Hole lot of upset as scrapped HQ site blights town
LOCALS are demanding answers and action over a “hole” in their town.
The future of a large plot of land in Ashington was left uncertain after plans drawn up by the previous Labour administration for a £32m new council HQ were scrapped when the Conservative administration took power.
A petition, signed by more than 200 people since it was set up on Thursday, says residents have been “left in the dark” and demands a clear plan for the site, along with “an apology to all Ashington residents for leaving our town in such a mess for nearly a year with no updates or communication”.
Carole Brown, 69, who lives near the site, said many people in the town were angry about the situation.
She said: “It’s been six months and nothing has been done there, and it’s an eyesore.
“People are very unhappy, because there have been no answers, we’ve just been totally left.
“I love my town, and we thought county hall coming in would have been a good thing, it would’ve brought trade in, people would have been shopping in Ashington.
“We’ve just had no answers whatsoever and that’s what’s annoying people.”
Ashington town councillor Liam Lavery added: “The fact this has dragged on for nearly a year with no end in sight is absolutely outrageous. Plans to move 900 jobs were shelved just days after the Tories took control of the council.
“There have been a lot of warm words about facilities that might fill ‘the hole’ but it appears there’s nothing in the county council budget to provide any finance for this.
“My understanding is almost £10m has been spent to get the site to where it is now.
“When a settlement is finally reached with the contractor, it’s likely that it will cost more to do nothing than to bring real regeneration to Ashington”.
From Peter Jackson, leader of Northumberland County Council, said: “One of the first actions of the new administration was to put a stop to the costly move of County Hall which had proved deeply unpopular with many residents.
“The decision was taken to save millions of pounds and since then almost £10m has been spent on Portland Park plot development and road, drainage and utility infrastructure works.
“The work undertaken by Arch and their consultants during the design and procurement stage for the building was part of the previous administration’s Capital Budget and this spending is not something the current council did or would have sanctioned.
“While a number of inaccurate figures have been bandied about, a sum of £1.4m has been agreed as the loss and expense settlement amount for the former HQ.
“We have always stressed we won’t abandon the site and are progressing a number of exciting options based on local feedback which will not just benefit Ashington, but the whole county.
“We are busy developing an outline planning application which could include a multi-screen cinema, restaurants and retail stores.
“The plans will run alongside efforts to identify a cinema operator and businesses interested in occupying the proposed retail units.”