‘Delays make council look incompetent’
Tory leader berates town hall over schemes behind schedule
DELAYS to major capital programmes across the borough has been defended by council bosses after claims they made them look ‘incompetent’.
Hyndburn council approved £4.9m worth of investment for its 2018/19 capital programme earlier this year. However the budget has swelled to £10.6m because of other sanctioned works brought forward from previous years.
Conservative group leader Tony Dobson has questioned the council’s desire to ‘get more projects back on schedule’ with some falling nearly 18 months behind.
Coun Dobson highlighted the £76,000 facelift of Hudson Street in Accrington, which has yet to be started as part of the wider Woodnook regeneration scheme.
He told a cabinet meeting: “The phrase ‘carry forward’ has been used quite with a lot of the capital projects.
“What proposals do you have to try and get more projects back on time and schedule?
“For example councillor June Harrison and myself have been waiting for the Hudson Street development to go ahead. It’s at least 12 if not 18 months behind schedule now.
“I know it’s the mechanics of the council but do you have any plans or are you quite happy to keep pushing the projects back?
“I certainly know from residents that it’s getting to the stage where they are thinking we [councillors] are incompetent.”
Council leader Miles Parkinson defended the delays and said projects will only have been carried forward for ‘legitimate reasons’.
He told the meeting: “Of course we want to bring most of the projects to bear within the year. Unfortunately sometimes that’s not achievable.
“The wish of this administration is to spend that £10 million in the area because that’s what we want to do.
“There are issues regarding developers and other interested bodies which are delaying that.
“This council wants to see regeneration across all its brownfield areas and wants to invest because that will pay dividends to the wider borough.”
Coun Harrison, who attended the cabinet meeting, said work on the Hudson Street facelift has been delayed due to staffing issues.
She said: “We had a meeting last week. It’s still going on. The money is still there and it will hopefully be in the New Year.”