Council's decision to spend up to £300,000 on City Fields 'consultant' to be questioned
Wakefield Council's decision to spend a six-figure sum on a property surveyor will be put under the spotlight later this week.
Earlier this month the authority approved a £300,000 budget for a "consultant", who'd be given responsibility for handling public land on Wakefield's flagship City Fields estate.
But a trio of opposition councillors - two Conservatives and one Liberal Democrat - have demanded the call, which was made behind closed doors, be publicly scrutinised.
They've cited concerns about the size of the sum involved, given the pressures on the public purse after lockdown.
An online meeting will now take place on Friday where the issue will be discussed.
Conservative councillors Samantha Harvey and Nick Farmer, and Lib Dem Tom Gordon are behind the move.
A report going before the meeting explained: "Councillors Harvey, Farmer and Gordon, who initiated the 'call-in’, did so on the grounds of timeliness and to allow further discussion, as “the spending of £300,000 in the current climate would be a decision which should not be taken lightly due to the tightening of the council’s budget from Covid-19.”
Wakefield Council's decisions register showed that on July 2, the authority's leader Denise Jeffery, approved a budget "£300,000 to commission a consultant to act as a specialist surveyor, designer and land promoter for the Council’s land assets at City Fields."
A senior council officer is expected to outline in more detail why that decision was made and how the money will be spent.
City Fields, built on the eastern side of Wakefield is the sprawling development of around 2,500 homes being constructed around the area's new relief road.
Local Democracy Reporting Service
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