Plans by Northumberland County Council and it’s property management subsidiary ARCH to buy Manor Walks Shopping Centre in Cramlington have been heavily criticised by the County’s Opposition Conservative Group.

The plans see £83 million being borrowed by the Labour-run Council to buy the flagship retail site in Cramlington at the same time they have slashed the Council run Fire Service including removing a fire engine from Cramlington.

Cllr Wayne Daley, Conservative County Councillor for Cramlington North said

“This is a bad decision and bad business move. At the same time as commercial property portfolios are being suspended on the stock exchange following the collapse in the market, the Council may have bought this site at sky high rates when the market is at rock bottom

“It brings into question the massive borrowing being undertaken by the Council for schemes such as the £80 million new council HQ in Ashington, loaning money to other councils and now the move into being high street retailers instead of focusing on getting basic things right – like fixing potholes”

Cllr Daley and the Conservative Group are concerned about the lack of a detailed business plan for the site and the way in which Councillors were given less than an hour to read the paperwork and then expected to make informed choices.

“As custodians of the public purse, being asked to support £83 million without proper pre-scrutiny and detailed business planning information is shocking”

Cllr Daley said he understood the principle of investing to gain new revenue streams but The British Retail Consortium are predicting a 21% decrease in high street retail income with a 22% increase in online shopping between now and 2018 meaning the investment was a high risk one for the Council to take.

Cllr Daley has spoken to many local residents who all say the same thing  - How can the council say they  are strapped for cash and can’t afford to fix roads or pay for a fire engine for Cramlington, yet they can go off on expensive vanity schemes?

Leader of Northumberland Conservatives, Coun Peter Jackson, added,

“It beggars belief that Labour-run Northumberland County Council is adding to its massive debts on yet another vanity project while cutting back on essential everyday services such as fixing our broken roads or maintaining the local Fire Service. The price of the £1 billion council debt which this Labour-run County Council has run up will result in repayments by residents in increases in their Council Tax for years to come. The credit card is maxed out.

This latest move by the County Council contains a number of serious financial risks which I have pointed out and could be called “playing fast and loose with taxpayer’s money”. I do not call £83 million for an outdated 40 year old shopping centre good use of public funds.

People in Northumberland are quite right when they question the Council’s motives and when they say to me that Blyth and Ashington based Labour can no longer be trusted to run this Council’s finances. It is surely time for some financial common sense in County Hall.”