At the Standards Committee meeting on 20th July, there was some baffling praise for Councillors.
Toward the end of the meeting, one of the participants said: “As the Independent Person for your Standards Committee and an Independent Person for some other Standards Committees, Blackburn with Darwen
Leader of the Council Mohammed Khan has pledged to avoid a Borough-wide lockdown if further measures are necessary to bring the spread of Covid-19 under control.
Conservative campaigner Martin Kerry asked the following question of Cllr Khan at the Council Forum:
"Given the experience of Leice
Cllr Vicky McGurk has made an embarrassing U-turn on her explanations about Labour’s overspending on the Newfield ASD project.
A report by Labour’s Exec Member for Finance and Governance Cllr McGurk at July’s Exec Board contained an overspend of £568,000 on the project.
Government support made available to residents of BwD via the Council or to the Council itself to help deal with Covid-19 is a huge £79.732m.
The figures were revealed in the Council’s Covid-19 Finance Report.
The Council have acknowledged errors in its budgeting after forgetting to include demolition costs in the budget for a building project.
A report by Labour’s Exec Member for Finance and Governance Cllr Vicky McGurk at July’s Exec Board contained an overspend of £568,000 on the project.
Blackburn bus station actually cost £8.3m, not the £5m that had been thought. This is £3.6m more than the original £4.7m budget.
Labour’s Exec Member for Regeneration, Cllr Phil Riley, has blamed the huge £3.6m overspend on changing contractor midway through the project.
