The Tory council’s decision to close the Linskill Centre and sell off the land for Housing has been called in to be scrutinised by the Councils Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The decision is to examine, as user groups claim, that there has been insufficient consultation before the decision was made.

Councillor Ian Grayson, Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said,

“ The Council produced the report proposing the closure of part of the Centre mid September 2003 and yet on questioning an officer he admitted to me that the consultation did not take place until the 6th to the 8th of October. This clearly goes to show that the consultation was a sham and the Tory Mayor had no intention of listening to residents in the supposed consultation.”

Despite the O and S Committee’s recommendation that the decision should be looked at again by the Cabinet, the Mayor is to proceed with the closure and will sell off the land for housing.

Councillor Ian Grayson said,

“ This decision not only ignores the Committees recommendation but more importantly ignores the views of many user groups and public opinion. We clearly have an un-caring Council now that the Conservatives are in charge”.