Letter: I Am Pleased the Executive is Withdrawing Future Funding from The Village

Published on: 6 Dec, 2017
Updated on: 6 Dec, 2017

From Tony Rooth

Conservative borough councillor for The Pilgrims ward

In response to: Internal Party Pressure and Ice Rink Closure Force Withdrawal of Post-Christmas Funding for The Village

I do have differences of opinion with Cllrs Spooner and Furniss over The Village but no bad blood towards them. I am pointing out the poor performance, both commercially and financially of the Village which I did not support for its launch last year.

I am pleased that the Executive has now decided to withdraw proposed funding of £224, 903 for this project from the 2018/19 budget thereby to follow Cllr Spooner (who abstained) and Cllr Geoff Davis (who voted against) on the previous Executive decision to allocate such funding.

I also welcome the discussions to be held with a third operator to take over the site at no further cost to our taxpayers and hopefully some return on the investment of £1,200,000 of public money to date.

I am pleased that the council agreed to investigate other options including conversion to a temporary surface car park (which should produce income) and have an alternative exit strategy ready if the third party discussions do not succeed.

However, I was shocked to hear at council that the ice rink would close now and thereby remove the main attraction of The Village in the run-up to Christmas.

Nonetheless, I hope that many people visit The Village, and spend some money at its quiet outlets, as I have done, before it closes on Christmas Eve.

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