Labour Council drop £10 million Park Hill bombshell

6.51.24pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 23rd Aug 2005

Sheffield's Liberal Democrats have criticised the Labour run Council after it emerged taxpayers will have to pay £10 million towards the redevelopment of the Park Hill flat complex. The move is the latest in a long line of controversial Labour decisions on the future of the complex and comes after Labours original decision to list the buildings back in the 1990's.

The grade II* listed flats will be divided into homes for rent, for sale and for small businesses and community use. Liberal Democrats believe that the £10m, that is provided through the Governments Housing Market Renewal allocation to Sheffield, could be better spent elsewhere in some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in Sheffield..

Labour have always given the impression that the £40 million pound revamp of the giant 1950's flat complex would be paid for by private developers. But the Lib Dems have discovered the £10 million bombshell in one line of an appendix in a recent Council report. It reveals that the Council have approved £10 million of taxpayers money to go towards the project which will see old Council flats refurbished.

Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Sheffield, Cllr Paul Scriven said:-

"I have questioned the council on this several times in the past and Labour has always given the perception that public money would never be used. Labour triumphed Park Hill as a £40 million private sector scheme but then a report has revealed Park Hill is getting £10 million of public money"

"Many people will now be asking themselves - hold on, where has this come from? This is taxpayers money yet the planned investment has never been announced. The first time this multi-million pound amount came to the attention of the Council was in the appendix of a report that was slipped through the last Cabinet meeting before the summer break. There was no comment about it and no press release issued"

"It's quite clear now that it's not purely a private sector scheme. We now have to ask questions as to whether we should be investing taxpayers' money to redevelop another Labour 'white elephant' and clearly the answer is no. That £10 million could be used elsewhere in Sheffield to invest in other more worthwhile projects"