Labour councillors have not been telling the truth over controversial £1million payments being made to help sell off Alexandra Palace, say Lib Demcouncillors. The payments are for consultants to help turn the Palaceinto a super-casino – plans which now look doomed to failure after theGovernment was forced to slash the number of super-casinos it willapprove.

The payments were rushed through by Labour’s ruling Executive under”urgency” procedures in October, ensuring that they did not receive properand full public scrutiny.

The Liberal Democrats have pointed out thatthere was nothing new in Labour’s sell-off plans which required the use ofurgency powers, and that with proper planning the payments could have beenconsidered by all councillors. Labour used the excuse of ‘urgency’ toblock Lib Dem attempts to ‘call in’ the decision to have it reviewed bythe Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Labour had claimed that the payments were in fact voted through at theOctober Full Council meeting, saying in a recent statement that: “Therequest for funding was agreed unanimously at the last Full Councilmeeting on the 4th October.” [Labour party press release]

However, the Council did not vote the money through. Members at the Full Councilmeeting could not have agreed to any request for funding as the paperworkwas only tabled ‘for information’ rather than for any decision.

Furthermore, the paperwork tabled at the meeting did not specify the£1m which has since been agreed by Labour. If it had, Lib Dems say thatdue to their conflict of interest, Labour councillors who sit on the PallyBoard should not have voted anyway. If a substantive decision on Palaceand Park arose at Full Council, then councillors would have to be advisedthat they would have to consider whether they were acting in their”trustee” or “local authority” role.

Lib Dem Leader Neil Williams comments:

“Labour’s claims about the procedures surrounding the one million poundsprocured for their super-casino plan are entirely false. The facts arethat one million pounds of extra money, without a tendering process, hassimply been signed off by Labour Executive members without givingcouncillors the opportunity to debate on the funding. This is entirelywrong, and the Chairman of the Ally Pally Board in particular, has shown adisturbing lack of understanding of the position.”

Lib Dem Ally Pally Spokesperson Cllr Bob Hare, adds:

“The end result of this sorry state of affairs is that one million poundscould well be wasted. While all this was being rushed through, theGovernment’s controversial plans for super casinos have come spectacularlyoff the rails. The only winners will be consultants, who will be laughingall the way to the bank.”