20th March 2008

The Labour group on North Lincolnshire Council has today criticised Conservative members for wasting time and effort calling a special meeting on the Baths Hall.

At last night’s full council meeting Labour leader Cllr Mark Kirk waved an empty cigarette packet towards the opposition Tory group before providing proof of the Labour group’s business plan on the proposed new £15-million entertainment venue, to be built on the site of the current Baths Hall.

Cllr Kirk said: “The back of this fag packet has the Tory business plan on it from when they shut the Baths Hall without consulting one single member of the public. It says ‘shut it’ and is signed Don, Alan and Liz, the three failed Tory leaders. The Labour group is much better than that. We have consulted with more than 1,000 residents and listened to what they have had to say. While we have been doing this the Tories have moaned about a lack of a business plan – but officers have been working on it throughout the entire process.”

The business plan will be externally checked by independent experts to ensure taxpayers are getting value for money and Cllr Kirk added: “At this point in time we are not able to reveal the contents of the business plan because of commercial confidentiality – we must ensure the due processes and procedures are followed and not give anyone an advantage when it comes to the tender process.   When the time is right we will make this document available.

“I cannot help it if Cllr Liz Redfern and her Tory colleagues write business plans on the back of cigarette packets and make policy on a whim, shutting vital facilities without so much as asking the public who voted them in.  The Tories did not trust our officers to work on a business plan when they shut the Baths and now they have criticised them by calling for consultants to come in - at extra cost to the taxpayer. Their actions are an absolute disgrace."

"The Labour group is better than that and last night’s special meeting was a complete waste of officers’ time and taxpayers’ cash.”

North Lincolnshire Council had previously given the go ahead to build a 2,000-capacity entertainment venue on the site of the former Baths Hall.

The new venue, proposed to be open in 2010, will cater for musical events as well as conferences, workshops and banquets. The cost will not fall on the taxpayer and has been provided at lower cost than the average Conservative council tax rise over the last four years of 4.6 per cent.