THURROCK Conservative leader cllr Phil Anderson has declared himself ‘relieved’ that a controversial Labour plan to “sell off” 17 council buildings including 6 libraries is now fully in the public domain.
In a bitter, ill-tempered exchange at the final council meeting of the civic year, cllr Anderson and labour leader, cllr John Kent exchanged political blows on the subject of whether Labour plan to sell off libraries and whether they have attempted to cover up the information.
Cllr Anderson said: “on 22nd February, the Labour cabinet approved an ‘asset disposal strategy’ which referred to a list of 17 council properties earmarked for sale. My simple request to identify the 17 properties in question has taken four weeks to answer and the process has at times degenerated into farce. At the initial cabinet meeting, Cllr Kent told me directly that ‘no such list exists’.
“Versions of a list then started to appear in the media, but as councillors we were given no information at all. It was 9th March before I was given sight of the list, and this came to me clearly marked as “sensitive and treat as accessible to internal council audiences only”.
Only yesterday was I finally given a copy released under the Freedom of Information Act which I was allowed to discuss publically.”
“Hopefully tonight’s debate has cleared the air and we can now get on with the real job of scrutinising Labour’s proposals to see if they make any sense. Some of the redundant sites are probably suitable for sale, but the idea that we should sell off six libraries, several of them in strategically important locations, is ridiculous. Labour must have spent thousands getting this consultants report written, they voted unanimously to adopt it as council policy, but it is obvious that much of it is ill conceived and will end up in the bin.”
