THE process to pick the new site for the Nunthorpe Community Centre has ground to a halt.

More than £900,000 is up for grabs for the new hub and two different groups are vying for the funding. Nunthorpe Parish Council, the Community Council and the Institute submitted an application for the centre to be next to the new GP surgery on Stokesley Road.

While the Nunthorpe & Marton Playing Fields Association (NMPFA) wants to expand its site on Guisborough Road to accommodate community facilities. Nunthorpe Vision first ran a survey asking residents what they wanted from their new community centre last November and the process has rumbled on ever since.

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A spokesperson for Middlesbrough Council said: “The process for finding a preferred partner to build and manage the proposed Nunthorpe Community Centre has been paused and will be re-started following concerns being raised around that process. Parties involved have been written to and given an explanation for this decision and we hope the re-started process will be concluded swiftly.”

It is thought that the new process will start in the next few weeks and will take around three months.

A spokesperson for the NMPFA said: “Following a detailed review of the current Nunthorpe Community Centre bid process by Middlesbrough Council, following organisation and resident complaints, the council has decided to restart the community centre bid process.

“Middlesbrough Council’s review highlighted concerns around value for money associated with the build and a number of conflicts of interest by community representatives and consequently, under-representation from certain sections of our community.”

However, a statement by Nunthorpe Parish Council, refutes that there were any conflicts of interest from its bid. Concerns have been raised previously about the crossover of people involved in the bids and their representation on the Nunthorpe Vision community centre sub-group which will recommend a bid to the council.

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The council’s director of finance Ian Wright and the head of commissioning and procurement Louise Grabham attended Nunthorpe’s parish council meeting last week. Following the meeting, a parish council statement read: “Parish councillors appreciated Mr Wright’s apology for neglecting to consult those who had submitted bids before he decided that the council’s process could not stand up to challenge.

“The parish council was also grateful for his clarification of unfortunate ambiguities in his letter, and in particular welcomed his assurance that reference to the need to be ‘free of perceived conflict of interest’ did not relate to concerns about the conduct of either of the parties or of any individuals who had participated in the bidding process.

“Mr Wright undertook to confirm this reassurance in writing. He stated that the concerns leading to his intervention arose because the council’s need to undertake ‘due diligence’ had not been clearly documented at the start of the process, and therefore he had decided that the process must be restarted on the basis of a clearer specification.”

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