WARRINGTON Borough Council’s Labour leadership team will this evening deliver a resounding response to the opposition over repeated attempts to “talk down our Town” following a Tory no-confidence motion.
“The Tories have called tonight’s extra-ordinary meeting of the Council to discuss the financial investment of public funds in Together Energy”, said Cllr Cathy Mitchell, Deputy Leader of the Council.
“The decision to call this meeting is uniquely cynical because representatives of the Council can’t actually discuss Together Energy at this point in time. Tory councillors know this, but they continue to spread wilful misinformation.
“The company administrators have very clear that discussing Together Energy in any way could have an adverse impact on the outcome of the administration process. It is solely for this reason that we, the Council, must refrain from making any comments at this time.
“Put simply, we have put the town’s interests before our Party’s. We would urge the Conservative Party to do the same. For once, put Warrington first.”
Cllr Mitchell also set to put the record straight on the rest of the town’s investments saying: “Together Energy forms a tiny part of our portfolio. Our other investments are performing well despite the COVID pandemic, because of their focus on dependable sectors like food and logistics. Redwood Bank, the opposition’s other bogeyman, is playing a key role in providing funding for SMEs and is now making a profit.
“Crucially, the people of Warrington need not worry about any of the effects of Together Energy’s administration affecting their bottom line or Council services. All along, income from our investments has been put into a large reserve, which can be used to offset any losses parts of our portfolio may make.”
Council leader Cllr Russ Bowden added: “Tonight Labour will seek to point out that Warrington has lost £2000 per household of central government funding since 2010, and will call on the Conservatives to submit a fully-costed budget of their own for the town — something they have thus far failed to do.
“The paramount question now for the Tories is simple: if they want to dispense with the Council’s profit-making investments, how exactly would they make up the shortfall?
“They can’t have it both ways. If we didn’t generate the extra funds from our investments, our job as a Council would just be carrying out the ideological program of the national government — passing on a decade of Tory cuts and slashing services down to nothing.
“So precisely which Council services would they cut to balance their books? And if they can’t give a straight answer to that question, why should Warrington residents take local Conservative posturing seriously?”
At tonight’s extraordinary meeting of the council, Cllr. Ken Critchley, who is the Conservative Group spokesperson for Finance, will propose motions calling for an independent open inquiry and to incorporate lessons learned into a new investment strategy for the council before any new investments can be authorised by the Labour Cabinet.
Cllr. Nigel Balding (Con), will then propose a motion of no confidence in the Council’s Leader Cllr. Russ Bowden and Deputy Leader Cllr. Cathy Mitchell. He said: “One thing that has been hugely frustrating for Conservatives over the last year is that we have been calling repeatedly for WBC to sell its investment in Together Energy.”
“We’ve put numerous motions and questions to this Labour-led Council about the investment and repeatedly called for WBC to change strategy and cut its losses. Instead more time, energy and money have been thrown at TE in futile attempts to save the company.”
1 Comment
Typical Straw man tactics by RB & CM
They are not being asked to comment on the current position of Together Energy, that’s quite clear, it’s in liquidation.
They are being asked to explain how we ever got to this position. In any case this is not a matter before a court and I’m not aware that the concept of sub-judice applies to any comments about TE or explaining the history and decision making that went on.