Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party.
This week, Harrogate Borough Council was on the receiving end of the Stray Ferret’s interest in its sparkling, circular, glass-fronted, council headquarters at Knapping Mount. This to replace the down at heel Victorian jewel at Crescent Gardens that served as the council’s home between the 1930’s and 2017. At question, both the decision-making rationale and the economic fundamentals of the move. Given the usually somnolent nature of the council’s communications in response to our publication, it has been with some surprise that the investigation has provoked a series of carefully written council Tweets and a special edition of its “Resident’s News” email to issues its denials.
It seems the investigation struck a nerve; not least the claim, based on assessments made by local estate agents, architects and quantity surveyors, that the land value of the site at Knapping Mount can be estimated at £4.5 million. Given that the adjacent Springfield Court parcel of land (which is roughly half the Knapping Mount acreage) sold with planning permission to developers for £4.8 million just a couple of years ago, this does not seem an unreasonable estimate.
In one of its Tweets the council said: “The land at civic centre did not cost the council £4.5million. We already owned it, so the cost was £0.” This is an answer to a question the Stray Ferret did not pose. The point made was that the council had a duty to maximise taxpayer value as it explored its relocation options, including an assessment of the value of the Knapping Mount plot, both with and without planning consents. Saying that Knapping Mount cost £0 is either voodoo economics or commercially illiterate. Neither is good enough. Further, a Tweet like the one published is silly and, in my view, serves only to mislead Harrogate’s good burghers.
It leads one to the unavoidable conclusion that the council ‘did decree’ they were going to have their stately pleasure dome come what may. Close to town, nuzzled into a leafy hillside, shaped around a consensus building demi-sphere, this was to be their Xanadu. At a time when, even pre-Covid, the council was facing real financial challenges, it was (and remains) their duty to mangle every last drop of value from the council’s estate – which they hold on trust for the public – and that should include being live to the economic potential of all its land assets. National campaign group The Taxpayer’s Alliance agrees.
I accept that being a modern public servant is a hiding to nothing; everyone is a critic. But when decisions are made that place a premium on vanity and status, and disregard utility, service, and cost effectiveness, they need to be called out. The great days of building neo-gothic municipal town halls as palaces of leadership are long gone; I would argue that in contemporary society we don’t much care what the council building looks like; we care whether the services we receive for the council tax we pay feels like a fair deal. I’m not sure Harrogate Borough Council gets it.
When Covid struck and Harrogate Convention Centre was named as one of the Government’s Nightingale Hospitals, I confess I felt pride. And it seemed morally right that the council gave use of the facility to the NHS free of charge. Now we know that the HCC will remain a Nightingale until at least March 2021, left in place – take your pick – either to provide specialist care, NHS Winter Pressures cover, or Covid second (or third) wave capacity. I’ve written here before that diverting HCC away from conference use deprives Harrogate’s economy of up to £57 million per annum. That’s a huge fiscal hole to fill, particularly in “new normal” circumstances. And now it seems the HCC may well be out of commission for two years, which has come as a bitter blow to local businesses already on their knees and (I suspect) to the chagrin of the council. Its ‘greater good’ decision has come back to haunt it – even when it does the right thing, Harrogate Borough Council is unlucky.
Talking of which, word reaches that Boris Johnson aims to fast track his plans for regional devolution for implementation in 2022. If brought into effect, this will mean that Harrogate Borough Council would be subsumed into a newly empowered and funded North Yorkshire unitary authority, with a directly elected Mayor. What this will mean for the political careers of local politicians like HBC leader Richard Cooper, one can only speculate. It wouldn’t comfort me if he were catapulted onto a larger political stage before he can demonstrate he has mastered the footlights at the local rep. Still, if devolution does go ahead, and Harrogate Council ceases to exist, we might yet be able to realise the true value of Knapping Mount.
That’s my Strayside Sunday.
Read More:
- Strayside Sunday: Is Harrogate too dependent on its hospitality industry?
- Column: Not all of Rishi Sunak’s measures will help Harrogate’s hospitality industry
