Demand for change after Newcastle Airport deal
Nov 10 2008 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal
AN EMERGENCY meeting of airport bosses will this week see demand for a leadership review. City leaders are seeking urgent changes following a secret decision to hand former Newcastle Airport chief executive John Parkin an estimated £2m payout ahead of a legal challenge last month.
Councillors in Tyne and Wear, together with Northumberland and Durham, own 51% of the airport and had been expecting to see Mr Parkin taken to court in a bid to claw-back more than £6m the ex-boss paid out to himself in an airport remortgaging deal.
But it emerged many council leaders were kept in the dark about the settlement. Now Liberal Democrats in Newcastle and Northumberland are set to demand answers from the local authority holding group, known as LA7, on which the shareholders sit.
Crucially, they will ask what weaknesses were in the airport’s case – brought after Mr Parkin was suspended in 2007 due to “certain personal contractual issues” – which may have forced the airport to settle.
They will also demand to know whether a deal worth millions of pounds of public money could have been reached without a secrecy clause.
Last night LA7 member and Newcastle councillor Peter Allen said it was important the public knew what was being done in their name.
He said: “This is more than just about the settlement. We have to ask now how we got to the point where this bonus could have been agreed.
“We are tabling written questions to see who was responsible and what role the remuneration committee played in this. We will also be asking for the details of the corporate governance review, carried out more than a year ago and not yet published.
“Now more than ever it is important we know what went wrong and what we should have been doing.”
The Lib Dems have angered some Labour members who have accused them of “playing party politics” with the airport.
North Tyneside elected mayor John Harrison said all LA7 members signed the refinancing agreement which led to Mr Parkin’s bonus, and as such all would equally want a review of the advice given at the time.
Mr Harrison said: “I have called for the review and I hope our meeting will concentrate on a terms of reference that will restore public trust in the airports decision-making process.
“I call, most strongly, for a stop to the party political positioning by the Liberals Democrats in Newcastle and Northumberland.
“I'm calling for them to back my review and my pledge to make all facts about the decision-making process public within a reasonable timescale to be agreed on November 13.
“The people of the region deserve more than cheap political point scoring.”
