Councillors in Lichfield and Burntwood have criticised plans to spend £90,000 a year on officials to help sort out the future of land left empty by the collapse of the Friarsgate scheme.
Now renamed the Birmingham Road Site, the land had been earmarked for redevelopment as part of the long-awaited city centre project.
However, the failure to secure private funding and subsequent collapse of the project has left Lichfield District Council with a £7million bill and large plots of land lying dormant.
Labour councillors claim the local authority wants to spend £90,000 a year on officers to work on future proposals for the site – although the council says one of the two posts would be a re-graded and re-titled role rather than a new one.
Cllr Sue Woodward, leader of the opposition Labour group at Lichfield District Council, claimed that the money was being spent by the controlling Conservative group to “cover their embarrassment over Friarsgate”.
“I was shocked to learn that two of the new posts being discussed were specifically to lead on the post-Friarsgate project at the Birmingham Road site,” she said. “Others were too, including some Conservative councillors I have spoken to.
“At a time when many council staff have been made redundant, services have been and are still being cut and additional charges imposed, such as the bin tax, I do not think this is acceptable.
“I’m especially annoyed and concerned that the Conservative administration is spending £90,000 simply to cover their embarrassment over the Friarsgate fiasco which has already cost the authority well over £7million.
“My colleagues and I could suggest many alternative projects for which £90,000 would make a huge difference for residents of this District and their families. The Conservative administration just isn’t listening and do not seem to have learned any lessons from their failures over Friarsgate.”
Taxpayers’ money
The decision follows the recent creation of a member group to look at how the now-derelict site can be developed for the future.
Cllr Di Evans, deputy leader of the Labour opposition group, said: “The member working group has so far only met once and has yet to report to or engage with all council members, let alone the public, so I find it surprising that these posts are being proposed now for a project that hasn’t even been properly scoped.
“The Conservative administration is spending even more taxpayers’ money on officers to take forward a project that no one knows about.
“There have been some suggested schemes for the old Friarsgate site and discussions in private but we have been given no idea at all as yet of the total costs.”
Lichfield District Council has not commented on the issues raised by the Labour councillors.
