Bourne Hill decision will not harm trade

10:06am Thursday 3rd July 2008

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ACCORDING to the ex Conservative Leader of Salisbury District Council, Richard Britton, the new Lib Dem/Lab administration is responsible for the potential loss of local government jobs in Salisbury because of local Council re-organisation.

But it was Conservative-controlled Wiltshire County Council which led the charge to abolish local democracy in our District to set up a single Trowbridge-based mega Council for the whole of Wiltshire. If anyone is responsible, it is them.

And whose fault was it that we have been left with the Bourne Hill nightmare, anyway? We warned the Conservatives not to proceed with project until after a Government decision on local government re-organisation was known. We pleaded with them not to sign the building contract until after the local elections in May 2007. They refused to listen and the contract, with crippling cancellation penalties, was signed a few days before polling day.

On taking control, the new Lib Dem/Lab administration immediately rolled up its sleeves and got on with the practical task of untangling the legal and financial mess left by our predecessors.

We have consulted local people, which should have been done in the first place. We have drawn up revised plans, on a smaller footprint, which protect the (now listed) Secret Garden and surrounding parkland. We have found a way through the legal maze and averted the Council being forced to pay millions of £££s in contractual penalties.

We have listened to local people and done our best, under difficult circumstances, to change course and steer Salisbury DC away from potential bankruptcy.

If one single person were to be held responsible for this appalling waste it is the man who wouldn't listen and just pressed ahead regardless of public opinion. No amount of re-writing history will hide Richard Britton's role. The shame of it is that the unquestioning loyalty of his Conservative colleagues allowed him to go so far before the people stopped them. Will he be standing for them in the next elections? I think we should be told.

CLLR PAUL SAMPLE
Leader of Salisbury District Council