Call for spotlight to be put on civic move
A demand has been made to put a pause to the process which could see Sunderland Civic Centre move to the Vaux site and its current HQ razed to make way for housing. because of the “late cancellation by the CEO of Siglion”.
Siglion is the partnership between the council and now defunct Carillion.
In July, Tolent was brought in to complete work under way on the Vaux.
Conservative group leader Councillor Robert Oliver said: “It is a massive proposal for the city involving £80million of taxpayers’ money to possibly build a new civic centre on the Vaux site and not one backbench council- lor will be able to scrutinise it first.
“Cabinet must not just receive the report next week due to an unexpected cancellation of the relevant scrutiny committee meeting at which backbench councillors from all parties can question the matter first and offer their comments for consideration by the cabinet.
“It would be incredible if the cabinet considered this issue before it has gone through the proper scrutiny with the views of councillors and residents bypassed due to a diary mix-up and the cabinet should agree to delay the decision until the relevant committee meets.”
Council leader Councillor Graeme Miller, said: “No decision has been made regarding the re-location of the civic centre. The process starts on Wednesday at cabinet, at which point I look forward to the involvement of Coun Oliver and others in the scrutiny process.
“There will be appropriate opportunities for decision-making scrutiny in coming weeks and months.”