OPPOSITION Tories have renewed their criticisms of Warrington Borough Council’s Labour Cabinet for approving new borrowing of £63.5m to fund a 30-year solar farm investment out of area in Doncaster.
Conservative members “called in” the Cabinet decision to the Council’s Scrutiny Committee on Friday. Specific details from the meeting cannot be given as it was largely held behind closed doors for reasons of commercial confidentiality.
But the Conservative Group claim that there were a number of general shortcomings with the scrutiny process, saying it was “inherently unfair” because of the limited time available to debate such a significant level of investment. Conservative members who initiated the call in also had no right of reply to Labour Cabinet Members, who responded to it.
Cllr Mark Jervis (Con-Appleton) said: “The Labour Cabinet Members’ responses to our call in were not always consistent with information provided ahead of the meeting or failed to properly address some of the genuine concerns that we raised. Furthermore, the Labour leadership also appeared to misrepresent some of our call in evidence on risks. However, we had no right of reply on any of these matters.”
Conservatives continue to have concerns around whether the Council is properly following Statutory Investment Guidance for Councils in relation to this investment and around the Council’s adherence to 2015 Public Contract Regulations. Furthermore, questions remain regarding the objectives of the investment and details of the specific environmental and/or financial benefits for Warrington.
Cllr Jervis added: “Labour Cabinet members failed to address a number of our questions on this investment despite its reliance on public funds. It is also disappointing that Labour plan to push ahead with this investment despite Labour’s failure to fully implement recommendations from a review of its Commercial Investments undertaken some 2 years ago. In addition, there has been no apparent learning from the failure of Labour’s Together Energy investment earlier this year. Six months on, Labour have failed to answer a single question from a list of 42 submitted by the Cllr Kath Buckley (Con-Lymm South).”
“The Labour Cabinet also seek to avoid criticism by saying that the Conservative Opposition is attacking the professionalism of Council Officers. This is an unacceptable deflection tactic. Labour Cabinet members alone are responsible for investment decisions and they should stop trying to hide behind Council Officers.”
“Given Labour’s continuing shortcomings in openness and transparency, the Conservative Group will continue to seek much more information and assurance from this Labour administration on this investment. We will also be raising our serious concerns with the External Auditor and with the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).”
Warrington Borough Council leader Cllr Russ Bowden and his deputy Cllr. Cathy Mitchell, were both given an opportunity to respond to the above comments.
