A FORMER borough councillor at Warrington has lashed out at what he describes as “ludicrous plans” for the borough to bid to be the “city of culture” in 2021.
Kevin Bennett, the former Labour councillor who quit the party to join the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) claimed the decision was taken at a “secret” meeting of the council’s controlling Labour Group.
He said: “Yet again the Labour Group are coming up with ‘vanity projects’ which are wasting thousands of pounds of our money. This time they have decided that we should try to become the ‘city of culture’. To do this they will have to spend hundreds of thousands pounds competing against other towns and cities in the country.
“How have Labour suddenly found the money for this? The Labour group say they can’t afford social care for our elderly, they can’t pay for our green bin collections without ‘taxing our rubbish’ by imposing charges, they can’t keep our libraries open and they have to use Stockton Heath and Lymm as ‘cash cows’ by getting rid of free parking.
“But they suddenly have hundreds of thousands of pounds to spare on yet another ‘vanity project’. Enough is enough.
“Warrington is a great town but we cannot be ‘city of culture’ when Labour are proposing to close our libraries.
“They will not give us a theatre in our town centre or support our cultural society. This bid is throwing money away on a ‘pipe dream’. How much will people pay out for Labour to waste on this failed project?”
Mr Bennett claimed Labour councillors had been told to keep the bid quiet to avoid the possibility publicity about them being city of culture at the same time they were shutting libraries.
Kevin Bennett addressing a TUSC conference
“City of culture plan is ludicrous” – ex-councillor
44 Comments
4 Comments
City of Culture lol, just how many Bookshops have we got in the town? just one example as to this crazy waste of money by a Right Wing Labour Council, what about the Libraries? I thought this Labour council had proposed to close them? More of a worry,just where have the council found the money to go a head with this crazy bid?? I smell a big FAT RAT!!
when did the Council propose shutting our libraries?
Are you basing this question on the idea that it is LiveWire making decisions?
Arf.
If there is more substance than say so to this notion, before they spend another pound we should be told, absent the usual WBC smoke and mirrors masquerading as openness and transparency, how much the preparation and submission of the bid will cost and who/how it is to be funded. Not forgetting there is no guarantee of success. In the unlikely event they are successful where is the money to bring about expected to come from, and who is fronting this up. Please, please don’t say Live Wire, Finally, remember we are now seemingly in dire austerity straits with cuts causing problems across the board.