Council faced with £800,000 site bill (From The Northern Echo)

Council faced with £800,000 site bill

6:00am Thursday 12th November 2009

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OPPOSITION councillors at North Yorkshire County Council have hit out at the ruling Conservative group, claiming they have mismanaged gipsy and traveller sites across the county.

The council has been left with an unexpected £800,000 bill after investigations into four traveller sites revealed they are in such bad condition they need to be rebuilt from scratch.

Plans were originally in place to refurbish kitchen and bathroom sheds at travellers sites at Seamer, Thirsk, Carlton and Burn, at an estimated cost of £550,000, an amount that was raised through grants and match funding.

However, on closer inspection, the sites have been found to be much worse than was originally thought and need a total overhaul, bringing the bill to £1.35m.

The extra £800,000 may have to be met by taxpayers.

The Liberal Democrat opposition has demanded to know why the estimates for the repairs were so inaccurate, and why the sites were allowed to deteriorate.

Councillor Bill Hoult, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “If the estimates had been prepared properly in the first place, it is likely that a bigger Government grant would have been available.

Instead, North Yorkshire council tax payers are likely to have to fork out the £800,000 extra cost for this blunder.

“It is shameful that the Tory-led county council has had responsibility for these sites for 13 years and allowed them to get into such a disgraceful state of disrepair.”

Councillor Carl Les, a Conservative councillor, said: “It is important this matter is looked at in context.

“There have been concerns about the sites for some years and getting the previous management company to leave the sites was difficult.

“We made the original estimates back in January because we needed to get some funding in place, but they were only estimates. Once we could access the sites we saw that they would need more work, and so the bill has gone up.

“We will ask the Government to extend their grant, and if we install better facilities we can increase the rent paid on the sites, which will cover most of the refurbishment costs.”

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