Emotions flare between councillors following Magnet Leisure Centre saga

Emotions were running high at a meeting between councillors on Monday following revelations over a drop in the value of the Magnet Leisure Centre site, with the council leader accused of 'ranting' at an overview and scrutiny panel.

It follows a front page story on the Thursday, September 8 edition of the Advertiser where it was reported that the land value of the former leisure centre site had plummeted by almost £11million.

The news came from a confidential document seen by the Advertiser which was discussed in the ‘part two’ section of last month’s cabinet meeting.

This part of the meeting is held behind closed doors, with discussions taking place and decisions made without the public and press in attendance.

On Monday, council leader Andrew Johnson said he was ‘extremely disappointed’ over the leak, which he claimed was the third in two years.

“I am led to believe that this is an unprecedented level of leakage from the local authority,” said Cllr Johnson (Con, Hurley & the Walthams).

“I just want to express my disappointment that this damages the local authority – it damages all of us in terms of engendering trust, not only amongst ourselves as elected members to have free and frank discussions where needed in private, but also for those businesses, partners and residents who look to us to conduct our affairs with trust.

“It is not particularly in the spirit of partnership working.

“Of course, we want to be open and transparent, but the regulations are there for, at times, a very good reason.

“I have sought assurances from my group that none of them leaked this information [and] I am satisfied with that response.

“I don’t believe that there are officers who would leak this information; I do believe, sadly, it has come from an elected member.”

His comments sparked anger from the opposition benches, who inferred that the council leader had directly accused an opposition councillor of leaking the confidential information, a claim which Cllr Johnson denied.

Both the leader of the Local Independents Cllr Lynne Jones and the leader of the Liberal Democrats Cllr Simon Werner said they had received assurances from their colleagues that they had not leaked the information.

Both described Cllr Johnson’s speech as a ‘rant’, with the former saying it had ‘no place’ at a panel designed to scrutinise policy direction.

Cllr Werner was also ‘incredibly angry’ at the tirade, adding: “He’s specified that he’s had assurances from his group that none of them leaked it, he’s sure that the officers haven’t leaked it, so therefore it must be one of the opposition.

“That’s a paraphrase of his words, so yes, he did make an accusation, for which I would ask for an apology if I thought there was any chance of receiving it.

“I’m angry about it happening [and] I am angry about the accusation.”