By Mark Russell
The Standards Committee should play a key role in ensuring that Councillors are held to the high standards expected of those in elected office.
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.
