Road overspend talks delayed
6:34pm Thursday 1st May 2008
By Neil Macfarlane »
TALKS on a £1.9m overspend on a new road project have been delayed so that councillors can have more time to come up with recommendations.
Darlington Borough Council members met last night to discuss the problems with the management of the town's new Eastern Transport Corridor road.
A recent £22,000 consultants' report highlighted a series of errors in the council's handling of the project, which caused the price of the scheme to rocket.
Councillors at last night's resources scrutiny meeting agreed to hold a full hearing about the issue next week.
Conservative Coun Charles Johnson, said: "We have looked at this report and we need to ask a lot of questions that have not been answered.
"We don't think we can do justice to considering this subject in this meeting.
"It takes time and commitment. We need to go right through this and understand exactly what went wrong."
Martin Swainson, the leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said: "This is too big an issue to be dealt with in a two hour meeting.
"We are talking about nearly £2m of tax payers' money."
The committee agreed to hold a task and finish group in private next Friday to discuss the report by consultants EC Harris. The group will then come up with recommendations for the authority's cabinet committee.
News of the road overspend came less than two years after a council plan to pedestrianise Darlington town centre ran over budget by more than £2m.
Chairman Coun Ian Haszeldine said: "If we can wrap it up and come up with recommendations for the cabinet committee then I am prepared to set up a task and finish group.
"I would ask people to remember that it shouldn't be about naming and shaming and finger pointing. It is about getting to the facts."
Your Say YourNorth-East
L Hume, Darlington says...
8:16pm Thu 1 May 08
ali, darlington says...
9:20pm Thu 1 May 08
Surely it is in the interests of Darlington tax payers to get to the bottom of this fiasco which from what I have gathered has been nicknamed "the road to nowhere".
The Borough Council need to be accountable for this massive overspend and realistically you would have hoped they had learned lesssons from the pedestrianisation fiasco. Once again the council appears to just go ahead and do what they want and not consider the people of the town.
On the same subject has anyone else noticed that since they started on this road to nowhere the town is now gridlocked between 4.30pm and 5.30pm every evening and it takes at least 20 - 30 minutes to cross the town.
Councillors get your act together and sort this out quickly before the overspend escalates even higher!!!
Alan Macnab, Darlington says...
9:20pm Thu 1 May 08
What astounds me is that two major projects which were managed by the Council have overshot their budgets by substantial amounts and the Council keep trotting out the same excuse "well we will do better next time. We will learn from our mistakes."
The fact is mistakes continue to be made because lessons are not being learnt. Serious mistakes were made on the ETC as the consultant's report has found.
By holding the meeting in private I fear that only a sanitised version will be placed in the public domain. The public have a right to know why the additional costs were not forseen and included in the budget, who knew about the overspending, when did they know about it,what they did about it and importantly why it was not reported to Elected Members.
Drawing a veil over this episode is not acceptable. Public confidence in Darlington Borough Council needs to be restored and the only way to do this by holding the meeting in public.
miketually, Darlington says...
10:10pm Thu 1 May 08
Not for everyone :)
Dan, Darlington says...
7:13am Fri 2 May 08
Your sayYourNorth-East
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Bria, Darlington says...
8:13pm Thu 1 May 08
This is a contradiction to the Council run Town Crier, where the council wallows in the publicity of NAMING AND SHAMING council tax payers whom put there household rubbish out to soon.
So lets have the same level playing field, after all these faceless incompetent personnel should be made accountable, dont forget we are all contributing to there salary, bonuses and perks.
Finally the last part of the above quote:-
ITS ABOUT GETTING TO THE FACTS. Consultants EC Harris commissioned by Darlington Borough Council, has produced a FACTUAL report condemning the AMATURE performance of the council and its employees.
Rather than act swiftly and bring this dismal episode to a conclusion and look to try and recoup any losses.
Darlington Borough Council decides to hold a PRIVATE meeting of a task and finish group next Friday to discuss the EC Harris report. This will be more likely be a how we WRIGGLE OFF THE HOOK meeting and the FINGER POINTING is guaranteed to be in the opposite direction to themselves.
Shame on you councilors have some honour and dignity. Resign.