Cllr Patrick 'The Lib Dems have always supported the development of a new Civic Centre/Theatre'

Aylesbury Liberal Democrats have called for changes to be made to how AVDC manages allegedly confidential information after it was revealed that a number of non confidential items such as the amount of types a certain beverage would be available at the new theatre were included in confidential papers supplied to a Cabinet sub-committee. Apparently, it was “too difficult” to separate out confidential and non-confidential material.

Lib Dem Councillors have called on the AVDC Chief Executive to take action after it was revealed that the Tory leadership were once again abusing the council’s secrecy rules on the new Theatre.

Cllr Steve Patrick said “The Lib Dems have always supported the development of a new Civic Centre/Theatre – after all it was a Lib Dem proposal in the first place – but we withdrew from the committee that oversaw the project because the way that the secrecy rules were used by the Tories prevented proper public scrutiny of the plans. Nor could we reveal the run-away costs or openly challenge some of the decisions that were being made”

Lib Dem Leader Alan Sherwell said “Although we have significant reservations over the way that the cost of the new Theatre has escalated, we want it to be a success. We also accept that information that might adversely affect the value for money that the Council gets when negotiating contracts or contract revisions has to remain secret whilst negotiations are going on. However, the theatre has been paid for by Aylesbury citizens and they have a right to know, as much as can be released without compromising contract negotiations. Keeping information about the numbers and types of beer that are on sale locked up in secret papers is just nonsense and gives the public no confidence in the way that the Tories are managing this project.”

Cllr Patrick continued “Another example of the way that Councillors are being kept in the dark unnecessarily is the “Theatre Members Package.” Whilst it is perfectly reasonable for those managing the theatre to draw up a “benefits package” for regular users, the fact that the package costs £1,500 and provides a luxury member’s only area named after Tory Council Leader John Cartwright perhaps explains why Councillors were kept in the dark about it. I don’t think that is what the public expect over £40 million of their money to be spent on!”

Lib Dem Councillor Corry Cashman said: “The present situation is the sort of thing you expect to read about in Private Eye! It may not be a great public interest story to know how many draught beers will be for sale, or who is going to unveil the new statue at the theatre: but why keep it secret? More serious is that secrecy over these comparatively minor matters is symptomatic of a deeper problem of attitude on the part of an administration clearly anxious to avoid public scrutiny of its actions.”