Vote “No Confidence”

by SAM CROSS

Why are we calling a vote of No Confidence in the Leader of the Council and his Cabinet? There are a myriad of reasons.

The appalling waste of taxpayer’s money that stretches over a number of years. The Leader and Cabinet term these outlays of taxpayer’s money ‘investments’, but there isn’t a hope of making a return on these large sums.

The decision to award preferred bidder status to a private company that has donated £171k to the Conservative Party, then gift that company £4million of taxpayer’s money with a free demolition and clearance of the Futurist site has no benefit for the Borough taxpayer.

The Open Air Theatre build cost of £3.3million coupled with operating losses exceeding £1million are indicative of a financial disaster. The Leader and Cabinet are hopeful the venue will make a small profit of £10k in the near future. If the small annual operating profit is maintained for the next 450 years, the Borough taxpayer will see a return on the investment.

The Indoor Market is a similar tale of woe. The business plan outlined a build cost of £2.8million with a return on investment of £1million expected over the next ten years. Unbelievably the Leader and Cabinet actually planned to make a loss of £1.8million from the outset.

A solution to the money pit that is the Spa still hasn’t been found. Again, a large initial investment of £8.6million was made in the facility, which again appears to be an abject failure. The facility was eventually handed over to SIV, but the profit sharing arrangement has yet to yield anything significant.

The decision to provide a £9million loan facility for the construction of the Water Park appears to be another bad decision. Initial figures are showing nowhere near the 500,000 Water Park visitors the Leader and Cabinet were trumpeting when they sold the £9million loan agreement to Full Council.

Unbelievably, the Leader and Cabinet are lining up the Borough taxpayer to fund the Futurist and Town Hall development and take all the risk. The size of the loan facility is expected to be around £20million.

The large investment decisions taken on behalf of the Borough taxpayer by the Leader and Cabinet are not expected to yield any significant returns and saddle the taxpayer with all the risk. Let that sink in.

Why have the results of the Mazars external investigation of the Marriott fraud and corruption allegations not be made public in advance of the No Confidence Motion?

Is the Leader delaying Councillor Marie Harland’s disqualification to preserve one more Tory vote on the No Confidence Motion? Why has it taken three months to progress this No Confidence Motion?

Councillor Sam Cross

Sam CROSS, Filey. Thursday 22nd June 2017.