Southwater criticism ‘threatens project’s future’
Wednesday 19th January 2011, 2:30PM GMT.
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Council chiefs in Telford today claimed criticism of the massive £250 million Southwater development in the town was placing its very future – including thousands of potential jobs – in jeopardy.
Plans to build a new library and civic offices have been criticised by Keith Austin, leader of the council’s Labour group. But council leader Andrew Eade said the attacks could undermine confidence among the scheme’s investors.
Labour yesterday launched an e-petition against the new complex.
And Councillor Austin said early indications were that residents were outraged the council was spending millions on lavish offices in a prime site in the light of the Government cuts.
But Councillor Eade said the planned new library and civic offices were key to kickstarting a £250 million redevelopment.
He added: “The new library and offices are being paid for out of the sale of the existing crumbling offices at Malinslee at no additional cost to the tax payer.
“This is our contribution to kickstart the massive rebuilding of Southwater.
“By starting this whole process we will eventually create around 2,000 new jobs together with work for local people, companies and products and triggering a massive £200 million investment from the private sector.”
Councillor Eade claimed Councillor Austin had already been warned by current investors that his approach had started to undermine confidence in the Southwater project, which fully depended on the council’s offices and library being in the middle of the area.
He said: “If he continues with his ridiculous plans to scrap this development he will not only blight our future but cost the borough £200 million worth of investment and the thousands of jobs that go with it.”
But Councillor Austin said: “This is absolutely untrue.
“I have not been warned by investors that this will undermine confidence and I challenge Councillor Eade to say where and when they warned me of this.”
By Simon Hardy
UK News
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Yet more spin from Cllr Eade!
The private sector development is not on condiiton of a council office.
What about the £2.5m tender put out for new office equipment for the civic offices.?
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The e-petition calling upon the Council to reconsider building new Civic Offices and using that money to protect jobs and services within the area can be found at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/TWCLPAT/petition.html
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Only it’s not a £250 million Southwater development is it? at least not yet, because the only complete plans that have been approved are those for the new Civic Office.
The ‘vision’ includes a new library building so when does work start on that?
What about spending 2.5Million on furniture for the new building, scrapping and replacing ALL the existing furniture in an existing council building?
All this while the same council want to turn off street lights in order to save a tiny 16k a year.
Be honest with us Eade.
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That’s not quite true, but when did Councillor Eade allow the truth to get in the way of a good story.
The text of the petition says that local residents support regeneration and investment at Southwater but feel that during this period of economic hardship, it is irresponsible for the council to spend tax-payers money to build new offices when suitable offices already exist throughout the borough.
It IS our money after all Councillor Eade.
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If the Shropshire Star aren’t going to publicise the actual details of this e-petition (so that we can make our minds up) then why post this article?
Completely pointless!
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Councillors are elected to lead. If investors got the idea that the council as the lead in all this had cold feet – why on earth should they follow the lead for the overall development?
Councils have to find innovative ways of making development happen.
The record of Labour in all the years they were in control of the council is not exactly a shining one, and now they have the luxury of lobbing bricks at what the Conservatives want to do, without having to come up with a single idea of their own.
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I personally feel that something needs to be done asap, telford center is a complicated mish-mash of out of date buildings that need re-invigorating with this proposal, knock the lot down and start again. People need to be able to live and work in the center, but there is nothing like that at all that would attract young people and families into the centre. Its the usual thing of arguing and complaining, rather then trying to back ideas that are more progressive. As seems common nowadays, its people looking backwards, complaining about ‘our money’ and spending more time and (even more of our) money complaining and delaying things rather then just getting on with it and doing something good for the whole town.
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What exactly is ‘good for the whole town’ about spending MILLIONS on new office for those who work at the council?
If the council were serious about the regeneration of the whole area then the Civic office would be phase 3 or 4 of the development, not the very first.
This is nothing but a vanity project for the over inflated ego’s of Eade and his chums (and the Labour lot before him if truth be told).
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Good point, i’d leave the town as it is, watch the younger generation move out to places where there are things for them to do, spaces for them and families to use and watch the outdated buildings crumble and the town decline.
On a serious note, i think the fact that building the Civic Office first demonstrates that the development is serious, and could be used to attract the investment for the rest of the development. The council office is ramshackle and needs knocking down, and i believe the land sale is paying for the new office. Why shouldn’t the council have a civic building they and the rest of the people be proud in, perhaps it would be a start on helping everyone garner some civic pride.
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Link to the petition.
http://www.petitiononline.com/TWCLPAT/petition.html
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all please sign the petition and stop the irrisponsable man (mr andrew eade) wasting our money…..We all have to stick together in times like this….SIGN AWAY
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Its not our money, the developement funded by the sale of the old office, its not too hard to understand !! the rest is funded by the private sector.
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I have no problem with updating the area a bit, the problem is that they want to turn it into “Binge Drinking” central! I live in Malinslee and there are already problems with drunks coming from the town centre bars and I believe this will increase if they are trying to create “nightlife”.
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If you dont want to live near a town centre unfortunately you will have to move because Telford is growing and Malinslee will be on the outskirts of what could be a city centre one day.
I like many young people (proffesional or otherwise) are excited by the proposals. I have considered leaving Telford before beacause of the amount of time it is taking to have a real centre – not just pubs but restaurants, updated family facilities and public spaces and all the things Telford should have to serve its population. i want to stay now and i am changing my future – Telford has on optimistic angle on it now.
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If Keith Austin has any better ideas, lets here them?
he didn’t exactly do well with telford when he was in charge
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Unbeleivable. Seriously; to that I mean the people who are objecting to this much needed development. Telford is one the fastest growing towns in the country whether you like it or not. The buildings which are at no cost to the tax payer will give us people of Telford buildings to be proud of and contribute to the start of a new vibrant exciting town centre.
The existing council offices are an eyesore too. Why object??
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We’re not saying no to the new development, we’re saying no to the new council offices. It’s obscene to build them when the rest of us are facing cuts and people are losing their jobs. The people are talking and you need to listen.
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Perhaps its people like you with closed minds/eyes that need to listen, the Old offices have been sold, the moneys raised are paying for the new offices, thats fairly simple is it not? The rest of the developement is coming from private enterprise not you or me, with it will bring jobs.
As for the e-petition well theres 151 “signatures” of which 3 say they support the developements so that leaves 148 a very small voice and minority me thinks
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The old council office building was originally designed as a multi-story car park and T&W council waste a huge amount of money on maintenance and heating bills. The money spent (money made by the sale of the old offices to Walmart) will be a completely justified investment when they move in to the new super efficient ‘BREEAM’ office’s. And as a young resident, the only thing that keeps me living here is the fact that we are promised nightlife and a real city centre. This development will be an absolutely crucial factor on weather many family’s and young people want to move in to the town or not. Making you opinion based on the political oppositions point of view is completely foolish. Please think for your self and what you want.
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breeam saves money – using energy wisely is saving tax payers money so i think you should retract your uninformed comments and apologise, i support the offices being as energy efficient as is possible
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errm. Read it again, im completely FOR the development.
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I think a petition should be set up to stop the petition. It would have greater votes. Anything that jeopardises the plans are wrong.
The fact is it cost nothing to the tax payer to build the offices. The cuts would of took place anyway without the plans.
If there are any casualties because of this so be it, Telford needs this architecturally to attract future investment in its expanding town.
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There is a moral principle at stake. Is it right, that at a time of austerity, that a council should build for itself a brand-new building? Remember, Telford & Wrekin have not received any money from Asda for the sale of the new civic offices which is conditional upon a number of factors. Telford & Wrekin are borrowing the money to fund new civic offices.
Contrary to popular belief, Meeting Point House is not owned by the council and no agreement has been reached for its sale. It sits bang in the middle of Southwater and it probably won’t be going anywhere for quite a while. I understand that there are some significant penalty clauses contained in the agreement with Asda relating to time scale.
As for Keith Austin “being warned” by investors, it is Andrew Eade who has been warned by Hark Apollo that his scheme risks the private investment of some 800 million pounds in the town centre. Eade claims that the current civic offices are “crumbling”. Having worked there for the last 4 years, I can assure readers that they are not. Indeed, they are in a much better state than some other public buildings in our borough and some of our schools. That they look like a car park is another argument entirely…
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anything being build right now is good news surely, telford needs jobs and it needs regenerating physically, if its publically or privately funded i dont mind
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all these people on who agree with it actually work for the council i think as there are diluded just like mr eade….
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i think all regeneration projects require public sector lead, whether its to clean up contaminated land, subsidise the development, act as an anchor tenant or just navigate the planning maze, frankly without public sector there would be no major capital projects
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