Lib Dems slam first decision of new Coalition

‘Vanity project and failing scheme’ were just two of the phrases used by Liberal Democrat Councillors to describe the Warwick District Council's Green Party and Labour Party Coalition proposal to create a new Customer Service Hub in the foyer of the Royal Pump Rooms.

A petition signed by over 2,500 people was shamefully rejected by the ruling coalition. Rather than refer the petition to Cabinet in order to give it a considered response, (which wouldn’t have cost the Council anything), the coalition instead decided to completely reject the petition.

Not only is the project running at more than double the original budget, (£200,000 in February, now risen to £410,000) in papers released just before the Council meeting it emerged that it is also 4 months behind schedule. Alongside a raft of other objections to the scheme the Lib Dems and other opposition Councillors are not convinced that the new timings are achievable. The Leader of the Council, Cllr Ian Davison (Green Party) provided no answers to questions by the Lib Dems about whether they intend to short-cut the Council’s planning and procurement processes in order to try to meet the new timescales. Calls to use the suite of empty rooms in the Town Hall for the Customer Services Hub were rejected, as the Coalition intend to use the rooms for a document store, post room. hot-desks and additional meeting space. Instead of opening up the Town Hall and inviting the public in, the coalition intend to use our most prestigious civic building for back office admin.

Despite the very late release of information just before the meeting, Green Party Leader of the Council refused to pause for two weeks to enable the new administration to reflect on the new information and to review all of the options available. Coalition Labour and Green Party councillors provided no counter-arguments.

Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, Cllr Alan Boad, commented “Cllr Ian Davison had claimed that he was concerned about a black hole in the Council’s budget, but his first action as Leader of the Council has been to force through an unpopular proposal costing hundreds of thousands of pounds, without undertaking any form of public consultation and against the wishes of a large petition. The Green Party likes to say that it supports independent thinking amongst its councillors, but Cllr Davison not only whipped all of his councillors to stifle debate and support all of his proposals, he whipped all of the Labour councillors to support him too.

Circumstances have changed since the initial decision in February. Since then, it has doubled in cost and will have a much bigger impact on the Pump Rooms, with alternatives barely considered at any point. Just saying repeatedly that it was all decided in February isn’t true and doesn’t make it the right decision.

We had hoped that the new Council would foster a spirit of collaboration, but it seems that Cllr Davison is only interested in getting his own way, no matter what the costs.”