Truth about stadium gets kicked into touch

All is not well at Swansea’s Liberty Stadium – despite recent Swans and Ospreys performances to the contrary.

Earlier reports on this blog of alleged legal disputes between council and stadium management company SSMC were more or less confirmed by the Evening Post a few days later. Today it is the turn of the Western Mail to provide more details of litigation over design defects at the 20,000 seater venue.

It makes for very sorry reading. It is also sadly typical of a bungling political administration that may be in office but is clearly not in charge – as highlighted by the fact that two out of the six directors who plan to sue the council are cabinet members.

Concerns have also been voiced at officer level about a so-called ‘sinking fund’ earmarked for major repairs which SSMC are supposed to fund by £200,000 but has instead been used to pay for new shop fronts for retail units and consultants’ fees.

Having previously refused to make any press comment, Calamity Hall is now spinning some flannel about how ‘well-bring’ powers were used to finance building of the £33 million stadium and that they is no need for any return. It adds that it is “saving thousands” by passing on responsibilities for day-to-day running costs to the management company. The reaction elsewhere to this official response is that (1) Wormtongue must not have received extracts of the cabinet report which are supposed to be circulating; and (2) it’s all patently bollocks since the main financial beneficiaries are a couple of privately owned sports clubs.

The reluctance of SSMC to go into details, on the other hand, suggests that they intend to continue quietly screwing a lot more money out of council coffers for some time.

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Meanwhile, the bad news for Swansea’s council taxpayers is that there does not seem to be a single individual operating in the local press or politics with sufficient bottle - or without special interest - to be able to speak up loudly on their behalf and point out that there is glaring difference between the use of well-being powers and taking the piss.

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(JX)