Conservative Group Leader on Sefton Council, Mike Prendergast, has raised concerns regarding the growing level of expenditure being proposed by Sefton Council on further developments at Bootle Strand.
At the recent cabinet meeting, Sefton Labour have proposed to invest a further £45.1 million in Bootle Strand.
Commenting on the proposals, Councillor Prendergast said,
“the Conservative Government have already allocated £20 million to Bootle Strand through the Levelling Up Fund.
This now seems to not be enough money for the proposals being put together by Labour councillors in Sefton for Bootle Strand.
They have already applied for a further £7.1 million from the Liverpool City Region and are preparing an application for another £18 million.
This comes on top of the £3.1 million, approved by Labour, and spent on the Bootle Strand to “improve the customer experience close” back in 2018.
The value of the Bootle strand site has more than halved since it was purchased.
The additional expenditure, together with all the other taxpayer money, which has been allocated to the Bootle Strand, and the ongoing high running costs, is causing a huge drain on the finances of Sefton Council.
I think all councillors agree that we want to see redevelopment in areas that need it, including in Bootle.
However, that has to be on a cost-effective basis. Public money, being taxpayers money, needs to be spent wisely and not on projects which show no sign of offering value for money for the taxpayer.
We’ve already lost a huge amount of money on the initial purchase and we now seem to be proposing to spend another £45 million on what is being termed as the first phase of the redevelopment project.
We have absolutely no idea what the cost of the second phase will be. How many more millions will be needed for phase 2?
Spending another £45 million on something which is only valued at £14 million, doesn’t seem very sensible to me. These are not decisions being made by people who have any idea how to run a business or with any commercial acumen.
When Sefton Labour put forward a Council Tax rise later this year, as they inevitably will do, I do hope the people of Sefton will remember that one of the main reasons why their Council Tax will be increasing, again, will be because of the very poor financial decisions that have been taken by Sefton Labour over the last decade.
We need a change in Sefton as the people of Sefton can’t afford Labour any longer.”
