Former council criticised for spending £700k on Riverside and Barn Elms

1:00pm Sunday 29th August 2010

By Joanna Kilvington

The former council leadership has been accused of wasting taxpayers’ money after spending almost £700,000 on two controversial developments.

It was revealed £464,693 was spent on developing plans for Twickenham Riverside by the Liberal Democrat council, between 2006 and 2010, yet the site still remains derelict.

A further £234,000 was spent on consultancy services and civil engineering for sports ground Barn Elms.

The Lib Dems had hoped to build 32 homes and a river centre on the former pool site in Twickenham, which has stood derelict for 30 years.

The idea met with strong opposition from community groups and was scrapped by the Conservatives when they came to power in May.

Deputy leader Geoffrey Samuel, the council’s cabinet member for finance, said: “I share the views of all of those people who will be appalled that the Lib Dems spent £500,000 of ratepayers’ money on a scheme that no one wanted.

It has also been revealed the Lib Dems spent almost £250,000 between 2007 and 2010 trying to develop plans for Barn Elms, ending 19 years of uncertainty over the site.

They had planned to sell off 5.5 acres of the popular playing fields to developers to raise money for the improvement of the site before being offered an alternative by campaign group Barnes Vision.

Following consultations and months of hard work an application to increase the number of sports pitches from 13 to 17, build a new pavilion and redevelop the tennis courts - at a cost of £2.15m - was submitted to the council last month.

Of that figure £1.55m has been met in grants from sporting bodies, while the council has put up £250,000. Barn Elms Sports Trust is working to raise the remaining £300,000.

Lib Dem leader Stephen Knight said: “It’s nonsense to think you can develop a project without spending money on drawing up ideas and schemes.

Councillor David Williams, Lib Dem spokesman for finance, said the money spent by the former administration on Barn Elms had proved beneficial as the redevelopment had won the approval of “everybody”.

He said: “If you’re trying to develop a multi-million pound scheme you have to spend money to make sure you get it right.”