Sale Of Wicken House Is A Bad Deal For Everyone (Saffron Walden Constituency Liberal Democrats)

Saffron Walden Constituency Liberal Democrats <info@saffronwaldenlibdems.org.uk>

Sale Of Wicken House Is A Bad Deal For Everyone

April 17, 2009 11:30 PM

Wicken House - another Tory sell-off

Stansted County Councillor Ray Gooding claims that the sale of Wicken House was a good deal for the taxpayer, but I fear the facts will tell a different story. From 2007 - at the very start of its plan to close this most popular and successful young people's activity centre at Wicken Bonhunt - Essex County Council deceived the public, local schools and the centre's users over its intentions. It carried out a so-called consultation about how much people used and liked the facilities. It said nothing about possible closure and sale. It said it would replicate the facilities and educational activities at other centres in Essex. It has failed to honour that promise.

The house and its delightful grounds have stood silent and abandoned for 12 months. How much has maintenance and security cost the taxpayer over that time? How much income was thrown away from what was a full order book at the time that Cllr Gooding, and his then boss Cllr Tracey Chapman, shut the centre?

Most significantly, how many hundreds of thousands of pounds were lost to the Essex taxpayer because the Conservative-led County Council sold Wicken House during a recession and so didn't sell it at anywhere near the price they expected and that they claimed justified the closure?

Cllr Gooding claims to have saved £600,000 by avoiding paying for facilities for children with disabilities. Not a very admirable motive for closing the home, but probably close to the financial loss on the deal to the taxpayer caused by Cllr Gooding's forcing through the closure and sale in the depths of a recession.

The public this time deserves the full and true facts from Cllr Gooding, not more obfuscation about a 'good deal' that looks more like a raw deal for everyone, especially our children and young people.

Alan Dean