Accountability in Local Politics

'Hotel plans to be reconsidered’ Surrey Ad 26th January, tells a story of apparent arrogance and seems to show an alarming absence of business sense. I believe that Councillor Hodges should give a robust defence of his position to ensure he hasn’t, under his leadership, brought the Council into disrepute.

I am pleased that the Scrutiny Committee has been effective in its function of calling the Executive to account.

The Conservatives have shown themselves to be good custodians of the Council and, through keeping costs firmly under control and delivering excellent value for money (the independent Audit Commission’s assessment) they have kept council tax low. In general administration, therefore, the Conservatives seem to have a considerable edge over the Lib Dem opposition.

This latest proposed transaction, however, appears to show that Cllr Hodges has not learned the lessons the previous Lib Dem regime had to come to terms with when Mr Harper challenged their proposed deal with Miller Developments on the Civic Hall site (which had not been through all of the steps required for an open market transaction).

I have plenty of experience of selling substantial tranches of land and buildings in an environment where the disposal process has to be absolutely transparent and must demonstrate adequate exposure to the market so as to ensure best value.

In this case, I am not at all reassured by the reported assertion by a council solicitor ‘that the authority did not believe that any other building company would be able to develop the land in the same way’. What Council processes were adopted, and what agreement was reached by the Council as a whole to say that this was the only use of the site? Is there a formal development brief that has been issued to potentially interested parties? I don’t believe so.

Whilst I am unhappy about the handling of this particular issue, I urge all of the current Councillors (who will be up for re-election in May) to ensure this latest hiatus does not in any way delay delivery of the new Civic Hall.