Where is the transparency over pool?

Kirsty McGregor, local parent and volunteer at Halifax Synchronised Swimming Club

I thought that councils were elected to carry out the wishes of the residents.

But I have to question whether this is the case at Calderdale Council. In my view there is no transparency, the Labour Party councillors do what they want and the scrutiny board system doesn’t work.

The Labour majority use the whip to win all their votes. We have had the same leader of the council for eight years out of the past nine and I think that the officers working for the council and the council executive have just become too cosy with the councillors and there is no oversight or independence.

The councillors use broad brush statements to get headlines, such as an extra metre of deep water will cost £2m, but it’s easy to throw out numbers like that without anyone being able to scrutinise them.

They have ignored the recommendations of their own cross-party scrutiny panel. Assistant director, Sarah Richardson, is saying she can’t give me any information due to confidentiality and even when another councillor has requested the information, which he should receive from officers within ten days, he too has been ignored. In desperation, I requested the information via the legal process of Freedom of Information, but they have even refused or ignored those, despite there being a statutory deadline when they are supposed to respond.

I also question how the potential backing of Sport England has been secured for this new pool, but they won’t share with me what information they have told them. I cannot believe that Sport England would be seen to finance a facility where 22,678 hours of swimming would be lost per year. How can there be any control over our council and executive when they are able to do as they wish until the next election rolls around? I feel they are revelling in their power.