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PRESS RELEASE |
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Strategic Asset Review - senior Councillors hit out at critics Senior Wirral Liberal Democrat councillors have today hit out at critics following the discussion of a radical report on the review of the Council's assets at last night's Cabinet meeting. Councillor Simon Holbrook , Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Deputy Leader of the Council said, “We have to face the reality of the Council's aging property estate. “But rather than seeing it as a problem we ask people to see the opportunities it offers to shape the future of Council services in Wirral. “There is the opportunity of the £20m capital investment. The council will carry out intensive and detailed consultation about how it spends this money, giving the public the opportunity to get in at the design stage to help shape the way the new and improved services will be delivered. “There is the opportunity from community ownership of assets. Ownership can give real financial stability to community groups and assist them in accessing sources of money such as The Lottery Fund, and provide local people with the opportunity to get involved in the running of community facilities that meet real local need. “There is the opportunity to develop high-quality state of the art facilities that will be sustainable in the long term. “Engaging with other parts of the public sector in Wirral also provides opportunities for locating services in shared facilities at locations that are convenient for the public, and by sharing the costs of those facilities, deliver value for money to the council tax payer. “And value for money will help deliver a sustainable budget that will enable Wirral to invest further.” Welcoming the report, Councillor Stuart Kelly , Cabinet member for Community and Customer Services said, “Reports in the past have dealt with this problem in a piecemeal fashion; these proposals look at the Borough as a whole. It would have been dishonest to have carried on in that piecemeal way - closing down aging buildings one by one and running down the Council's estate without any thought given to providing services across the Borough in a strategic way. This report begins the process of that strategic planning . This strategic approach also enables us to consult across the whole Borough and address genuine concerns as best we can, allay fears and counter any misrepresentation.
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