By Chris Robinson, councillor, Cathedral and Castle Ward, Carlisle City Council
Below is a letter submitted to the Cumberland News for their letters page. It was written by myself, as councillor for Cathedral and Castle ward and co-signed by three other City councillors. Two journalists from the News and Star, from the same press group, were also contacted in relation to the issues raised. After an initial reply they stopped communication. Needless to say, this letter was not included in either newspaper.
To be clear, the News and Star is Carlisle’s equivalent of theDaily Mail, belonging to a giant American news corporation. It is devoid of any journalistic integrity and they continue to commit a dereliction of duty, with the exception of Jon Coleman’s brilliant coverage of Carlisle United!
The Letter sent for publication:
It was to sheer bemusement and anger that I read the News and Star article from 16th May entitled, How much will coronavirus cost Carlisle City Council in lost revenue. Whilst it is no surprise that the impact of coronavirus is going to be significant to Carlisle and its residents the hypocritical actions of the Deputy Leader, Cllr Gareth Ellis, are concerning in the extreme.
The article highlights an estimate of a £3.5million drop in revenue for the authority over the year. Within the article, deputy leader Ellis states “We need to know what the new normal is (before any decisions are made)”. I agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly.
It is curious, however, that just 11 days earlier on May 5th, at the meeting of Carlisle City Council, Cllr Ellis put forward for approval and championed a renovation of the Carlisle Civic Centre, to the cost of £3,601,998. This was argued against by some councillors. In fact, Labour Cllr for Cathedral and Castle ward, Chris Robinson, stated in the meeting “This should be kicked into the long grass until will understand what society looks like post-covid19”.
Whilst it is admirable that Cllr Ellis seems to have developed some level of social consciousness, it appears the ‘new normal’ does not apply when it is in relation to feathering the nest councillors’ within the city. It should be noted that the majority of the money for the renovation of the Civic Centre was not covered by the insurance settlement.
Hard-working residents
Of course, the multi-million-pound renovation of the Civic Centre was passed by a vote of 35 votes to 4, with tacit support from all parties across the chamber, with the exceptions of Labour Councillors Atkinson, Brown, Robinson and Rodgerson. The shame of spending this money, from the hard-working residents, can be spread across all parties in the chamber. To further quote Cllr Chris Robinson within the meeting of May 5th “To pass this, at this time is an insult to the hard-working people of Carlisle”.
Councillor Ellis declined to directly respond to these concerns within the meeting of May 5th, rather within his summing up he stated that the improved parking facilities would be a way in which to recoup the cost if the project. Fast forward to the article of 16th May, when Cllr Ellis states “We will have lost £3.5m over the year from things like car parking, rents on properties and from low interest rates”.
Hypocrisy and incompetence
You don’t need to hold a PhD in economics to understand the hypocrisy and incompetence of the deputy leader of the council. Just basic common sense would suffice. The excess money being spent on a shiny new civic centre could be used to mitigate against the issues which are going to impact on our residents, namely loss of income and lack of food. To spend this money whilst heading into a recession predicted to dwarf that of 2008 is disgraceful.
Whilst the world turns and we are unsure of what the future holds for society, one thing we can be sure of is that at least the Councillors of Carlisle will have a civic centre.
This letter is signed by the below Councillors.
Cllr Louise Atkinson
Cllr Lisa Brown
Cllr Chris Robinson
Cllr Calvin Rodgerson
Messages of support from Labour Party members and councillors can be sent to these four councillors via council e-mail addresses, which can be found here.
