Labour turns back on Arts Centre!

Councillor Dale Mulgrew has slammed Labour in the town, after they proposed to remove the funding for the new Arts Centre.  Councillor Mulgrew claims that Labour are playing "fast and loose" and that this is "another example of their lack of vision for our Town".  Councillor Mulgrew and the rest of the Lib Dems are furious about what they call a significant "betrayal".

Labour's stance is in complete disagreement with their Parliamentary Candidate – Simon Danczuk.  He said in a news release on 11 January: "Like many people in Rochdale I have made my views known as part of the town centre regeneration consultation and included in my comments was the need for a new arts centre to play a major part in this development."

Dale said: "This fund is imperative in starting the process to deliver an Arts Centre and I’m hugely disappointed with Labour’s attempts to derail this.  History is repeating itself and anyone wondering why Rochdale lagged behind other towns in terms of the arts under decades of Labour control should see their attempts again to scupper our efforts.  This £100,000 will guarantee real progress in terms of delivering this ambitious project and to have it removed will be a disaster and a real setback. 

"Looking at previous comments from the Conservative Leader Ashley Dearnley about the centre, we are confident of defeating Labour.

"I think it’s a real shame though that Allen Brett and Farooq Ahmed are attempting this.  I could imagine an embittered Middleton or Heywood Labour Councillor trying to engineer this – but these two?

"Labour’s budget proposals are soft on crime, soft on initiatives, soft on vision and quite frankly soft in the head!”

Lib Dems have also accused Labour of being "soft on crime" in the light of their proposals to cut an extra £200,000 that is proposed to go into the 'Youth Offender’s Payback Scheme'.  The 'reparation scheme' aims to get young offenders to pay back their debt to society while teaching them the value of a hard day’s work. 

Councillor Alan Taylor, Leader of the Council said: "The number 1 priority for local people is the fight against crime and anti-social behaviour.  This money will go a long way to sending a clear message to our young people that if you commit crime you will have to pay back to society.

"Labour should stop chasing headlines and start listening to the priorities of the people of this Borough."

Councillor Keith Swift, Cabinet Member for Townships has also attacked Labour and Conservative plans to get rid of the People’s Champion.  Keith said: "The People’s Champion team are in place to improve the services that we provide and our customers, the Council Tax payers receive.  A lot of hard work has gone on to set this department up and a new corporate complaint’s policy has already been written by the People’s Champion team, something that the Labour / Conservative coalition did not see fit to do. 

The Liberal Democrats are improving services to our customers at all level both internal and external.  If this money is removed, it will not only lead to job losses but all the momentum and work being put in to improve our customer service being wasted.  Our Council must recognise that the customer must come first and this does this.  Our policy benefits every Council Service and I feel attempts by the opposition to disband the service shows a lack of understanding and a disregard for the residents of this Borough."

Responding to the Liberal Democrats criticism of Labour’s stance on the arts centre feasibility study, Simon Danczuk said: "Let’s be very clear about this, Paul Rowen’s agent, Dave Hennigan, made a promise to everyone in the Borough that if he didn’t deliver this arts centre then he would resign. With this in mind I can only see his attacks as a desperate attempt to keep his job and to try and hide the obvious shortcomings of the Liberal Democrat Group. They have handled this poorly from start to finish."
 
The Labour Group Leader, Allen Brett, added that he was not opposed to an arts centre but simply felt the £100,000 allocated for a feasibility study could be used better elsewhere.

"I have canvassed on some of the poorest estates in Rochdale and I know what the concerns of ordinary, decent people are," he said. "They want better roads, cleaner streets and a council that cares about them. I feel very strongly that the Liberal Democrats are ignoring them. This is all about Dave Hennigan trying to build a monument to his ego and save his job in the process. Dale Mulgrew is also guilty of self-aggrandisement on a huge scale because he wants to become a Parliamentary Candidate. We want an arts centre but it's important that this council starts supporting the most vulnerable people first and stops wasting tax payers money."