PLEASE HELP US RAISE £750.00 SO THAT WE CAN KICK OFF THE CAMPAIGN TO WIND UP SHEFFIELD’S DESTRUCTIVE PFI SCHEME
In 2012, Sheffield City Council (SCC) signed a confidential 25-year Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract called “Streets Ahead”. The deal was signed with three companies - 1) Amey Plc, owned by the huge Spanish multinational corporation, Ferrovial, and two partners: 2) some investors based in an offshore tax haven; 3) a shadowy firm that has changed its name at least three times since then.
What PFI contracts do is let private, profit-making companies take over, control and manage buildings and services usually operated by local councils, the NHS or Westminster. In Sheffield, “Streets Ahead” essentially meant “Streets Privatised”.
In exchange for payments that are equivalent of £1.75 million every week over the 25 years until 2037, contractor Amey agreed to fix our roads, clear away dead leaves, grit icy roads, and generally take care of our city after decades of under-spending. Amey also agreed to maintain our healthy street trees.
In the past six years, we have at least learnt two things:
1) Most political parties (Tories, Labour, Greens) are now against PFIs;
2) Taking out a PFI for 25 years is a bit like taking out a loan with Tony Soprano.
OUR MISSION:
1) To work towards getting AMEY OUT of Sheffield and winding up this extremely expensive PFI deal which has led to so much conflict and destruction in our city.
2) To build a broad united front --- of members of the Green, Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem parties + ‘no party’, tree campaign and civic activists --- who support this objective.
OUR WORK PLAN:
The non-partisan Sheffield campaigning group AMEY OUT was formed in November 2018.
We have three priorities in the initial phase of this project:
a) Educating ourselves - In late October, we held a well-attended workshop directed by two experts (one from Ireland, one from Leeds) on how PFI operate and how they can be terminated.
Here are links to three videos that were created from this two-hour long workshop:
Amey Out! #1 The Why https://youtu.be/i8FwQBuIfYc (10 min.)
Amey Out! #2 The How https://youtu.be/_u-RD5iHiB4 (7 min.)
Amey Out! #3 The Monitoring https://youtu.be/vImq7KZfsnw (12 min.)
b) Conducting research and doing investigation - PFI schemes are extremely complex and its accompanying contracts are hundreds of pages long. Huge sections of the “Streets Ahead” contract are redacted (blanked out). Yet, to make sure it is properly enforced, we will need to submit many FOI (Freedom of Information) requests and closely monitor Amey’s actions…and inaction.
As we uncover more and more information about PFI schemes and how they operate, as well as details of “Street Ahead”, we will publish this material on the website which we established in early December 2018: www.ameyout.org.uk
c) Spreading the word - AMEY OUT is campaigning group. We appreciate that it is only by “spreading the word” across Sheffield about this wretched PFI deal and ramping up the political pressure that we will succeed.
Our initial brochure, called “The Twelve Days of Amey”, will be published on Saturday 15 December.
A total of 20 people (all decked out in seasonal garb) plan to distribute 2500 copies over the lunch hour that day in Sheffield city centre. (But we can always use extra pair of hands if you wish to help out; contact our e-mail address at the bottom of the page).
OUR BUDGET:
For the first phase of this campaign, we’ve set a budget of £1000.00. We aim to raise £750.00 through this Crowdfunder. The trees campaigning group NO STUMP CITY will cover the remainder by making a donation of £250.00 (from funds raised through its own June 2018 crowdfunder).
Campaigning costs money. In the first phrase, we need about £700 for two leaflets, £100 for placards and sandwich boards, and £200 to make several videos to spread the AMEY OUT message widely online.
Every tenner helps. Please give what you can afford.
Note: Unitarian Minister Rev. Sarah Tinker will be the official treasurer for this Crowdfunder; Rev. Tinker is Sheffield-born and bred.
Any questions about AMEY OUT? E-mail [email protected]
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To accommodate these Payments, we've created the following PayPal link -
AMEY OUT PAYPAL
Please leave a name and we can then transfer to the Crowdfunder totals in your name.