Scrapping new Telford council HQ ‘will cost £800,000 every year’
Thursday 19th May 2011, 4:28PM BST.
Scrapped plans to move into new civic offices in Telford will cost tax payers at least £800,000 every year, the former council leader claimed today.
Councillor Andrew Eade also claimed the new Labour cabinet had already cost residents about £1 million, despite not officially taking over until May 26, after also ditching a plan to create a highly-paid director of children’s services role.
But Labour councillor Bill McClements today said the public had rejected new civic offices and claimed the former Telford & Wrekin Council administration was “planning to plunge the council deeper into debt”.
Councillor Eade said: “Our plans to locate council staff in a new civic office at Southwater together with Darby House and Wellington would not only have improved access for our community but also allowed us to dispose of 17 obsolete and expensive office buildings, saving the council taxpayer a £800,000 every year, a saving already built into our budget strategy.
“Labour’s flawed decision to scrap this policy and continue to use old accommodation, together with hiking the wage bill by another £130,000, means additional job cuts, frontline service cuts and a huge hike in council tax will be inevitable to plug this rapidly growing £1 million gap.”
Councillor McClements, who will become cabinet member for resources, said: “Mr Eade’s promises were based on falsehoods and a debt mountain and the people of Telford firmly rejected his approach two weeks ago, something he doesn’t seem to have come to terms with.”
He said: “Despite dealing with the debt mountain left by the Tories we intend to keep our promises and be honest with our community about what we can and can’t deliver.”
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Based on what?
I understand there will be sunk costs and maybe the new offices would be more energy efficient creating savings ….. but a little more detail on the £800K random number would be nice.
And by not hiring a £110K position increases costs by £1MM? Again, more substance please. Are you now required to contract the work out? If so, I’ll do it for £500K – start the RFP process.
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Oh, that van’t possibly be, can it? A Labour council costing more money? That never happens.
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Can it clarified who set up the contracts which cause this to happen?
Builders and contractors make handsome living out of government projects. Was there too little scrutiny over contracts?
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Not too bad 3 weeks in and it’s cost us council tax payers £1 million what has cost over £330,000 per week.
The highly paid director of childrens service that’s needed have they not done without one for about a year?
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Oh dear oh dear Labour’s main election platform looks as if it’s about to collapse.
I’m not a Tory by any stretch of the imagination, I just despise politicians who promise things without knowing they can deliver them
And they can’t ditch the Director of Children’s Srvicves either, it’s a Government requirement initiated and passed by the LABOUR government.
“Oh what a sorry web we weave when first we practice to deceive”
Electors in martginal seats who thought these sort of ideas would mean more cash for their local services need to start kicking – kicking out the con-men.
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This from the man who continually refused to disclose any financial details regarding the sale of the old offices or the cost of the new ones.
Put up or Shut Up, Andrew.
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‘Labour councillor Bill McClements today said the public had rejected new civic offices’
This is based on an online petition what 300 people signed, out of 160,000 residents.
Im not a Tory, but I dont get the feeling that labour no whats best for the town. It would be a better place in a few years if the Tory’s had won the election.
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No, Ham I think it was based on an opinion survey carried out on May 5th this year. I’m not sure, but I think it was called an ‘election’
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This is going to grow legs and return to haunt Labour who unashamedly used it for their own selfish political propaganda purposes without any thought about what might actually be the best, most cost effective option for the Borough. There are good people in the Labour group who are traditionalists and then there are the more ambitious tribalists who treat politics rather more like some juvenile competition instead of a calling to serve their community. That’s what this is really all about. They’ve used the gullibility and ignorance of the electorate to further their own purposes. It must and will be subjected to intense scrutiny, but softly, softly, catchee monkey. Give them enough rope and they’ll hang themselves. I can almost hear Unison screeching already.
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Even if the new council HQ did save £800,000 a year it would still take 71 years to pay for itself. Unfortunately this kind of building isn’t built to last 71 years!
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good point matthew
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hahahaha
labour want to save money by building things from savings not from debt, what is the world coming to, the tories are encouraging more debt, more pfi, more borrowing, its madness
it just shows what ever their ideology they are all bad, personally i think council workers deserve a decent office and every city i visit in the EU the council buidling is the main medieval building in the Square and is always an important venue for civic functions and acts as a tousist attraction
i think council buildings should be good looking, energy efficient etc, its rediculous to make people work in cramped ocnditions etc
so yeah i would support moving the offices and any demolition and rebuild is good for the construction sector too so as a builder i wud say thart!
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not bothered really is it big news? the council spend hundreds of millions a year, to spend less than 1 million a year on corporate HQ is not exactly major news or a big concern is it. After all people need some where to work but its not really about the workforce is it, its our building its where we’ll go to lobby councillors or meet with planners it where we’ll use the rooms for evening meetings on community matters and it will be the centre peice of our town, so it matters to the whole community to have a building of prestige and quality in my humble opinion, the current council hq buildigns are a scar on our town, a blot on the landscape and i welcome them being torn down and replaced with a modern state of the art building
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