Keeping up appearances

Back in the day when Holley & Co could trot out any old baloney and still get favourable coverage in the local paper (has anything changed?), Swansea’s Lib Dems very publicly announced a decision to pull the plug on a done deal to lease a city centre building intended to house a new council-run gym.

The highly dubious claim at the time was that an upper floor had suddenly become “inadequate” for gym equipment – a surprising assessment on the part of council surveyors who had signed off on the premises just a few months earlier. Of course, the shabby truth was that the move all been about causing political embarrassment to the former Labour regime who had leased the Pool Sanctuary building following the closure of the Leisure Centre.

Yet like many of their little costly stunts, it was a gimmick that backfired badly when opposition groups forced an internal inquiry into official skulduggery. It was also to prove very costly for Swansea’s council taxpayers inasmuch as the Council remained firmly stuck with an expensive lease and no takers.

Since then Mr Bumble and his administration have attempted a series of ill-considered alternatives – including a desperate bid to sign up a nightclub operator even though credit checks confirmed that the firm involved was based at an Ipswich council house address. Now the hapless souls who sit on Swansea Council’s cabinet are to be told that mounting rent arrears accrued by Company X are upwards of £40,000 with no realistic hope of repayment.

In a financial report to be presented to this week’s meeting – but which will be discussed behind closed doors – officers reportedly admit that the firm involved was always considered a poor risk. The report’s authors claim it has been submitted in order to “mitigate the Council’s position and note the situation regarding the letting” but the heavy implication is that it is an arse-covering exercise designed to emphasise that letting choices were very limited at the time of negotiation. There is also a strong hint that the flawed decision process had been subject to considerable political influence. It’s an irony that Labour will no doubt appreciate greatly.

But despite the bureaucratic justifications for being so far adrift in rental income, the advice stops short of recommending an actual write-off, at least for the moment anyway. Swansea council taxpayers however will be bemused to hear that the only reason given is because of concerns over “the way in which it would be perceived”.