Decision on Salisbury Gardens ‘called in’ by scrutiny members

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Cllrs Wayne Whittle (Con), Geoff Lumley (Lab) and Dave Stewart (Con) are responsible for a Call-in on the latest decision in relation to leasing Salisbury Gardens (the former Coastal Centre) to Ventnor Town Council.

The Call-in will be considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 6th March. The reason given by councillors was an absence of evidence for the decision.

A brief statement supporting reason for call-in reads,

At the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on Thursday, 6 February 2014 consideration was given to the report. The lead members from the Committee, Wayne Whittle and Ivor Warlow, identified a number of concerns in relation to the financial information upon which the recommendation was based. Until these have been fully explained in a report and there are clear transparent financial implications for this authority the lease should not be approved.

The desired outcome given is,

Consideration by the cabinet of a report containing full details of the financial implications and clarification of the issues raised by the lead scrutiny members.

Following the decision being made by the Cabinet last week, Cllr Jonathan Bacon commented on this site,

“At last night’s Cabinet meeting Councillors Lumley and Whittle stated (or threatened, depending on your view), that they would ‘Call In’ the Cabinet decision.

“This was on the basis of a list of questions about concerns they had. These questions had been answered at an earlier meeting with officers and were again answered last night. It waits to be seen if the agreement theses Councillors had plainly made prior to the meeting will be put into action.

“Having had answers to their questions the only purpose or effect now would be adversely affect the possibility of VTC gaining funding. The question for them is whether they want to play political games or simply act against the financial interests of Ventnor residents who support the project for the building.”

Full details are embedded below