Controversial £12m civic move ‘is no done deal’

Coun Anthony Alton, who officially took charge of the Tory-led council last week, said its new cabinet would be looking into the proposed move to sell Crescent Gardens and four other buildings and centralise operations at a single location on the site of the old police station on North Park Road.

Earlier this month the Yorkshire Post revealed that a cross-party group of former mayors of the Harrogate district had joined forces to oppose the council’s plans. The move came after the influential Harrogate Civic Society and the opposition Liberal Democrats group raised concerns, claiming proper process had not been followed as it was agreed by cabinet a day before it appeared before the authority’s overview and scrutiny committee.

But Coun Alton, who was deputy leader of the council when the plans were first unveiled last year and supported them alongside his cabinet colleagues, has told the Yorkshire Post there was no indication that the decision would be reversed.

“We are going to look at it and we are going to do so carefully,” Coun Alton said.

“We shall need more time. “We probably always knew there would be a difference of opinion.

“When we get our feet under the table we have a duty to look into it. At this stage we have hardly talked about it.

“I would not call it a pause for thought, just good business.”

The group of 16 former mayors who wrote the letter – including the mayor of the borough for 2011-2012, Les Ellington, who stood down as a councillor in May, and fellow Conservative Bob Nash- registered their “deepest concerns” that “the distinctiveness of our wonderful town is being eroded” through the proposals to move.

“We are concerned that the option to extend Crescent Gardens both upwards and sideways was never explored in any depth, ” their letter said.

“It is our considered collective view that Crescent Gardens should be retained, conserved and improved for the council’s staff, residents and visitors.”

The proposals were voted through at a full council meeting in February, although a report drawn up by council officers remains exempt from the public, due to the “commercially sensitive” nature of some of the information it contains.

Local authority chiefs maintain the centralisation of services is fundamental to ensure the council’s economic future amid savage public sector cutbacks following the coalition Government’s austerity drive.

The council believes the cost of loans for the new premises will be financed from the savings it makes by moving and that the new premises will make it more accessible.

The former leader of Harrogate Borough Council, Coun Don Mackenzie, was voted out at the district’s Conservative party annual general meeting last month.

He refused the offer of a place in Coun Alton’s new cabinet and stepped down along with other senior councillors Coun Richard Cooper, who was responsible for planning, transport and economic development, Coun Jean Butterfield, cabinet member for housing, and Coun Michael Harrison, cabinet member for the environment.

Coun Alton was also cabinet member for finance and resources during the previous administration.