Alexandra Park Lottery Bid Fiasco (Manchester Liberal Democrats Online)

Manchester Liberal Democrats Online <info@manchester-libdems.org.uk>

Alexandra Park Lottery Bid Fiasco

August 14, 2007 12:00 AM

Alexandra Park and Local Residents Have Been Let Down By Manchester's Incompetent Labour Council

"The bid to restore Alexandra Park with money from the Heritage Lottery has been an absolute fiasco", says Whalley Range Liberal Democrat Councillor John Grant. "This just makes lack of recent investment by the council in the park all the worse."

Manchester City Council was invited to bid for lottery funds to restore Alexandra Park, a district park of distinction but in need of £3-4million of investment. The successful first stage provided money to employ consultants and to engage with the community to produce the final bid. In 2004 there was great excitement and a lot of hard work done - but the final bid was never submitted.

Whalley Range Councillor John Grant kept asking questions and pressing for answers about the status of the bid and when it would be submitted. Labour's Town Hall bosses eventually admitted that the bid had not been submitted and that the rules had changed so that a new bid would need to be prepared.

A recent report to the Council's Communities and Neighbourhoods Overview & Scrutiny Committee admitted that this new bid would not be submitted this year as local people expected but in spring 2008. In answer to a specific question from Lib Dem councillor John Grant, the Council has also admitted that this will be another stage 1 bid!

Liberal Democrat Councillor John Grant said:

"This is an absolute fiasco. Local people with an interest in the park feel very let down by Labour's Town Hall bosses. They have never given us a satisfactory explanation why they didn't complete the final bid when they spent all that money in preparation. What makes it worse is that while this bid was being prepared, investment by the council in the park stopped and we saw both the park and its buildings deteriorate."

He concluded:

"We are delighted that the Council has now come forward with money to do essential work in the park but this is just doing work that they should have been doing anyway. We will continue to support the Friends of the Park in their efforts to get the park up to Green Flag status whilst work on the lottery bid continues."

ENDS