£7m cost of funding fiasco

Old cabinet called in to explain centre decisions
THE funding fiasco surrounding Chadderton Wellbeing Centre has cost Oldham taxpayers £7 million, it has been revealed.

Labour cabinet members will face a grilling by Oldham Council’s audit committee over blunders that will also see the £17 million centre costing eight times more to run a year than first thought.

The committee called on members of the 2007-08 Labour cabinet to explain their decisions before it next meets on September 15.

But council leader Jim McMahon has hit out at Lib-Dem sniping over the affair saying “This is a sign of desperation.

“The Liberal Democrats had three years to sort it and have done nothing.

“They asked for an independent review and have sat on it for a year.”

Annual running costs for the state-of-the-art centre in Wellington Street were originally budgeted at £100,000 — but it was discovered that £811,000 a year was actually needed.

Total costs for the scheme also rose by £7million because of the way the council chose to receive capital funding.

A review of the Chadderton Wellbeing Centre has now gone before the committee and states that the council had not got “best value” and described lease costs as ‘excessive’.

It also rated the project’s financial and management controls as either “inadequate” or “weak”, and criticised the lack of open scrutiny, the uncritical attitude of cabinet members, and the inadequate information available to them.

Liberal Democrat leaders were in power when the centre opened in November, 2009, but the finances were calculated in April, 2007 and approved the following year, when Labour was in control.

Lib-Dem Councillor Lynne Thompson claimed Labour councillors McMahon, Dave Hibbert, Jean Stretton, Phil Harrison and Hugh McDonald — all back in the present cabinet — were party to the decision, which was taken in private three days before the 2008 local elections.

Councillor Thompson said: “Chadderton Wellbeing Centre is an excellent facility but the costs are staggering.

“It could have been built and run for very much less.

“The Labour cabinet chose the most expensive option in order to be able to sign the contracts by April 30, 2008, yet there is no reason given for this deadline.”

However, Cllr Jim McMahon said neither he nor his fellow Labour colleagues had been made aware of the audit meeting.

He said: “I’ll turn up if only to find out what is in the review myself.”