This week’s local press have highlighted in detail the decision by the Liberal Democrat Group not to support a report presented to cabinet entitled ‘Arcade Site – Revised Development Proposals’. 

Below is a statement from group Leader Cllr John Macklin explaining that decision:

The Liberal Democrat group has campaigned hard for progess to be made on the regeneration of the Arcade site.

We were aware that new proposals were coming to cabinet which would include using a leisure facility on the site as an ‘anchor’ for the development by St Modwens.  However we certainly did not expect to find that it would be the council tax payer, not St Modwens, who were taking on the substantial financial risk involved in this proposal.

We believe that the goalposts keep moving on this project with regards to the role of St Modwens, the content of the development and the financial risk to the Council and the taxpayer.  Whilst quick progress on the site is important, it should not be achieved by making poorly thought-out decisions that could simply swap one area of derelict land for another. 

We do not think the Council should rush into an enormous financial commitment that we believe has not been fully explained to either councillors or residents.  We do not want this to be yet another false dawn and we agree with the Scrutiny reccomendation that a much deeper financial analysis of this proposal is needed. 

That is why, after much discussion amongst Liberal Democrat councillors, we felt we could not give our support to the report presented to Cabinet.  The latest plans have enormous knock on effects for other facilities, such as the Pool and Track, and the wait is worth it in order to get any decision absolutely right.

I believe residents would want to know that their councillors are only making these kind of important decisions whilst in possession of all the necessary information, something which, although requested, we do not feel we have at present.

As a group we are now discussing how to progress with regards to the report and the plans for both the Arcade site and the Pool and Track.