Skatepark gaffe hits villagers in pocket

Apr 18 2008 by Ben Guy, The Journal

A COUNCIL blunder that led to a skatepark being built in the wrong place could end up costing villagers £25 each to rectify.

Corbridge Parish Council in Northumberland mistakenly built the park on the wrong allotment site in January, before allegedly trying to cover up the mistake by attempting to purchase the land retrospectively for £20,000.

Last month the council held a meeting behind closed doors to discuss how to resolve the mistake, and The Journal can reveal that those present were told that correcting the mistake would cost at least £45,000.

Because the council does not have those funds, councillors were told the cash would have to come from a 55% hike in the parish council tax precept.

Last year the Corbridge Parish Council tax precept was £73,000, which would need to increase to at least £113,150 to pay for the mistake – an increase that equates to about £25 per household.

As a result of that meeting, the clerk of the council Derick Tiffin wrote to Charles Beaumont, who owns the land where the park has been mistakenly built, detailing the cost implications for the taxpayer.

But Mr Beaumont said he was reluctant to bail the council out of its own expensive mistake.

He said: “There must be fault attributable to one or more individuals within the parish council.

“At the moment these culpable individuals are refusing to accept any blame for their actions and instead are placing the focus on me to get them out of a hole.”

Mr Beaumont added that with the unitary council elections fast approaching, it was important that the whole truth of the matter was made public before voters went to the polls.

He also said that as a result of the way the council had behaved, he was pulling out of negotiations over the site.

He said: “I am just fed up with all the shenanigans and as a result I have pulled out of all negotiations.

“I am just tired of the way that some of these people are behaving.”

Chairman of the parish council Bill Grigg said: “I would rather wait until we have the findings of the investigation before commenting.”

Tynedale Council is currently carrying out an independent inquiry into the mistake, although Mr Beaumont said yesterday that no one from the council had yet contacted him as part of that investigation.

Mr Tiffin added that because the information obtained by The Journal had been confidential he would not comment in it.

One councillor has already resigned in protest at how the mistake has been handled.