Political lines drawn as cabinet defends car park decision
Ownership St Stephen's car park in Trowbridge is set to be handed over to the owner of a shopping centre
A decision taken by Wiltshire Council’s Liberal Democrat-led cabinet over the future of St Stephen’s multi-storey car park in Trowbridge did not break the rules, the authority’s watchdog has decided.
The vote allowing cabinet to proceed with its intention of transferring the car park to the owner of the neighbouring Castle Place shopping centre was cast along party lines.
Six Liberal Democrats and two independent councillors on the overview and management scrutiny committee resolved that the cabinet decision was taken in accordance with the council’s principles of decision-making.
Six Conservatives and one Reform UK councillor voted against them.
The vote means the original cabinet decision can now be implemented immediately.
As per the original cabinet decision, a future meeting full council will be asked to approve the allocation of capital/revenue funds to facilitate the transfer.
A date for this meeting will be confirmed in due course.
The vote – and much of the discussion – took place behind closed doors as commercially-sensitive information was to be discussed.
But during opening statements, which were heard in public, Cllr Dominic Muns – who had called for the watchdog investigation along with 10 Tory colleagues, said the decision “showed a fundamental failing of this cabinet to explore other options fully, to obtain professional advice, to obtain best value for taxpayers, and to promote the economic and social wellbeing of our county town and the residents in it.
“There are 13 principles of decision-making, which a cabinet decision must follow. This decision has failed to satisfy all but one of them.
“This decision was taken without proper due diligence, without evidence of best value for taxpayers, and with no evidence that alternative options had properly been explored.”
Responding, Helen Belcher, cabinet member for economic development, regeneration and assets, said:” I’m not particularly keen to hand out quantities of money to get rid of an asset.
“But we will explain very clearly that this is the best financial outcome, and that any other option, or every other option that we considered, was significantly more detrimental to the council finances.”
Confidential cabinet papers published on Facebook on Monday night show the council was prepared to Castle Place owner Tahir Ali up to £2.5 million to take St Stephen’s multi-storey car park in Trowbridge off its hands, demolish the car park and the adjoining Castle Place shopping centre, and build houses and leisure facilities on the site.
The leak has led to a review over who gets to see so-called Part 2 papers.
Addressing the leak during opening statements, Cllr Belcher said: “Those papers were only presented to people in overview and scrutiny and in cabinet.
“I’m not accusing any member here of making that leak, but it means that we have a real issue in terms of trust.”
The start of the meeting was adjourned for 15 minutes while Conservatives who had not been privy to the Part 2 papers – because they were acting as substitutes for regular members of the O&S committee – familiarised themselves with the contents.
They were not allowed to leave the committee room with the papers.