Council leader promises answers over ‘astronomical’ costs to stop closure of high school and leisure centre

Denise Jeffery said she would “get to the bottom” of failings which have left taxpayers with a £2.6m bill.

Coun Jeffery and senior council officers faced questions at a scrutiny committee meeting over the costly incident in Featherstone.

Developer Orion Homes is in the process of building 34 houses next to Featherstone Sports Complex on land bought from the council.

Last April, drainage works which serve the leisure centre and swimming pool were discovered on the construction site.

The developer told the council it planned to remove them, which threatened the closure of the leisure centre and nearby Featherstone Academy.

The council has agreed to pay Orion £1.2m to build new drainage on the site to ensure all facilities remain open.

The overall cost to the public is expected to be around £2.6m.

Coun Jeffery told members of the climate change and environmental wellbeing overview and scrutiny committee: “I do take this issue very seriously.

“We are talking about public money. We are very concerned about that.

“We were left with no alternative because of the urgency of the situation.

“We will have an inquiry and I will get to the bottom of what has gone on here, and I will be reporting back.”

Committee member Coun Melanie Jones asked: “Is this the only solution to ensure that we don’t lose the school, the swimming pool and the leisure centre?

“Have we considered any other proposals?”

Coun Jeffery, who is also the interim cabinet portfolio holder for property, said: “I have asked the chief executive to start an inquiry.

“That will start right away, following this meeting.

“There wasn’t another alternative. We were very concerned that the swimming pool and associated facilities could be in jeopardy.

“The costs are astronomical and it is a real concern.”

Steve Vickers, a councillor for Featherstone, said ward councillors, as well as Featherstone Town Council, had objected to the original planning application.

“How close were we to having the school closed, the pool closed and the sports centre closed when Orion decided to hold a gun towards the council’s head?”

Kevin Fisher, service director for property, said: “It is fair to say that, at an early stage, we had some challenging conversations with Orion.

“Once we knew the size of the issue and we tried to work together, I would say our conversations have been amicable.

“It is very hard to put a timeline on how close we were to closing the facilities.”

Glynn Humphries, corporate director for communities, environment and climate change, said: “Orion have not held a gun to our head. We have worked really, really closely with them.

“As a developer, they need to make progress and do the groundwork.

“I think it is fair to say that they have not been too aggressive.”

The meeting heard that Orion has the legal right to cut the drainage at the site and is not legally obliged to maintain it.

Officers were asked what steps would be taken in the future to prevent a similar costly mistake.

Jane Hunt, service manager for property, described the issue as a “rare situation”, saying: “Everyone is acutely aware that going forward we will carry out even more checks and see how we can do things differently.”

Coun David Dagger said: “This is a real blunder by officers of this council and the situation is not good enough.”

Coun Dagger also referred to the recent departure of Coun Darren Byford , who resigned as the portfolio holder for regeneration, economic growth and property in December.

He said: “It may be just coincidental that the cabinet member decided to spend more time in his ward following this blunder.

“Can I ask, has the wrong person resigned?”

Coun Tony Hames called for Yorkshire Water to be consulted further in a bid to resolve the issue. He said: “A simple drainage dispute has become an obligation on Wakefield (Council) to pay the drainage on this, what I consider to be an oversubscribed housing development.

“I mean, 34 houses on a piece of land that size, it is totally alien to the street scene.

“It could make just as much profit by putting ten houses on it and there would be no issue over the drains.”

The scrutiny committee took the rare step of ‘calling in’ the cabinet decision to pay Orion the money to carry out “rectification works” at the site.

The committee voted against referring the decision back to cabinet.