Disturbed by payments to entice tenants into The Crescent scheme

ONE contributor asked the rhetorical question as to why politicians (and indeed civil servants) feel the need to mislead or even lie to us?

It can’t be for our good, so it must therefore be for their own.

Against the backdrop of local tax rises, bin charges, NHS cuts etc, I was disturbed to say the least to find out from The Hinckley Times that Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council has squirrelled away £1.7 million to bribe retailers to take units in The Crescent – essentially subsidising private sector profits from public funds. Setting aside the right and wrongs of doing this at all, the expenditure was justified on the basis of a) such inducements are common practice and b) the money had been budgeted from the outset of the development.

Again setting aside whether this is justification enough (given the current financial backdrop I happen to think not), with little evidence available (the deals are shrouded in secrecy due to “commercial sensitivity”), yes this happens, but it is far from “commonplace”.

Similarly, the proposal to provide money for these inducements was only made and approved in January 2016 – not exactly at the outset of the project. Considered together, this now looks far more like a face-saving exercise at a direct cost to the taxpayer.

Contrary to what we were led to believe, retailers are not fighting to get into The Crescent as many clearly do not naturally regard it as lucrative – hence the bribes.

Of course we all want the town to be improved, but not necessarily at any cost and there is an important line that has been crossed here both in terms of the principle itself and the way in which the information has been kept under wraps.

Even now, the borough council will not explain how it arrived at the magical figure of £1.7 million. This all makes one wonder how much more “wheel-oiling” goes on that we are not told about and gets buried in the depths of council accounts. J Newman by email