Officers broke council rules over £4m new look for open space

A report into the 4m redevelopment of St George's Square, a public open space in front of the railway station, has revealed that council rules were not properly followed.

The Kirklees Council report, drawn up by a scrutiny panel of councillors, says:

There was a lack of transparency in the processes followed in planning the design of the square.

Decisions relating to detailed aspects of the design were mainly made by officers.

A public vote on design options led to a merging of two designs without full public awareness.

Officers' decisions were not properly recorded.

Record keeping by management was inadequate.

Consideration should have been given to putting the plans before a planning committee.

A financial contribution from an outside body never materialised.

Officers chose not to formally inform councillors of a 600,000 rise in costs.

No evidence that project management principles were strictly adhered to.

The panel of councillors has drawn up a list of recommendations to prevent the same problems happening on future projects.

The report, going before Cabinet next Tuesday, recommends strengthening the project management structure for future major projects, reviewing how decisions are recorded, changing the approach to public consultation and tightening internal audit procedures.

Chairman of scrutiny Coun Robert Iredale said: "We are pleased to have had constructive discussions with cabinet and that we jointly agree the need to ensure that the issues that have been highlighted in the report and the lessons we have learned as a result of the St George's Square project are taken on board to help improve and strengthen the management of future projects."

Leader of Kirklees Council Coun Mehboob Khan, said the project had spanned administrations of all colours and had also been done in a recession.

His administration had taken over the project when it was failing following a loss of contractor and had seen it through to completion, he said. "Construction work commenced during a Conservative administration and the first priority for the new Lib Dem and Labour partnership was to ensure that once the contractor had gone, we were able to step up and make sure the project was finished.

"Meetings have taken place between the (scrutiny) panel and the lead cabinet members and the recommendations as contained within the panel's report are fully accepted.

"Cabinet will ensure that action is taken to implement the recommendations and the regeneration scrutiny panel will be informed as to progress being made on the implementation of the recommendations.

"We welcome this review of the whole process, which spans several political leaderships. Cabinet agree that there were some shortcomings in the project management but want to place on record that, in general, project management on major projects in Kirklees is robust."

He said the council's highways service had to pick up the project after the contractor, Wrekin, collapsed.

"At the point the contractors who were undertaking the work at St George's Square went into liquidation, the highways service had to pick up the reins on the delivery of the project.

"We would like to acknowledge the way this happened and the success of the service in ensuring project delivery at such short notice."