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Date: Sunday, 24 April 2005

Title: Computer recycling project shuts down

Source: http://www.northern-times.co.uk/

Remarks: None

A successful computer recycling project in Golspie, hailed as a model for the rest of the country, is to close at the end of the month with the loss of three full-time jobs. Since it started six years ago Mobius, based on Golspie Industrial Estate, has recycled thousands of pieces of discarded computer equipment which would otherwise have added to the nation's already massive landfill waste disposal problem. The company has now come to the end of a commercial contract and efforts to find outside funding have failed. The decision to shut down was taken two weeks ago by the two directors on the Mobius board of management, Bruce Field and Ann Keatinge. Project manager Peter Barns and workers Scott Johnston and Donald Grant have already been given redundancy notices. One of the workers has claimed the board could have been more proactive in managing the company and pursuing funding possibilities. But board chairman Bruce Field criticised funding agencies for not supporting the project and for the length of time taken to respond to funding applications. He said: "Enough funds are available only to continue operating until April 30 and to cover redundancy and other costs. We cannot go on without money, and we have no money." Mobius began about six years ago as a pilot project which then gained a three-year package of funding from various public bodies. The company became incorporated last year. It was kept afloat for the last two years by its commercial contract with Fujitsu, which has just come to an end, to refurbish 3500 computers for the Highland Council. The board had been seeking £96,000 to keep going for another year. It was planned to take on an extra worker, which would have freed project manager Peter Barns to make the company more commercially orientated and market its services on a wider scale. Mr Barns has been developing new services, including an "end of life asset management service" for medium sized and larger organisations planning to change their computer equipment. But an application to the Highland Council for funding from the Strategic Waste Fund was turned down. A similar bid to the Scottish Executive's Increase programme has not yet been determined, but it is now too late to save the company. by Caroline McMorran Mobius worker Scott Johnston this week told the Northern Times he felt the board could have done more to save the company. "They just seemed to be non-existent and never appeared to take an active role in running the business. We never saw them while we had the Fujitsu contract, " he said. Board chairman Bruce Field strongly refutes suggestions they could have been more proactive and were tardy in submitting their funding applications. He is critical of the funding agencies for the time taken to process the applications. "A great amount of effort has been put into this organisation by the board of management since we became a limited company, unfortunately for no result, " he said. "We did everything to the timescale that was required - that is totally unequivocal - and it distresses me that we could not be responded to in the same vein. "We have applied for this money to turn us around to go in a different direction. All we got was a verbal intimation by 6th April that Increase would 'perhaps' provide funding. How can you operate on that? You can't. "If I had realised that the delays in dealing with applications would be so lengthy I'm sure the board would have agreed with me that we should have taken the winding up decision even earlier. I am disappointed that Mobius has come to the end of the road and that funding could not be provided." David Bryan, the local development officer for the Community Recycling Network for Scotland (CRNS), an umbrella organisation for community groups involved in waste reduction, has been assisting Mobius in trying to access Increase funding. He said efforts were still continuing. Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MSP Jamie Stone has now offered to broker a meeting between board members and the funding agencies involved. He said this week: "If it would be of any help I would be very happy to impartially chair a faceto-face meeting between representatives of Mobius and funding bodies. I am happy to find the time to do this, if for no other reason than that jobs - be it one or two jobs - are vital. "Many bodies come to me at an early stage looking for support for funding. I'm always happy to provide this, so perhaps it's unfortunate that I have only today been told of the situation." Sitting MP John Thurso, now the Liberal Democrat candidate for the constituency, said : "I think it is extremely sad news that this project has come to an end. If I get back into office following the election I will look to see if there is anything I can do to help." Highland councillor for Golspie, Ian Ross, said he had been aware there were problems over future funding and he had worked with the board to seek a possible solution. "I am particularly disappointed to see the loss of this important provision and expertise, and feel very strongly there must be a greater need for such facilities in the future, " he said. "It is a source of great regret that funding support was not available. We need to reuse and recycle much of what is presently disposed of as waste, and Mobius was a fine example of such good practice. It is necessary to ensure such projects have access to sustainable long-term funding which is linked to successful performance, but also recognises waste management is not just about large-volume diversion from landfill." Since its inception Mobius has diverted some 26,800 individual pieces of computer equipment - about 194 tonnes - away from landfill disposal. Over 600 refurbished computers have been passed on to community groups and others. Together with their neighbours on the industrial estate, the Golspie Recycling and Environmental Action Network (GREAN), Mobius helped establish Golspie as the "recycling capital" of the Highlands. Only last month their work was held up as a shining example to the rest of the country at an open day organised by the Community Recycling Network for Scotland.