Keith Austin

Plans to build “lavish” new civic offices in Telford for council staff have been branded “obscene” by a leading councillor.

Labour opposition leader Councillor Keith Austin said he believed there was no way that chiefs could justify such an outlay while 400 jobs were on the line due to budget cuts. The Labour leader has always claimed the controversial plans will be financed by “massive borrowing”.

He said the new offices should have been less expensive to build and located out of the town centre.

He also claimed an agreement to set up a committee to monitor decisions made on the new civic offices had never been honoured, with decisions being taken without scrutiny from outside.

Council leader Andrew Eade said there would be no cost to the taxpayer by building the new offices in the middle of the £250 million Southwater development, with all cash coming from the sale of the current site to Asda.

Devastating

But Councillor Austin said: “This council is currently in the process of making devastating service cuts of 20 per cent right across the council, including 400 job losses, which will inevitably have a damaging effect on front-line services.

“The Tories’ plan to go ahead with new lavish offices based in a prime town centre location is quite frankly obscene, especially during this time of economic downturn and, when all the costs are included, will again require massive borrowing to add to the council’s current spiralling debt mountain.

“They have just not thought this through.”

Councillor Eade said the council would be able to cover any costs associated with the construction of the new civic offices with cash gained from the sale of existing headquarters and land around it to Asda.

He added: “I want to be absolutely clear – there will be no net cost to the taxpayer and at the end we will have a much more efficient and lower-cost building from which to serve the people of the borough.”

In February last year Labour demanded council chiefs look again at the plans after expressing “grave concerns” about the funding and location of the new civic offices.

By Wayne Beese