Labour do are fabulous and some things the Conservatives do are fabulous, but once Labour politicised it...”
He paused before adding: “They had their stick in the hole and they wiggled it. Any problem they could find, they exploited it.
“Once I was being done to death by politicians, nobody would touch me. People were walking away.”
The bankruptcy, he is quick to point out, was nothing to do with Digital City, but stems from an investment he made in 2005.
He resolutely refuses go into further detail, beyond saying that he was led to believe it would provide excellent returns and that it did anything but.
“I have been battling for two years,” he said. “I have been trying to solve it for two years. I had a year of not sleeping.
“It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.”
He has vowed to bounce back, and will announce new projects later in the year.
He said of his bankruptcy: “It has been the most devastating loss I have ever had, but now I have to go out and win.
“I have never been beaten like that and it certainly won’t happen again.”
Comments(46)
SockPuppet
says...
11:05am Mon 5 Sep 11
cherryblossom
says...
11:11am Mon 5 Sep 11
dc the 2nd
says...
11:20am Mon 5 Sep 11
org/wiki/Municipal_w
ireless_network
However its hard to think of a more poorly executed project, but then this always seems to happen in Swindon.
Al Smith
says...
11:30am Mon 5 Sep 11
Hmmmf
says...
11:34am Mon 5 Sep 11
.
'The Labour Party wiggled a stick in a hole'. Really? It was a bloody big hole Mr Hunt, you dug it, the SBC poured money into, and no amount of self-aggrandising propaganda can get you out of it.
P Rowed
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11:35am Mon 5 Sep 11
cherryblossom
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11:38am Mon 5 Sep 11
dc the 2nd wrote:probably the majority of the reasons behind most of the public of Swindon not backing this project was because of the people involved! And to be honest SBC have a good track record of wasting our money I mean just look at the fountain in the middle of town,it might look nice but truth be told the money is NEEDED elsewhere and the stupid hanging garden above the brunel that drips on everyone when it's watered......what an absolute waste of money.......Surely this has got to stop now.....isnt it about time that SBC started asking SWINDON what it wanted as apposed to coming up with these daft and bizarre ideas?
i backed the concept and think that municipal wireless coverage is a good idea. Other cities do too: http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Municipal_w ireless_network However its hard to think of a more poorly executed project, but then this always seems to happen in Swindon.
Home Boy
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11:40am Mon 5 Sep 11
A.Baron-Cohen
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11:49am Mon 5 Sep 11
P Rowed wrote:We are certainly not disputing the wifi concept, which in itself is sound, however its delivery was and still is a fiasco......if Swindon wanted to have a wifi network, because the council used public money, it should have invited companies and individuals to tender....why Mr Bluh didn't follow this due process is yet to explained.....
I believe the project was an outstanding idea and still do. There are many other major cities in the world reaping the benefit of similar wifi coverage. People seem to think that the 400k has been lost and yet we have not yet been told that the new investor has walked away. Comments about it being so secret that it cannot be true abound. The fact that it is so secret tells me that it is real - this is how a professional company would want it to be, you do not blab about a contract before it is signed, that is not sensible commercial behaviour. Of course I may be wrong and if I am I will eat humble pie on this forum, but right now I remain positive on this project and I wish SBC, Mr Hunt and the mystery investor all the best of luck.
I 2 Could B
says...
11:55am Mon 5 Sep 11
£400K of swindon taxpyers money has gone missing and some people in need will not get the care and attention that they deserve.....
This simply isn't the case. This type of statement is specious, at best, and just plain wrong at worst.
I'm as annoyed as anyone that £400k appears to have been thrown into a blackhole, but it does not follow that if had not been spent on the failed WiFi project it would have automatically gone to 'the most vulnerable', or whatever emotive argument it is that you're attempting to present.
Councils have budgets, the money is already allocated (or not) to various departments and areas of spend. It is incorrect to think that money not spent on one project would somehow automatically have been spent on 'people in need' otherwise.
That's one of the major problems with the kind of massively over-taxed society we're forced to live in: nobody truly gets a say over how that money is spent.
I don't agree with the central government's spend on illegal wars and over-inflated foreign aid, but I'm not naive enough to think that if those payments stopped tomorrow the money would be diverted to paying my Nan's heating bills.
I 2 Could B
says...
12:02pm Mon 5 Sep 11
Home Boy wrote:It *may* have had some positive outcomes had it happened within a few months of the glorious PR announcements that rapidly spread through the various media.
I backed it at the time too (and would still like to see it completed). Great idea poorly executed.
Even then, most of it would have been just that, good PR. The actual benefit of a couple of hours of limited 'free' WiFi access in the town centre in itself would have been minor... and, as we move into 2012, almost entirely pointless.
Anyone with a Smartphone will have already arranged for access if they want or need it and anyone else who need to access the Net via other devices can simply stroll into a Starbucks, McDonalds and any number of other retailers, pubs and cafes in order to achieve it. Of course, none of that is truly 'free' either, but there we are.
blahblahblahblah
says...
12:30pm Mon 5 Sep 11
I 2 Could B wrote:but recent bbc studies show 3g networks are almost non existent despite claims from phone companies, highworth itself is a blackhole for mobile signal so this would have been a huge benefit to the area, not to forget the other outlying swindon villages like wroughton etc, people who live in the built up areas seem to only think of that area, much like those in the rural parts of the area dont think about the town centre.
Home Boy wrote:It *may* have had some positive outcomes had it happened within a few months of the glorious PR announcements that rapidly spread through the various media.
I backed it at the time too (and would still like to see it completed). Great idea poorly executed.
Even then, most of it would have been just that, good PR. The actual benefit of a couple of hours of limited 'free' WiFi access in the town centre in itself would have been minor... and, as we move into 2012, almost entirely pointless.
Anyone with a Smartphone will have already arranged for access if they want or need it and anyone else who need to access the Net via other devices can simply stroll into a Starbucks, McDonalds and any number of other retailers, pubs and cafes in order to achieve it. Of course, none of that is truly 'free' either, but there we are.
another thing to think on is that not everyone can afford a smart phone, low income families regulalry do without phonelines and broadband connections (despite what people read in the daily mail) so a free service that would allow their children to do homework or themselves to study/job hunt is a great idea that would improve our community greatly
I 2 Could B
says...
12:40pm Mon 5 Sep 11
It seems odd to expect everyone in every location to be just given free access because it'd be nice.
As ever, somebody somewhere IS paying for it. Virtually nothing is actually free.
Robfm
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12:41pm Mon 5 Sep 11
I note Hunt mentions aQovia, in some form of justification, isn't his wife the sole shareholder of the outfit.?
John Smith II
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1:03pm Mon 5 Sep 11
* - I already have very good 3G access via my mobile and laptop, when I am out and about, which is more than adequate for my needs, which I am going to continue paying for as I need to use them outside of the Swindon area.
* - I already have high speed broadband set up via wi-fi at home - this comes as part of a package including landline and TV services, all of which overall, whether you are with Sky, Virgin, BT or whoever, are generally much cheaper when bought together as a package rather than separate services.
Hence the only way that the Digital City concept could ever appeal to me and I suspect many others would be if it offered something I needed and didn't already have and at a cost that made it viable compared to packages available from other providers.
Perhaps I am missing something with the wi-fi service and that it would deliver previously unknown data service wonders, but I am not convinced.
John. Wootton Bassett
says...
1:42pm Mon 5 Sep 11
It's concerning that he intends to "bounce back", which from a position of nothing will surely only mean borrowing from more people and gambling again in the hope of a "win"?
Bangtidy
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1:54pm Mon 5 Sep 11
Wellfire
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3:05pm Mon 5 Sep 11
John. Wootton Bassett wrote:Self serving nonsense. It failed because it was no good.
Not the first person to rise the corporate ranks of existing firms, only to find that starting something up is a totally different challenge. It's concerning that he intends to "bounce back", which from a position of nothing will surely only mean borrowing from more people and gambling again in the hope of a "win"?
I Too
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3:07pm Mon 5 Sep 11
Wellfire
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3:11pm Mon 5 Sep 11
Red_jools
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3:26pm Mon 5 Sep 11
itsamess
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3:50pm Mon 5 Sep 11
candid friend
says...
4:06pm Mon 5 Sep 11
This just emphasizes the folly of the Conservative Leadership in surrendering a leading role in local development to an unelected businessman clearly unsuited to the role.
The sooner this network of business people seeking "easy pickings" from gullible councillors and officers is dismantled the better.
The body set up by BR to provide jobs for locals(with council involvement on the board) has been magnified into a quasi-regional organisation, with no doubt salaries to match.
What happened to the BR property transferred to what was a Swindon based body for the benefit of ex-railway workers.
Is the benefit now being gobbled up elsewhere by cash hungry executives?
Nostim
says...
4:21pm Mon 5 Sep 11
AdderB
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4:29pm Mon 5 Sep 11
komadori
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6:13pm Mon 5 Sep 11
Robfm
says...
7:07pm Mon 5 Sep 11
Scott Thunes
says...
7:23pm Mon 5 Sep 11
komadori wrote:Well well. How incredibly damning. Who's teling the truth? Chicken or egg? And why cannot the Council leadership tell us anything about how the money was spent? Hmmm, let me see...Mr Hunt was having sleepless nights about his financial problems a couple of years ago. Oh look, £400K fell in hs lap!
Mr Bluh has always said that the wifi proposal did not need to be put out to tender because it wasn't the council's proposal to do wi-fi, Mr Hunt approached them. Now Mr Hunt says the opposite, that it was the council that approached him. Just which of the people involved in this fiasco - if any - can be believed?
Pickles says he wanted an 'army of armchair auditors', so here we are.
Where IS the money?
Robfm
says...
7:38pm Mon 5 Sep 11
Punctured bicycle on a hillside
says...
9:34pm Mon 5 Sep 11
trustnopolitician
says...
10:08pm Mon 5 Sep 11
" having written so many times on this subject when will Bluh or Perkins give us a true statement on Wi-FI or are they both running scared of being caught out by the truth on this matter.I firmly believe that resignations are overdue".
No honour -no resignation
trustnopolitician
says...
10:08pm Mon 5 Sep 11
" having written so many times on this subject when will Bluh or Perkins give us a true statement on Wi-FI or are they both running scared of being caught out by the truth on this matter.I firmly believe that resignations are overdue".
No honour -no resignation
M4 Bypass
says...
10:41pm Mon 5 Sep 11
What expertise did he contribute to Digital City what did he take out of this company?
Why is he bankrupt who does he owe money to? When will his valuable house go up for sale to pay the creditors he (has stolen from oops) owes money to?
I 2 Could B
says...
5:12am Tue 6 Sep 11
trustnopolitician wrote:Very true.
Nostim wrote " having written so many times on this subject when will Bluh or Perkins give us a true statement on Wi-FI or are they both running scared of being caught out by the truth on this matter.I firmly believe that resignations are overdue". No honour -no resignation
There is no honour in politics anymore. The final nail in that coffin was Gordon Brown... and unelected prime minister who refused to stop fiddling whilst Rome was burning, let alone ever considering doing the decent thing and resigning.
Although desperately siezed upon by the pro-Labour brigade, I'm not sure there's much mileage in the 'Who approached who?' avenue of attack.
Discredited, bankrupt businessman with a less than stellar reputation claims the council chased him to undertake the project when he clearly had zero experience in such things? I suppose it's possible, but wouldn't be at all difficult for Bluh to quickly bat that one away.
What is concerning is that the politically motivated use of this debacle in order to try and gain votes for Labour may end up being of disservice to the taxpayers of Swindon as the current leadership will be even less likely to come clean about anything.
Just another number
says...
7:04am Tue 6 Sep 11
Even the best of us can fail. Someone who is likely to recoup their losses and succeed again does not spend their time publicly placing the blame and bragging themselves up for historical achievements. They believe in themselves, accept responsibility for failure, and the lessons it brings, and they move forward with confidence and purpose.
People who have found real success in their lives rarely ever brag themselves up, they have no need to convince themselves or anyone else of their success. It's a fact in their own minds and in their manner and ability.
As it stands at the moment, Rikki Hunt appears to have deceived two obviously gullible members of the Council and walked away with £400,000 of public money with no apology, no explanation, and no accounts filed by Digital City to justify how the money was spent.
It couldn't have gone for office space, that was free. It couldn't have been spent in Highworth, precious little was done there. No interest payments were ever made. So it appears that Rikki Hunt was simply drawing a very large salary.
Robfm
says...
7:13am Tue 6 Sep 11
As for his house I was under the impression it was repossessed prior to bankruptcy as it was the security for a number of businesses, one of which as he writes, seriously failed.
The Real Librarian
says...
7:23am Tue 6 Sep 11
.
Lets be clear;
It was a stupid idea.
It was decided upon undemocratically
It was funded in dubious looking ways.
It was not subject to proper scrutiny.
It was never going to succeed.
.
Most importantly, it was bleedin obvious from the start that it was never going to work.
.
SBC shouldn't have touched this idea or this dubious individual with a bargepole.
Robfm
says...
7:46am Tue 6 Sep 11
Wellfire
says...
10:06am Tue 6 Sep 11
As for the SBC's claim that they will recover their (our) money, they must have gone to a different business school to me. A loss is a loss. You might do better next time, but you don't recover them.
Robfm
says...
10:11am Tue 6 Sep 11
candid friend
says...
12:22pm Tue 6 Sep 11
He was the C.E. of the petrol station subsidiary of Burmah Oil.
When they sold the chain he left as well.
His CV merits close scrutiny!
Wellfire
says...
2:30pm Tue 6 Sep 11
Candid Friend, you are correct. I worked for the forerunner of that division at Burmah before Rikki Hunt's time and when it had refining and product trading functions. Rikki was C.E. of what remained after the refinery's closure, effectively a reseller of other companies' petrol.
beaulieu
says...
1:20pm Thu 8 Sep 11
Either Rhunt went to school in another country where £ l d were the national currency, or ......
His memory is as bad as his accounting skills !
He had a darker motive for the memory lapses ?
1950 Price of school meals increased to 6d.
1953 Price of school meals increased to 9d.
1956 Price of school meals increased to 10d.
1957 Price of school meals increased to 1s.
1968 Price of school meals increased to Is 6d.
NB. This represents the daily charge for meals, so where does the 2/6 come from ?
Maybe he was charging his Parents 2/6 per day, investing the money and then claiming impecuniousness ???
Highworth red
says...
8:33am Fri 9 Sep 11
Highworth red
says...
8:33am Fri 9 Sep 11
A.Baron-Cohen says...
10:47am Mon 5 Sep 11
You are free to do your mea culpa via the media, but as an honest person, I would suggest that you actually spend hours, days, weeks, months working for charities helping the very people that you have deprived of essential public funds.