Credit Card Kings Abdicate!

REPORTS of the departures of two Link4Life charity bosses surfaced last weekend.  The careers of Craig McAteer, former Managing Director of the charity Link4Life, and his deputy, Peter Kilkenny, had been thown into turmoil earlier this year with first the revelations in the media of some seemingly unothodox use of their company credit cards, and a later investigation by the Rochdale council and a probe by the police.

Now both the police and the Charity Commission are looking into what went on in the Charity.  We now know that Mr. McAteer retired on the 31st, March and Mr. Kilkenny departed from the company on the 28th, February.  Link4Life manages leisure, the arts and heritage services in Rochdale on behalf of the council, and the company finally admitted that the two bosses had left last week.  There have been rumours that they had gone, but only after repeated requests from the Rochdale Observer did Link4Life confirm that they had left.

Mr. McAteer had run up a bill of £10,455 on personal items, including a £2,000 luxury trip, while Mr. Kilkenny spent £1,480, including a deposit of a flat.  Meanwhile, the two bosses, while enjoying pay rises for themselves, seemingly cheerfully pushed through redundancies and cuts in the arts and heritage sector in Rochdale. 

Rochdale Council has said that it wants to rebuild Link4Life's board of management and strengthen governance arrangements, but earlier this year the Café in the Touchstones Museum suffered from a decision to review its status by Rochdale MBC in its budget proposals.  Thus, very likely, reducing the footfall in the town centre.
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