Darlington Tory leader accuses Labour group of 'neglecting' council assets (From The Advertiser Series)
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Darlington Tory leader accuses Labour group of 'neglecting' council assets
1:24pm Thursday 11th October 2012 in News
By Vicki Henderson, Darlington reporter
THE leader of Darlington’s Conservative group has accused the ruling Labour group at the council of neglecting public buildings in the town and allowing them to fall into disrepair.
Councillor Heather Scott claimed that 15 years of Labour rule at Darlington Borough Council had left key facilities such as the former arts centre, the town hall, the indoor market and the Civic Theatre all at a point where they need major investment if they are to survive.
Senior members of the Labour group rejected Coun Scott’s claims, and argued that the Labour group was forced to spend years and millions of pounds rebuilding schools across the borough after years of Tory neglect before it could consider other assets.
The row took place as members of the council’s cabinet discussed a report outlining the work and investment needed at Darlington’s Civic Theatre.
The expert report warned that the building, on Parkgate, is not fit for purpose and needs significant expenditure and modernisation if it is to attract theatre companies in future.
Coun Scott said: “I can’t help but wonder what will be the next building that will be declared ‘not fit for purpose’. First there was the arts centre, the indoor market we know needs a lot of work, the town hall needs investment and now the Civic Theatre.
“You [the Labour group] has been in control for a very long time. We keep having these reports brought to us about neglect of local authority assets.
“I hope we can get funding to keep it going - it’s important to preserve this theatre.”
In response, Coun Steve Harker, Labour deputy leader, said: “We [the Labour group] have spent the last 15 years rebuilding our schools that were left in a shocking state when we came to power in 1997.
“We have also refurbished the Dolphin Centre in that time. We had a lot of difficult choices about where to spend the capital that we have had.”
Members agreed to release £50,000 of funding for the first stage of a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund to help with the refurbishment.
Comments(4)
Spy Boy
says...
4:41pm Thu 11 Oct 12
Homshaw1
says...
5:26pm Thu 11 Oct 12
I asked four months for a simple "tidy up" job to be done that should have taken 15 minutes for one street scene operative. It must have involved ten people taken 5 hours of "high grade" work and the job is still not touched
You contact the council - speak to someone and think - that sounds like a cushy job only to find out they are part of a department and then go on to find there are several departments involved in the same area.
There is probably enough money to run the council and maintain buildings twice over if they got their act together
Think how much council tax you pay. Multiply it by the number of houses in your street and so on. It's scary.
Can't say one party is better than another. They are all very poor and have little control over the staff.
Simple guesswork
says...
6:01pm Thu 11 Oct 12
While the Government is to blame for the major cuts, a lot of the current problems were caused by a Labour Council that has adopted Tory ideals.
It cut budgets when there was no need to. If it was Tory it would be getting acolades from Pickles as an outstanding council. If this lot had any principles they would resign on mass and fight against the Con Dem Government by demanding more money for the town rather than destroying Darlington by doing their bidding.
By the way the Schools were inherited from Labour County Durham, but that is irrelavent now as they have all become acadamies!
Madadrian says...
2:22pm Thu 11 Oct 12