Conservative Cabinet told to be more transparent

The ruling Conservative Cabinet of South Gloucestershire Council has been told that it should have been more transparent in making a decision to buy a playing field in Longwell Green.

 

Councillors on the council's Corporate Co-ordination Select Committee heard this morning that the Conservative-run administration had decided to buy a privately-owned playing field at Williams Close for £17,000 more than the estimated market value of £33,000. Labour councillors had questioned how this decision represented the best value for money and whether the deal struck with the landowner guaranteed the long-term future of the playing field for local residents.

 

Labour councillors complained to the Select Committee that the decision to buy the playing field had been tucked away in an appendix at the back of a routine report to Cabinet at the beginning of November. Proper analysis of the pros and cons of the decision had never been made public as they would normally have been with other decisions.

 

Councillor Ian Boulton (Lab, Staple Hill), Labour's spokesperson on the committee, said:

 

"We are 100% behind the Council in trying to acquire this land for local residents. However, because of the flawed process by which this decision was made, we had no way of knowing how this represented good value for money for the district's taxpayers. It is only because we called the decision in for further scrutiny that the council has now come back with further justification in public for its actions."

 

Part of the deal also allows the landowner to buy back the site for just £1 if they were ever to get planning permission. The landowners would be obliged to provide an equivalent area elsewhere but it could be separated from a council-owned equipped children's play area which is currently next to the playing field. This would mean parents with different-aged children with different play needs would not be able to keep an eye on all of their children.

 

Labour Leader Councillor Andy Perkins (Lab, Woodstock) said:

 

"Labour councillors will continue to press the council to safeguard the play area for the long term in its current location."

 

The Select Committee decided to support the immediate implementation of the Conservative Cabinet's November decision, although it said that the decision should have been undertaken differently.  This was backed by all its Labour and Liberal Democrat members, but the Conservative councillors refused to back their own Cabinet with all their members abstaining from the vote.

 

Councillor Ian Boulton concluded:

 

"The committee has supported the decision to secure the land, but the Cabinet has certainly had its knuckles rapped for its lack of transparency."    

 

14th December 2011