Our council is still not learning from mistakes

Newspaper House, Faraday Road, Newbury, RG14 2AD

THURSDAY, November 19, saw another meeting of the council’s executive where once again our councillors considered how to carry on digging the over £6m so far and counting economic hole that is the LRIE [London Road Industrial Estate].

Once again they showed how far out of their depth they are when it comes to planning.

They seem to be trying to hide the fact that the £85,000 spent on a viability study by consultants Avison Young was a complete waste of money.

The portfolio holder for economic development (Ross Mackinnon) said that it was a viability study for the council as a landowner and not a developer, therefore it was right to assess viability first.

This would be true if Avison Young could have had all the facts first.

There were also some startling admissions from Mr Mackinnon. He admitted that they did not know how much land would have to be given up for sustainable drainage and attenuation ponds, where this infrastructure would be sited and what its effect on viability would be.

He also said that the project would not be viable without covering the football pitch in houses or flats.

This explains the desperation of the council to dodge awkward questions about the football pitch and possibly their desire to shut up opposition by wasting more money to temporarily restore it to a play area, but also shows naivety in that it will give them far more headaches and expense to provide space for attenuation of surface run-off water.

He also said in a response to Councillor Tony Vickers that the decision on what the real objectives are going to be has not been made.

So he hasn’t an objective?

Their whole process so far has been wrong.

They say doing an environmental impact study first would have cost a lot more than the Avison Young brief.

However they cannot develop the site without one, so it would have had to be done anyway.

Now it will still be done but they have wasted £85,000 on consultants who had their hands tied first.

To know whether something is viable you have to have an idea of cost first.

To attenuate the water and produce sustainable drainage systems in line with their own policy is likely to take up several acres, which they will not be able to build on.

It would be nice if they looked back and learnt from their previous development mistakes but this hasn’t happened and I fear the taxpayer may find that employing professionals may be expensive, but nowhere near as expensive as employing an amateur.

JOHN GOTELEE

London Road

Newbury