MP says 'serious questions' to answer over failed Newport store bid

Mark Pritchard was speaking ahead of this evening's 5pm meeting of the borough council's Cabinet at which the scheme, for greenfield land at Station Road, is expected to be officially withdrawn.

And today there were calls for council leader Kuldip Singh Sahota to stand down in the wake of the failed bid.

The application, put forward by the council, developers St Modwen and Sainsbury's, has cost taxpayers more than £1,200,000 according to figures supplied by Conservative group leader Andrew Eade. But the council says the figure is actually £465,000 after taking account surveys that can be transferred to a new planning application for 120 houses on the site and contributions received.

Mr Pritchard said: "The political leadership has lots of serious questions to answer over this ill-thought through planning application. It is completely inept.

"This is a victory for all of us who have campaigned for common sense over such a long period."

Mr Pritchard said the authority "should be held to account" for their decisions. I now hope a smaller and better retail scheme can be built with far more public support and on a more sustainable site".

But Councillor Bill McClements, Cabinet member for finance and enterprise, accused Mr Pritchard of making a "widely inaccurate statement". He added: "He could have come into the council offices to discuss with me and understand the facts.

"The decision to develop Station Road was made to ensure that the council was maximising the taxpayers' asset, which is their responsibility in law."

Meanwhile, Councillor Eade is calling for council leader Kuldip Singh Sahota to stand down in the wake of the failed three-year bid to bring Sainsbury's to Newport.

He said the authority had wasted more than £1 million of taxpayers' money on the Station Road scheme, which was announced in 2011 by the council, developers St Modwen and the supermarket giant. But the plans caused huge controversy in Newport and although the application was approved by the council, which owns the site and which stood to make millions in land sales, it was called in by Secretary of State Eric Pickles.

A planning inquiry was held at the beginning of last year but the inspector died before reaching a conclusion, and it was due to be re-run next year.

Now the council has announced that the planning application for Sainsbury's will be withdrawn at its Cabinet meeting today, subject to councillors backing an agreement with St Modwen to build about 120 homes on the site.

Councillor Eade said Telford & Wrekin Council has some "serious questions to answer" over the "fiasco".

He said: "They should have pulled the plug on this scheme two years ago and saved themselves a lot of taxpayers' money.

It is far too easy to use public money in this way and councillors need to answer some serious questions about this. I think the leader of the council should step down. If he worked for a private company he would have been fired for this.

"The council has so far spent £1.4m on this scheme trying to get planning permission to develop this site while at the same time refusing planning permission for rival schemes and fighting their approval by a Government inspector to the High Court."

But Councillor Sahota hit back, saying: "I'm not going to apologise for trying to secure the best deal for Telford & Wrekin. Telford & Wrekin Council has made the correct decisions over the last three-and-a-half years. In 2011 we stopped Civic Office being built, saving £1.1m per year every year; have generated £35m of capital receipts since May 2011 and made savings of £53m per year every year.

"Telford & Wrekin's economy has grown at twice the national rate for the last two years and our mortgage, our capital debt, is lower than most councils.

"How dare Mr Eade criticise this administration, which can demonstrate excellent financial management and positive growth.

"Let's not forget in February 2011 it was his administration that started the process for a supermarket site at Station Road."

Councillor Bill McClements, Cabinet member for finance and enterprise, added: "The sale of the Station Road site to Sainsbury's would have financed over £1m of adult social services for 40 years. Significant costs were wasted by an unknown person or group who persuaded the Secretary of State to call in the application. Sadly that person has now devalued the taxpayers' asset at Station Road."