A Fresh Start for Springfield Park

Posted By: Wera Hobhouse
Date Posted: 30/04/2009

How much information should be contained in report to cabinet so that councillors can make accountable decisions? We councillors especially at cabinet have to continually make decisions on a wide range of subjects of which we can't possibly know all the details. We rely on the relevant officials for open and full disclosure of information to assist us to make decisons that won't come back to bite us. 

During last night’s council meeting we had an interesting debate over the proposed Golf Driving Range.
Opposition councillors read out a press release from July 2007 in which the Lib Dem portfolio holder for finance (William Hobhouse) welcomed the council multi million pound investment for new sports and leisure facilities in the borough.
The press release had followed a seven page report to cabinet from the 16th July 2007 which asked for general approval of how we should pay for those new facilities from within the council’s finances. The report discussed in detail what would happened if we did nothing, whether we should go for private investment and finally explained in some detail the four main projects: Middleton Arena, Heywood Sports Village, Central Leisure, and Littleborough Campus Improvements.

On page 4 under ‘other projects’ is one line: ‘Golf Course £0.30m’.

Is it a fair question to ask whether that was enough information to make a decision to erect a 20m fence around 12 acres of Springfield Park and prevent the general public from using it?

I hold my hands up and admit openly that I didn’t understand the implication of ‘Golf Course £0.30m'. Is it a fair question to ask why the full implications weren’t spelled out in the report – i.e. build a 30 bay, 12 acre Golf Driving range on Springfield Park football and cricket pitches which the Council has no budget to maintain.
I was portfolio holder for parks at that time and no officers had discussed with me that anything like that was in the pipeline. Nine Months later I finally understood the meaning of ‘Golf Course £0.30m’ when I was collared by an angry resident in Marland who had heard from a park warden that 12 acres of land was going to be fenced off from Springfield Park for a Driving Range. Call me thick but I have the uneasy feeling that in 2007 wool was pulled over my eyes.

Is it a fair question to ask who did know any particulars at the time of the report in 2007?
Is it fair to wonder why the report in 2007 was kept a little ‘oblique’ on the subject?

In January this year my colleagues felt duty bound by that first ‘decision’ in 2007 to approve the budget for building the Driving Range in Springfield Park. Cabinet also approved a full consultation.
This consultation has now taken place. However late it now gives everyone the opportunity to look at the proposal afresh and make an informed new decision based on full open information, financial feasibility and public support.