Dear Mr Lance-Watkins

Thank you for your correspondence regards the café at Taurus Crafts.

Taurus Crafts is an important part of Camphill Village Trust, offering volunteer placements to people with learning disabilities and other needs. For this reason, I was keen to respond to the opinions you presented in your email and on your blog.

 

Sometimes, as with any business, we don’t achieve the high standards we set ourselves. As our local manager Wendy explained in her response to your Tripadvisor review, ‘the experiences of our customers are important to us and clearly we have fallen short here.’

 

Thankfully, these experiences are rare. 80% of those who have reviewed Taurus Crafts on Tripadvisor rated it as either ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’. We’ve received the same positive feedback regards our cafes located in our other communities across England.

 

We trust and respect those who run the café at Taurus Crafts, whether disabled or not, to learn from any mistakes that occur. Getting honest feedback about customers’ experiences is vital to this learning, hence Wendy’s suggestion that you visited and spoke to the two of us about your experiences.

 

The generally positive feedback across our cafes reassures us that there is not a systematic failure of standards across our cafes. It would therefore be excessive, and overbearing, for one of CVT’s Directors, one of its Trustees, its Marketing Director and the Head of Human Resources to be involved in resolving a local issue, as you have suggested. Wendy and I would, however, still welcome a meeting with you at Taurus Crafts.

 

Our team, both disabled and non-disabled, are justifiably proud of the service they provide at Taurus Crafts. We welcome the custom of those who support our charity’s aims to our cafes and communities, and will continue to learn from their feedback.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Annabel Arkless

Fundraising Director

I do appreciate Ms. Arkless taking the trouble to reply with a well thought out letter and note her efforts both to negate the facts I have put forward  and her efforts to confine the issue to merely being effectively a complaint about the restaurant at Taurus Craft, which of course it most clearly was not!

May I suggest Ms. Arkless takes the trouble to re-read the entirity of this blog as I am sure she will be able to deduce that a very small part of my comment relates to the cafe. The bulk of my criticism is far more in depth and relative to the utter ineptitude of the management. It is over simplification akin to her own response that so clearly lies at the heart of the problems at Taurus Craft and how it is perceived by so many.

I also understand her efforts to promote the largely unidentifiable and unsubstantiated platitudinous positive comments on Trip Advisor – a very sound move in marketing terms IF you consider your audience to be unable to see past such marketing ploys.

When it comes to considering the apparent lack of facts put forward by staff, tennants & those dependant on CVT do be minded that few have the security or alternatives to speak out and tell the truth as they are mostly low paid staff dependent on their jobs or are unwaged bonded labour ostensibly being trained and naturally those who have invested in the site are in the invidious position they risk their livelihood or rent rises should they dare to speak out – may I remind Ms. Arkless that to reduce the risk of feedback local management has ceased including tennants in meetings, although they were unlikely to speak out for fear of reprisal showing just how unpleasant the atmosphere is on the site.

Clients, and the public will in the main have insufficient interest to comment, in the realisation that even if they did make suggestions it would be all too likely the local management would, as I cautioned at the outset, indulge in CYA management and seek to localise, minimise and outmanoeuver any suggestions.

I am minded to disagree with much that is said in Ms. Arkless’ carefully fabricated letter, albeit competently presented as a CVT employee, being a Fundraising Director, one wonders what the Director of Fundraising would make of her efforts.

I shall, as previously, delay my response until I have had the opportunity to take soundings as to how others consider it.

I caution that I would willingly go to Court in support of any individual who might find they are being eroneously accused of colluding in my comments, they are made in a spirit of seeking, as I have said already several times, with a view to improving the sad situation and maximising on the value of the entire site both for CVT, those dependent on CVT, the bonded labour, the staff and the area – The Taurus Craft site in its entirety is in my opinion being under utilised and mismanaged to the detriment of all.

When it comes to under utilisation, failure of management and ineptitude even now is clearly visible – Be minded this weekend is a Bank Holiday and absolutely nothing has been organised to capitalise on this fact! Beyond renting one room to an iondividual for them to profit from a children’s ‘Slime School’ Good (profitable) for the exhibitor and no doubt for the cafe, but of little benefit to other unit holders. This is just the sort of time that the excellent venue of Taurus Craft should be maximising its opportunity and location, yet local management have made zero effort to maximise either for Taurus Craft or CVT!

It was good to see the cafe functioning well with laughter and banter amongst both staff and customers – although it was busy, clearly the staff were coping and co-operating and seemingly stress free, an unusual situation to notice in the cafe. It was clear more was being achieved with smiles and good humour than one normally sees where putdowns, snippy comments and interference normally leads to poor service, where a smile and apology to a customer kept waiting works miracles – I still contend name and status badges would do a great deal to improve understanding and tollerance, as would be a CVT collection box near the till for small change (It adds up!), also every table would benefit from a well designed leaflet presenting the charity and its venues & aims.

I find it hard to believe Ms. Arkless’ claim that it is just a local vexatious claim regarding the cafe, as she will readily note on re-reading the conversation to date and in the light of the facts I have presented I find it surprising she feels that the Trustees, senior executives, Directors and HR would be disinterested – if she is right what a sad reflection on CVT.

I am not prepared to believe that the Trustees and Directors are disinterested in maximising the assets of the Trust for the benefit of its stated aims!

Minded that edict would seem to be that staff are no longer ‘permitted’ to talk to customers, clients or even tennants and those who smoke are to be found skulking in the bushes either behind the garden cafe or as I have also seen in the bushes by the herb garden – rather than in the designated smoking area presumably to prevent them engaging in any social pleasantries it seems a fair amount of intimidation is taking place to try to minimise the outcome locally – rather than seeking to open up the conversation with the best interests of Taurus Craft and those it serves being the aim.