Market Hall refurbishment grinds to a halt

ROK, the company contracted to work on the Southport Market refurbishment, have been placed in administration following reported losses of £3.8million.  For more details please see the Southport Visiter site or the Birkdale Blogspot.

It seems somewhat ironic therefore that there is a report on the Agenda for Southport Area Committee meeting next week which gives details of the Southport Market Gateway Features (Public Art).  The report requests approval from the Southport Councillors for moving to stage 2 of this commissioning process with an overall cost of £111,750 including £26,400 for 3 granite seats.

I think its madness to consider spending this amount of money when we are trying to reduce budgets. We are facing the prospect of at least 1,000 employees of Sefton Council losing their jobs as a result of necessary spending cuts and so it seems unjustifiable and incredibly insensitive for Labour and Conservative Councillors to have voted for a scheme that allows large sums of money to be spent on items such as granite seats.

As Tony Robertson, Lib Dem Leader of Sefton Council explained “It displays a complete lack of any grasp of the economic realities that we are facing.  It also indicates that both parties do not see how investment in market redevelopment should be directed. It’s all very well having expensive seats, but if the market traders cannot afford the inevitably higher rents, then who will be there to sit on the granite seats?”

Councillor Simon Shaw has already voiced concerns about where money for this project is being spent. “At a recent Council meeting I asked how much money had so far been spent: the answer was that over £250,000 had been spent on external Consultants, while just £15,000 has been spent on building work.”