“Council Office Plan is Too Great a Risk and Benefits of Proceeding Grossly Overstated” says Labour.
At this Wednesdays Council Meeting, Labour members will move a motion criticising the Tory controlled council for proceeding with planned expenditure of at least £10.5m to build new offices. The motion comes after a detailed report from the Party, issued on Friday, questioning the suggestion of £688k savings made by WFDC which the Council claim would result from building new offices at Finepoint on Stouprport Road.
The Labour Report says that the “estimated and assumed” savings are grossly overstated, misleading and give false impression of the benefit to the community of risking council money at this time. It suggests the actual annual saving are well under £100k and could eventually be much lower if interest rates rise over the next couple of years.
It is also claimed the inherent risks in the project have not been properly assessed and could lead to the Council being left with a long term inability to sell offices vacated and expensive bridging finance needed for many years to come to cover the shortfall in project finance. Council has over £7m currently on deposit, which it will use, but needs to borrow nearly £3m to bridge the time between building the offices and vacating and selling the current office estate. The significant risks of this are highlighted by the fact that Coventry Street and New Street offices remain unsold after 12 months on the market and with little prospect of an early sale.
The Motion will be moved by Cllr Howard Martin who said, “The Tory run Council has a badly flawed plan which doesn’t stand up either financially or operationally at this time. If our worst fears are realised the losers will be the residents of Wyre Forest for many years to come. That is too great a risk to take. Any sensible scrutiny of the proposal and financing risks would say this is a dangerous project and it is not the time to go ahead.”
Local Labour Leader, Cllr Mike Kelly, who will second the motion, said “As a Party we have been against this scheme from day one but it has all been kept tightly under wraps by the Tories and we haven’t been able give our reasons. Now the public will see why. Now the true facts come into the open the project is shown up for what it is – pointless, risky and badly put together. The Tories would rather spend money on plush offices than spend it on capital projects that would help the young, elderly, needy and disadvantaged in our community.”
The Motion asks that the progress of the project be suspended and put on hold to allow a full scrutiny exercise to take place into the funding and financial risks evident and highlighted by the Labour paper.
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Wyre Forest Labour Party November 2010
