A committee dominated by Labour councillors recently decided to ignore Conservative concerns about council plans to buy a property and hand it straight over to a community group without a competitive process.
Conservative leader Nadia Cenci had called in a decision taken by the council’s Executive, to buy a property in Argyle Street and let it to the Bangladeshi Support Centre on a fifteen year lease, citing concerns that the council may appear to have favoured one community over others who might have wanted to bid for the building, as well as highlighting the risk to the council should a £100,000 lottery bid be unsuccessful.
The decision was considered by the Labour dominated scrutiny committed, but Councillor Cenci’s request to refer the decision to Full Council for further scrutiny was rejected after only 5 minutes debate, following presentations and questions to Councillor Cenci and council leader Councillor David Ellesmere.
However the council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee did agree to Councillor Cenci’s request that the process of acquiring and selling property for community purposes, and the relevant policies, be put to further scrutiny with a view to improving clarity.
Councillor Cenci said:
“We all know there is a real shortage of community properties available in Ipswich, but I wanted to make sure we had protected the council against the reputational damage that could be caused by community groups who weren’t given the opportunity to rent this property wondering if the Bangladeshi Support Centre were given preferential treatment. I was also concerned that councillors hadn’t had a proper opportunity to consider the merits because the decision was rushed through with indecent haste.
“I was saddened at the tone taken by both Councillor Ellesmere and the only Labour councillor to ask any questions, his political agent Councillor John Cook. Councillor Ellesmere was reprimanded by the committee Chair, Councillor Liz Harsant, for being personal and political. The debate was rushed and it was clear that Labour didn’t want to consider the matter – and the council leadership clearly didn’t trust their own backbenchers enough to consider it at Full Council.
“Councillor Ellesmere claimed that the decision had to be done at speed because of the risk of losing the property to the open market if the council couldn’t complete the sale before the end of July. I still haven’t received a satisfactory answer as to why the council couldn’t have bought the building and then put the letting through a competitive process to allow all community groups – including the Chinese community, or maybe the Caribbean Association, a chance to bid for this building.
“I can’t help wondering if the favouritism shown to one community here has more to do with Councillor Ellesmere’s Parliamentary ambitions than with what is right for the town.”
“Some of my concerns were still not answered. All we wanted was an open and transparent debate at full council to enable other organisations to ask questions and to find out why they did not get a chance to bid. I also thought the process was flawed and the policy unclear. At least I managed to secure some of my request from the call in. It is obvious that the Labour administration is not interested in being fair, just or reasonable to all community organisations and did not see the need for a competitive process rather than handing it to one community group, albeit the excellent Bangladeshi Support Group.”
Cllr Nadia Cenci
Conservative Group Leader
Ipswich Borough Council