Council offices plan ‘threatens Telford Southwater development’
Wednesday 11th May 2011, 6:30PM BST.
TELFORD’S £250 million Southwater development could be scrapped if plans to build new council civic offices there do not go ahead, putting at risk the thousands of jobs the scheme was expected to create.
Former council leader Andrew Eade, has labelled Labour’s plans to shelve the offices project as “economic vandalism” that could rob the borough of millions of pounds of private investment.
He said the planned civic offices were the “lynchpin” that held the whole development together and warned developers would think twice about coming there without it.
But Labour’s Bill McClements, new cabinet member for resources, today challenged Councillor Eade to provide evidence in writing of the threat.
He said it had been made clear by bosses behind the scheme that the development did not depend on new offices being built there.
New council leader Kuldip Singh Sahota has vowed to rent out the building currently earmarked for the new council offices and said the council would look outside the town centre for headquarters.
But Councillor Eade said: “The new office development – provided totally from the sale of Malinslee House and at no cost to the council tax payer – is the lynchpin that holds the massive development together.
“Failure of Labour plans to rent the new building to the private sector would leave a huge empty office block in the middle of Southwater and cost council tax payers up to £300,000 a year in lost income, wrecking new jobs in the process and also exciting plans to provide new leisure facilities and a badly needed night time economy for the borough.”
Councillor McClements said: “I challenge Councillor Eade to identify where these jobs were coming from.”
He added: “Councillor Eade’s plans would have massively increased the debt of the council and resulted in £1.8million in extra interest payments – money we say is better spent on services for the people of Telford – so let me make this 100 per cent clear so there is no room for doubt.
“Whilst we do support the Southwater development, we will not be building civic offices at the Southwater site.”
By Paul Mannion and Jason Lavan
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Seems like a return to the good old days, every road entering the district will show
WELCOME TO THE PEOPLES SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF TELFORD, YOU MAKE IT, WE’LL BREAK IT
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The council do not need new offices…….
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Yes Claire. They do.
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Of course they dont… dont be an idiot…
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yeah they do and telford needs a town centre not a shopping centre on a roundabout
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There were plenty of good town centres in Telford, but, alas, the Town Centre drove all of them into the gutter…
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The council do need new offices as they have sold their old ones to ASDA and have to move out by a set date after which ADSA will knock down their current offices.
Now I wouldn’t mind the councillors working from portacabins or out of the backs oif their cars (I often have to) but its not really thye image we want to give to the rest of the world is it. A council and town so poor, we haven’t got any council offices. The towns image is bad enough so anything that could spark some inward investment must be a good thing so what compromise is there that keeps our costs down as taxpayers but keeps the image high and the new jobs coming?
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Keep quiet tory’s you’ve ruined enough.
Time for Labour to tidy your mess out now.
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Sorry but its more like the other way round I can’t wait to see what cock ups Labour make! And there will be plenty. Oh yes
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Hmm, the ‘mess’ like the Borough Town’s Initiative, which seems like the first bit of decent, tangible investment in the area’s smaller towns for decades?
(And maybe you mean ‘Tories’? Unless you had a particular one in mind.)
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I would be glad to see the Southwater Development cancelled as all it will bring is more problems with late night Binge Drinkers in the central Telford area.
The way to re-generate the Town Centre is to remove the ridiculous parking charges – the centre has seen a massive decline since these were introduced – the place looks run down with empty shops. Even having to pay to park to use the Library, citizens advice, town park etc isnt exactly encouraging footfall is it!
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I agree. My wife @ I have not visited the town centre for 3 years due to the parking charges. We regularly shopped @ ASDA but no longer. As my wife is disabled, and I am not so good, by the time a simple visit to the bank takes us over the minimum charge. We now bank internet.
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I agree with Michelle, scrap the parking costs, we may start shopping there again.
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well thats the biggst load of drivel and nimbyism, the southwater development is needed in telford, the late night economy is something that the town is screaming out for, not just for drinkers, but for events in the international centre and to attract events to the town.
the parking charges are nothing to do with the council as they dont own the land, thats a private company and as every large town up and down the country has parking charges for its main carparks, you would have a better chance of trying to lobby for a park and ride for the town centre
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You need to move into the countryside
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Why did I expect this from the incoming Labour administration. Malinslee House was built in the seventies so its pretty well clapped out. Selling it to ASDA made good sense as did the much needed revamp for the Southwater area again built in the seventies. If this is what labour want then let them get on with it. I can see Telford and Wrekins new HQ being spread around between Stafford Park, Halesfield and Hortonwood.Anything to avoid the new offices. If they think they can get anyone in to rent it then why has the largest employer in the borough turned it down already. And we have another 4 years of this to come!
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What about the bars and restuarants which the town so badly needs! Telford is a ghost town after 6pm. Its town centre is nothing more then a shopping mall
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this is actually good news for Newport and Wellington, Labour is destroying the town centre and any chance of the town shaking off its dated image, so the nighttime economy will be spread between the two market towns.
though as someone under the age of 25 I would of likes to say to my university friends that Telford is a cool place to visit, with great shopping, nightlife and attraction, but nope its just a shopping centre surronded by chav filled housing estates.
we can but dream that one day Labor will actualy invest in the town rather than running the town as a commuter housing estate for Birmingham
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‘I would of liked to say’ (I’ll accept the ‘likes’ as a typo – but ‘would of’?!
And you tell us you’re at University. Ye Gods…
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Perhaps someone can provide more information about the recent revamp of the existing offices where a Feung shui expert was brought in resulting in costly cosmetic upgrades to office furniture and privacy screens etc
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Sureley the majority of Telfords residents are up for the whole Southwater development. It is needed for Telford – it is now dated, ugly and an embarrasment to visitors. This is suicide, destroying Southwater.
A campaign is needed or a public opinion survey to show Labour what the people really want, not a private petition aimed at proLabour followers.
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I couldn’t agree more, why can’t we have a local referendum?
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good idea. maybe starting a facebook campaign is an ideal starting point to gather some motion. I mean seriously, where can the public really get their views on this aired properly. Its our taxes – should be our input!!!
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Ooops.. we did have a local referendum. It’s called the council elections and Labour won with a promise to not go ahead with the council offices.
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Some sort of opinion poll would NRA great idea. What we could do is ask all residents who want to to vote and then see what the result is. If there is a majority of, say, 12 against new civic offices we could all accept that result and move on. I have also thought of a great catchy title for the opinion poll: we could call it an ‘election’
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The majority of the people who voted for labour only did so because they thought it may have some impact on the recent cuts they hear about in the media. These people didnt really understand that it would have an effect on the development and progression of the town centre, anchored by the new offices PAID FOR BY ASDA. If all the people of Telford were asked directly, including the younger residents who are not politically biased or the people who did not vote, whether they would like the Southwater development including the new council buildings which also housed bars and resturants to be built adding to a good commercial hub to be proud of, the outcome would most probably be YES.
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The proof of this pudding will be in the arithmetic and, as ever in property – location, location, location.
Can the new Labour-led council find a building of sufficient size with the necessary up-to-date technology infrastructure to enable it to relocate both the staff in Malinsgate House and possibly the staff in Darby House? Whereabouts in the borough is this building?
The simple answer is – it doesn’t exist. And if it did they can’t afford it. Councillors may be keen to save money, but offices and a Council Chamber in a converted industrial building are not only unlikely and wholly impractical, they are incompatible with the egos of the individuals involved.
One really has to ask – was the promise to ‘scrap’ the new council offices a commitment senior Labour figures knew well was an unachievable dream? Should the Labour win in Telford therefore be referred to the Electoral Commission on the grounds of blatant lies in their campaign literature? And all councillors who used that commitment now be disqualified?
Look at the recent case involving an MP who lied in his literature.
If the people of Telford have been wilfully misled, then that is the only fair outcome.
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Some people really don’t think before typing. The council staff need somewhere to work, especially as most of them are there providing local services for US the public.
The Southwater Development can only mean good things for Telford. It will create more shops, Hotel, leisure facilities etc hence more jobs and even building it will create lots of construction jobs. The night time economy will ensure that we have more visitors who will return for pleasure not just when they visit the International Centre because they have to. It will also mean that University students will be more inlcined to choose Wolverhampton given that there is something for them to do after 6pm. So regardless of whether you shop in the town centre or not, it can only be a good thing for Telford and it will be known as something more than just “oh isnt that where Ironbridge is? I went there with school once”
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I believe RBS vacate their four floors of office space in the new year to move the business to Birmingham
Located closely to Darby House maybe the council could use these existing offices as their base in the town centre and use the “ASDA” money on more worthwhile projects ?
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