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Labour’s David Miliband criticises Telford ‘council palace’ plan
Thursday 7th April 2011, 10:16AM BST.
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Millions of pounds due to be spent on a new “council palace” in Telford would be better spent on schools, nurses or the police, former Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on a visit to the county.
Mr Miliband, who lost out to brother Ed in the race to succeed Gordon Brown as Labour leader, was in Telford yesterday speaking to voters ahead of the council elections.
The Labour MP said the new civic offices, due to form part of the £250 million Southwater development, would cost £40 million and be a waste of cash in tough economic times.
“I would like to see that kind of investment on hold and the money put back into frontline services.
“When schools, nurses and police are under the cosh what’s the sense of priority that ends up building a palace for the council?”
Mr Miliband was speaking on a visit to Dawley in Telford yesterday.
But Andrew Eade, leader of the Conservative party in Telford & Wrekin, insisted the Southwater development and civic offices would be wholly beneficial for the borough.
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Although i didn’t vote labour, i have to agree with this statement, it is a total waste of money that should be better spent on other more important things, but when the council only have to answer to the council, is it any surprise this whole development has gone ahead, even during the economic climate.
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Same old argument again
Shame people can’t realise that the new office is paid for by the sale of the old site and will save millions in running costs over the next few years compared with the current offices.
Gotta spend to save!!
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I couldn’t agree more – this new building is being funded by the sale of the old building and land to Asda, and in the long-run is designed to save money.
Moaning people just want to point the finger at any group that seems to be spending vast amounts of money without checking any of the facts.
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Its the best thing to happen to Telford since… Well, ever.
The whole ‘Southwater’ project will open up much more development land in the City Centre than what is immediately being planed.
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The current office block was supposed to be a multi-story car park. Hence it is pretty difficult to keep warm, and must waste a fortune in heating costs.
The sale of the current site – as has been said – will support the costs of a new more energy efficient building which will itself save money.
As for the comments of Milliband – well he is a politician jumping on a band-wagon, and thet never allow the facts to get in the way of a good quote.
Is he saying that if Labour wins back control they will immediately cancel the whole project? and presumably pay huge amounts of compensation to the developers for welshing on the contract?
Besides which, even if the project was cancelled – the £40 million could not be re-invested in services, without the sale of the current building, which would then mean that the council had no offices or spaces to put their workers IN
Bonkers
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Are you not a politician Oswestrian?
Pots ans Kettles ??
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Local activists have set up a petition for local residents to express concern at this use of public funds and public offices.
http://www.petitiononline.com/TWCLPAT/petition.html
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Same old predictable politicising then. If his own party had instigated it, he would be heralding it as a landmark development.
£250m is a headline figure anyway. That’s what it could cost over its 15-20 year development period. The money is not available in one big pot right at this minute, therefore it cannot be spent on other things because it won’t come into existence until the future. Or perhaps David Milliband has invented a time machine that we don’t yet know about.
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I have to agree the new offices are paid for by selling off the old ones and save millions in running costs.
Also £200 million of the southwater development is from the private sector so whats the problem?
Give us the jobs it will create as schools are already being rebuilt here and I dont want to see Telford die!
Is Miliband blind or just does not want to see?
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Could some of the £250M not have been spent on frontline services and the council move into offices on an industrial estate?
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He’s just rolling out the same opposition line, I can shout out numbers like £40m and the readers will agree! The Majority of the cost is covered by the sale, the rest will be made up by cost savings achieved by having everyone in one office.
Incidentally the whole development will be a huge boost in the arm for the Telford Economy, that to be honest has been flagging a bit of late, a wander round the Town Centre shows that, empty units, and those that aren’t empty have 50p tat stalls in them!
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Nothing short of cretinous behaviour by a Labour run Council who have quite clearly learned the tricks of trade from the leaders who sold off all the nations gold, took us into massive debt with the NHS and secretly allowing their mates to build new hospitals and then charge the people with extortion to pay for it… Labour are dead, or they bloody well should be… They have crushed this great country and sold it off down the river… The corruption in the Council planning departments is rife enough for everyone to see what has truly gone on here… scammers to the last.
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Sorry to spoil your vision of Labour corruption at Telford & Wrekin Council, but it hasn’t been a “Labour run Council” since May 2007 – it’s been Tory-led since then……
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Anon and Colin clearly tory people.
Question 1
How much did Asda pay for the offices?
What is the status of the legal case?
How much will the new offices cost?
Eade will not tell us… why?!
Asda buys the old civic offices (if they win the case in the High Court) why cant that money be used to help stablise the council.
At a time when people are losing their jobs and time when services are being reduced why on earth do we need a council palace!!
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2 issues I have with this response:
1. I am not, nor am I ever likely to be, a Tory – I have never voted Conservative in my life &
2. Stop calling it a ‘palace’ – it is an office building (unless, of course, you regard any large building as a palace, in which case I hope you enjoy parking in the ‘Multi-storey palace’ and then going to do your shopping in the ‘Telford Shopping palace’)
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Heather, where would you like the council to operate from? Rent at probably a million a year or build at little net cost and be the kickstart to the southwater development? It is a large organisation and if they stayed where they are then there would be no money to get the development up and running and millions needed to be spent on repairs and operating costs.
Its a no brainer.
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I am all for the developement at southwater but not the new council offices.When you think of Derby house being half empty surley that space can be used as the new office site for the council, that way it will not stop the jobs being created for the new development and by using derby house it will be utilising space that is not currently being used.
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Darby House is not half empty. Besides, as the council’s rationalisation of office space will see the closure of several smaller offices scattered around Telford and virtually all council staff moved to the new civic offices, the new ones in Wellington and Darby House. If you ask me it is a key role of a council to facilitate the regeneration of their areas and the best time to begin a big regeneration scheme is when the economy is struggling so things are starting to be finished in time to benefit from the upturn in the economy.
In a few years time there will be a Main Street for Telford, an obvious sign of commitment from the council to an area, seriously improved public spaces, fountains, public art work, refurbished ice rink and a load of fully prepared development plots just waiting for the private sector to return to strength and build on them.
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The new offices are clearly going to cost – £2million pounds so far and without laying a brick.
To pretend that the cost is going to be covered by the sale of the current building is dishonest. If it is true why won’t Cllr Eade come clean and tell us how much the sale brought in and how much the new offices are going to cost. It is a simple request.
Council papers (if you read them properly and closely) show it is going to cost £35 to £45 million!!! Come on Tories, do your research.
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Quite correct, freedom of information requests that are trying to establish the “true” cost to the council taxpayer have all been rebuffed due to “commercial” reasons. I fear the true cost will only be known when it is too late!
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i agree with Dave!
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Like others, I have no disagreement with the Southwater Development. However! I am totally opposed to the transfer of the council offices while jobs are being lost and services decimated. It’s just plain wrong.
Maybe another time. But just not now. That’s why the Tories will lose control of the council – and they deserve to with the bravado of their reasoning behind backing this plan.
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The NHS converted an empty factory on Halesfield to locate their offices.Maybe the council could do something similar as there are plenty of empty factories to fill in Telford.
This would surely save some money and if it`s good enough for the NHS it should be good enough for the council …
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Don’t forget that the council is going to spend £1.5m on new office furniture. Unbelievable. £1.5m!!! This was from a tender on a council tendering website.
Why don’t they take their old stuff with them like you or I when we move house???
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“Don’t forget that the council is going to spend £1.5m on new office furniture. Unbelievable. £1.5m!!! This was from a tender on a council tendering website.
Why don’t they take their old stuff with them like you or I when we move house???”
Quite simply, because it is beneath them to use “Old Tat” and after all we, the tax payers, are paying for these “lords” to live and work in luxury.
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Amazing, so people who work at the local authority don’t pay tax then?.
The old building is old and quite honestly an eyesore in the centre of the town. Surely we all want a town to be proud of.
The new Southwater development is going to be good for the economy of Telford.
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