| What is really happening? |
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| Written by John Franklyn | |||||||
| Monday, 11 August 2008 | |||||||
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What’s Happening ?
Over the past few weeks we have seen snippets in the paper about the sale of The Councils HQ, something the Conservative Administration are hailing are their idea, but Cllr Keith Austin reminded people it was the Labour proposal back in 2006 when he was the Council leader.
The Hark Group released plans for the Town Centre and quickly gained support for what was called “The Round”.
Some support was gained because they had no intention of touching the Town Park, particularly The Arena, but they were asked by Telford and Wrekin Council to include ideas for Malinslee House in their plans which they did.
However, plans change and the credit crunch certainly did not help and ideas for flats overlooking the Town Park were soon knocked on the head.
The Council recently released ideas about knocking down their HQ and rebuilding plush new offices.
All this at a time when Social Housing is at high demand, in short supply and continues to be sold off.
All this when the cost of carers support is increased.
All this when monies are taken away from libraries.
All this when care homes are under threat of closure.
All this when roads in our communities are crumbling below our wheels.
All this when the numbers of homelessness are increasing.
So, can we be certain that the T&W Council have got their priorities correct.
There seems to be a game of two halves here with T&W Council playing one off against the other. They seem to befriend the hark Group, whilst getting cosy with English Partnerships, Transforming Telford and the biggest waste of public money Advantage West Midlands.
Credit crunch / recession may affect businesses and the resident, but it won’t impact to hard on local authorities as taxes are a guaranteed income and can be introduced at anytime or simply increased.
We were promised an open and honest council, it gets said all the time, particularly at full council when few residents attend to listen, you can only listen as the Leader has failed to give us that voice at full council as he promised.
The Hark Groups public affairs department don’t return calls when you leave messages, Transforming Telford are not giving information, English Partnerships are tight lipped and AWM just don’t give a toss as they consider themselves untouchable.
Information about the Town Centre Development seems to have conveniently been removed from various web sites including that of Telford Shopping Centre and Transforming Telford’s Plans are still showing the information highlighting the Arena is to be built on.
A Council insider has said today that the Council still like the idea of a “Leisure Facility” being built on the Arena and are now referring back to the dubious consultation carried in 2007 where Cllr Bentley said,
“Doing nothing with The Arena is not an option”
Despite it being an option on paper, and this consultation elected members and officers being given another vote and the interested parties ie residents and groups only receiving one, and this meeting where we had to go through FOI in order to get a set of minutes of a meeting we attended.
A recent press release referred to 3000 house being built and it is well known the Council are very keen to have buildings overlooking the Town Park, but the only way they can realistically overlook the Town Park is to have houses built inside the Town Park and the political border.
Land swaps between the Council and interested parties have happened before and will happen again, so the thing is, what land is being swapped, where is being swapped and who with.
The Council recently built offices on St.Georges Trading Estate, then it was reported they had to sell car parking space in Donnington to fill in the budget shortfall, this was also said at the last full Council, the question that has to be asked here is,
“If we cannot trust Telford and Wrekin Council to handle a small project such as that correctly, can we trust them to handle a major redevelopment, such as the Town Centre without going over budget”
The answer from myself is a very loud and clear NO.
Education of young people in the Borough is failing and was recently highlighted as follows,
Stoke-on-Trent and Telford and Wrekin had the worst results in literacy. Both authorities saw more than a quarter –26 per cent – of 11-year-olds fail to make the grade.
Yet Telford and Wrekin Council remained quiet on this issue, putting HQ Offices as the main investment before investing in our young people, they are the future of the Borough, our future policy makers, yet bricks and mortar are put first.
So, my question to the Hark Group is,
“Just where do you stand on this. Are you happy with the performance of Telford and Wrekin Council who are likely to set up more quango’s to achieve their aim”
My question to Transforming Telford,
“Are you going to come out into the open and tell us exactly what is going on and why are you so worried about the public, who pay your salaries from finding out anything, vetting phone calls and why won’t you have residents actively involved”
My question to the Council,
“Who is actually running the show here, is it elected members or is it officers and why do some Cllrs seem more like friends with officers rather than their boss like you were elected to be”
Or is there some “Common Purpose” here with people leading beyond there authority.
One thing is certain, the tax payer will fork out millions to prop up the private sector.
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3.20 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."Telford Council Watch                |
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