Labour ‘asleep at the wheel’ as £8.25m school decision emerges from behind closed doors

Flintshire Liberal Democrats have accused Labour of losing control of its own school closure programme after the Council Leader and Cabinet Member for Education admitted that Cabinet did not decide that Flintshire taxpayers should fund the entire £8.25m local contribution.

The admission was made on Tuesday, 4th August, at a private Group Leaders’ meeting closed to the press and public.  It came after months of Labour refusing to say publicly who made the decision, when it was made, or what authority was used.

Council papers had already presented the whole £8.25m as ‘Council funded’, despite the ordinary funding arrangements for voluntary-aided schools placing responsibility for the remaining 15% upon the Diocese.

The Labour-led Cabinet has previously estimated that borrowing the money would result in repayments of £30.9m over 50 years.  The completed building would not be owned by Flintshire County Council.

Cllr Andrew Parkhurst, Leader of the Flintshire Lib Dem Group, said:

‘This is not a minor procedural question.  Either the Labour-led Cabinet made the underlying choice and is now unwilling to accept responsibility for it, or a fundamental financial commitment became Council policy without Cabinet ever taking the decision. Neither explanation is acceptable.

‘The Labour-led administration has promoted this scheme, recommended the expenditure, and asked councillors and the public to trust its figures.  It must now explain who made this decision, what alternatives were considered, and why the truth emerged only in a meeting closed to the public.

‘Public money on this scale must be subject to open, recorded, and accountable decision-making.  It cannot simply appear in Council papers as an established fact.’

Cllr David Coggins Cogan said:

‘Labour is asleep at the wheel.  It has spent months marching to the Diocese’s tune and driving forward the closure of four schools, while apparently nobody in Cabinet stopped to ask who had agreed to hand Flintshire taxpayers the entire bill.

‘Labour did not just overlook a few pounds on a spreadsheet.  This is at least £8.25m, leading to £31m of repayments over half a century, towards a building the public will not even own.  After Labour has handed over this free gift of a building, the taxpayers of Flintshire are still expected to pick up the maintenance and repairs bill.

‘For months, Labour ducked and dodged the simplest question: who made the decision?  Now the truth has finally slipped out in yet another secret, closed-door meeting.  Major decisions are apparently made somewhere out of sight, buried in Council paperwork, and only revealed when Labour and its so-called ‘Independent’ buddies are cornered.

‘Neither Labour nor the Independents can hide behind officers or pretend they had nothing to do with it.  They run the Council.  They endorsed the programme. They recommended the spending.  If they did not know who had committed taxpayers to this arrangement, that is a staggering failure of political leadership.

‘At a time when Labour repeatedly tells residents that Council finances are under enormous pressure, it has volunteered Flintshire taxpayers for 50 years of repayments without even being able to identify who authorised the commitment.  Does that sound like they’re in touch?

‘Nor is this an isolated case.  Labour is still refusing to tell taxpayers how much it spent on the first botched consultation, which had to be started all over again.  It keeps its decisions secret, keeps the cost of its failures secret, and expects the public to keep picking up the bill.

‘It increasingly looks as though the Diocese presented its preferred scheme, Labour rubber-stamped it without examining the numbers, and taxpayers were simply expected to pick up the tab.  That is not leadership.  It’s rubber stamp Cabinet.’

The Flintshire Lib Dem group is demanding the immediate publication of the complete decision trail, including who first proposed the arrangement, who authorised it, what discussions took place with the Diocese and governing bodies, and whether any contribution from them was ever requested.

Cllr Parkhurst added: ‘No final decision to close the four schools should be taken while the Labour-led administration remains unable to explain who authorised one of the programme’s central financial commitments.’