Milford Haven | Archive | 2006 | March | 23
From the archive, first published Thursday 23rd Mar 2006.
Dear editor You report that council tax payers in Pembrokeshire have lost at least £17,000 as a result of the council's decision first to award a lease of the Blackbridge former mine depot to Crownridge Steel Limited and then the council's failure to monitor the situation, despite the judgment awarded against Crownridge's guarantor Rhodri Philipps, for £26,600 in rent arrears.
For Crownridge to accrue this debt was really a considerable achievement, given that the first two years of its lease were rent-free in return for works which Crownridge was required to carry out but, it seems, failed to do.
These figures do not, however, begin to set out how much the decision to grant a lease to Crownridge actually cost council taxpayers.
I was one of the people who put in an alternative bid for the site, which would have resulted in the saving of the existing sports centre.
By preferring the Crownridge bid the council had to pay back to Sportlot its grant of £75,000 and also lost the benefit of the matching funding which had been spent on the centre.
Because the Crownridge bid was so clearly weak, we brought an application for judicial review.
The council was fortunate to win that action, largely because the court thought that Crownridge was running a successful operation from the site.
The council could not, however, recover in full its legal costs because those costs were judged excessive by the court and in the end these were also paid by the council tax payers.
It is refreshing that the leadership of the council should finally acknowledge that its past decisions regarding the mine depot are costing the taxpayers money, even it they have underestimated that cost by perhaps £200,000.
Giving the continuing confusion over the future of the site, these past mistakes should not be hushed up but rather the council should learn by its past mistakes and not accept unquestioningly the advice given to it, for whatever reason, by certain influential councillors and officers.
Christine Minty Castle Hall Road Milford Haven
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