Information has been release which proves campaigning residents seeking a new playground have been bamboozled by outside politicians coming into town with their own agendas. Councillors’ promises are not Council decisions.
A review of Council decision making by two Sefton MBC Directors called for by Chief Executive Margaret Carney has established that whatever the politicians’ promises, at the beginning of this month Sefton Council had NOT made a decision to spend one single penny on the Kew Ovingdon Drive play area – despite Bootle councillors leading residents to believe otherwise.
The review has established that there is a small repair budget for the entirety of the Council’s 55 play areas, working out at less than £1000 per play area for everything – but there is NO capital budget at all for replacing playgrounds and there is NO policy adopted in the Council for the prioritisation of smaller play areas such as Ovingdon Drive or Smith Green in Formby, both of which were closed down several months ago on safety grounds after a nasty incident at the Smithy Green play area.
At least £2000 of this budget is spent on the annual safety inspections for play equipment. Officers say that for “major refurbishments . . . we rely on capital grants and external funding.”
The closure of the two playgrounds, the Directors say, “was an officer decision and the Cabinet Member was informed.”
Prior to a very recent meeting at Southport Town Hall, the Council did not have ANY records of ANY correspondence or other approaches to Cabinet Members or to any officers of the Council seeking ANY authorisation for or finance towards repair or renewal of play equipment in Smithy Green, Formby or in Ovingdon Drive, Kew or in any other play areas within the Borough – or of ANY responses being properly made on the Council’s behalf on these matters. Yet politicians were telling local residents as long ago as September that money had been secured.
The Directors could also not find records of any consideration whatsoever within the Council of on any options for spending Council cash on “full or partial replacement of play equipment on Ovingdon Drive (Kew) play area or Smithy Green (Formby) play areas”. Officers had only briefed the Cabinet Member on the situation at each of the playgrounds advising him of the condition of the sites and outlining their immediate closure. After the closure there had been some costing of options for new schemes but there had been NO decisions made about funding replacement equipment anywhere within the Council. The officers say “we are exploring how these could be funded”.
When questioned about any unauthorised commitments made verbally by politicians to residents about past or possible spending decisions of the Council concerning these play areas. the Directors’ comments were:
“I cannot comment on discussions Councillors may have since officers are often not party to that dialogue”
Commenting, Southport Councillor Tony Dawson says:
“It is quite possible that money may well be found in the near future within the Council for replacing this equipment at Ovingden Drive and Smithy Green. It will be great if this happens but it will be interesting to see where they can just suddenly put their fingers on £60,000, given that the Council’s bosses are always telling everyone how short the Council is of cash. However, since they have just secretly thrown £684,000 at their offshore tax advisor friends over the Bootle Strand purchase, perhaps there really is a ‘money tree’ in Bootle?”
“What the Directors’ written analysis shows is that residents should always be wary of believing politicians about decisions they say have been made. ‘Warm words’, from however a high up councillor, are just ‘warm words’ and these are NOT the same as Council decisions. All the time since early September that the campaigning residents and the wider public were being informed decisions had been made to offer tens of thousands of pounds of Council cash for these playgrounds, there had been no such decisions made at all.”
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