THE newly-elected mayor of Doncaster Peter Davies yesterday denied performing a U-turn after announcing that the town's controversial civic and cultural quarter would go ahead.
English Democrat Mr Davies vowed before he was elected so that "idiotic schemes like the civic and cultural quarter" would be abandoned but yesterday said he had been forced to reconsider.
He claimed that the legal agreement committing Doncaster C
ouncil to the project had been signed by previous mayor Martin Winter four days before the election for his successor was called.
That had led to the new mayor and his cabinet facing a "fait accompli" and a possible legal bill of £25m if the project was scrapped completely.
The £300m scheme has been drawn up by developers Muse, and will include a new public square, new council offices, performance venue and town centre housing.
Mr Davies said: "I have grave reservations about the project, particularly the new performance venue, but it was signed off four days before the election was called and after our manifesto was written.
"What I have been presented with is a fait accompli and now I have to make a decision – do we abandon the scheme completely and face a huge loss or give it our best. It is not a U-turn, it is a decision which has been forced on me in a scorched earth policy of the last administration."
Mr Davies has already been accused of going back on another election promise after he was forced to provide funding for a Gay Pride event which had also been agreed by Mr Winter.
But he said that no funding would be granted for the event next year and said he was happy that most of the other promises made in his manifesto, including scrapping of translation services for foreign nationals, would be delivered.
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