Scarborough Council criticised by opposition for 'failure' on Eastfield regeneration scheme
It's over promised spending
Scarborough Council has been criticised over promised spending in Eastfield but the council leader says the scheme is “moving ahead”.
The Labour-led Scarborough Council has been criticised by opposition Conservatives for “a total failure to deliver on the promised regeneration” of Eastfield which has been set to be funded from the sale of 48 acres of land in Middle Deepdale, Eastfield.
However, the council leader, Cllr Steve Siddons, has rejected the criticism of the scheme and said that “Eastfield will get the benefits of the funding that has come from Middle Deepdale”.
The Eastfield regeneration programme was set to be discussed at the final meeting of the council’s cabinet on Tuesday, March 14 but was withdrawn from the agenda at the meeting.
Opposition councillors criticised the withdrawal of the agenda item as they “were unable to ask any questions on the matter”.
On April 1 Scarborough Council will cease to exist as part of a local government shake-up that will see the creation of a new county-wide North Yorkshire Council.
The new council is set to take over responsibility for projects and schemes that have been started by borough and district councils but are yet to be completed or finalised.
Speaking after the meeting, the leader of the council, Cllr Steve Siddons said the agenda item was withdrawn from the agenda “because there wasn’t a decision to make on it”.
Cllr Siddons told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “That scheme is moving ahead, it is part of the overall project for Middle Deepdale and the funding that has come from Middle Deepdale will be used for the people of Eastfield and that project is moving forward.”
However, in a statement, the Conservative deputy group leader, Cllr Heather Phillips, said: “Labour has talked about Eastfield a lot. They put out all these lovely press releases with high-minded projects and how much money they had allocated to them.
“We began raising the alarm in May of last year that nothing was being delivered on the ground. Labour has been strangely quiet on the matter.
“There has been a total failure to deliver on the promised regeneration. Here we are with Labour riding off into the sunset, there isn’t an election for them, no more meetings.”
Responding to criticism about the scale of funding being spent, Cllr Siddons said: “These projects take time and there is a lot of work going on in the background.
“When you’re working with the community, you have a lot of people to bring with you and people have different views about how things should be done.”
The council leader added that “Eastfield will get the benefits of the funding” which he said has been allocated “and is moving forward now”.
Cllr Heather Phillips said that when the report was withdrawn “there was silence” and “one can only assume that they pulled this report to save themselves the embarrassment”.
She added: “I’m hoping that the new North Yorkshire Council will be able to pick up the pieces of what’s left.”
As part of the funding plan, the council approved a grant of £145,000 to two Eastfield community projects in February.