Residents Association Councillor, Andrew Mann has slammed the Tories for spending over £300k on the front of the Town Hall. The cost was contained in a serious of executive and officer decisions, which Cllr Mann has uncovered.
Cllr Mann said “it may be nice to have the front of the Town Hall looking all pretty and nice, with new lamp posts, paving and trees and flowers, but when you consider they have only allocated £500k for new pavements across the whole borough, to spend so much money on the Town Hall is crass”
The work is part funding from the Councils health and Safety budget, but Cllr Mann said “a series of small improvements could have done the job, such as new lights and improved paving”
“This scheme has been a pipe dream of the Leader for some time and he was forever being knocked back, now it would seem convenient to do the work after the local elections, rather than before”.
Cllr Mann also slammed the amount of money the leader is spending on his office, a sum of £19 has been set aside for new carpet (£4k) and a refurbishment of the office space (£15k) to turn the Leaders “Office” to the Leaders “Suite”.
Cllr Mann said, “I except that the Leader will entertain important people in his office from time to time, but to spend this amount of money on one persons room is over the top and a waste, I could understand if he done the job full time, but he is only a part time Leader”
Cllr Mann has also condemned the way members support staff (secretaries) are all being herded together in one open plan office so as to accommodate the staff displaced from his own office and after the new Cabinet took over extra office space following the local elections.
The public will also lose parking spaces outside the Town Hall, as the space is being reserved for senior managers, Councillors and disabled and entry will also be restricted to an electric barrier.
The costings first came to light, 2 months ago, when the Residents Group called in an executive decision concerning the front of the town hall and the car park. Cllr Mann said at the time
“The new Tory Administration seem to be making it difficult for the very people that we want to encourage into the town hall, by stopping the parking outside, it will make it difficult for residents to park up and come inside for meetings, obtain information or to visit the cash payment office”.
