"St Neots Town Council allowed our public conveniences to fall into a bad state of repair, allowed HDC to fix them and refused to take responsibility for the upgraded facilities."
That is a downright lie!
Why?The first fact is that these public conveniences are owned by HDC.
The second fact is that before 2006, St Neots Town Council ran these toilets under an agency agreement for cleaning and minor repairs. HDC paid £33,825 a year to the Town Council under this agency agreement.
The third fact is that as owner HDC had sole responsibility to maintain these public facilities and therefore had the responsibility to upgrade them.
The fourth fact is in 2006 HDC decided to take all the public conveniences back under its control to save money and have a consistent service level across the District.
The fifth fact is the all public conveniences were upgraded across the district unless they were earmarked for closure.
The sixth fact is HDC decided to end this service in 2009 having spent £573,000 upgrading this service. Unlike the previous agency agreement that provided HDC money to the Town Council, St Neots Town Council (therefore the St Neots council taxpayer) was expected to pick up £30,000 of cost.
The seventh fact is St Neots Town Council has picked up the cost of £30,000 a year (Conservative Stealth Tax) whilst the HDC Conservatives boasted keeping the tax rise down to 2.5%.
So the lie is:
As owner HDC has responsibility for the major maintenance and a responsibility to ensure the agreement was being carried out. If toilets were in a bad state of repair that is down to Conservative run HDC. HDC then decided to run these toilets themselves. Having upgraded these toilets, which it owned, HDC then decided to end the service and close the toilets. Unlike the agency agreement the cost of running the toilets eventually fell on St Neots Town Council.
The statement on the front of the leaflet should have read:
Conservative run HDC allowed our public conveniences, it owns, to fall into disrepair. It ended the agency agreement with the Town Council and decided to run the service itself. Conservative run HDC spent loads of money upgrading these facilities only then deciding to scrap this service. St Neots Town Council eventually submitted to the Conservative bullying and took on two public conveniences at a cost of £30,000 a year to the St Neots council taxpayer.
The fifth fact is the all public conveniences were upgraded across the district unless they were earmarked for closure.
The sixth fact is HDC decided to end this service in 2009 having spent £573,000 upgrading this service. Unlike the previous agency agreement that provided HDC money to the Town Council, St Neots Town Council (therefore the St Neots council taxpayer) was expected to pick up £30,000 of cost.
The seventh fact is St Neots Town Council has picked up the cost of £30,000 a year (Conservative Stealth Tax) whilst the HDC Conservatives boasted keeping the tax rise down to 2.5%.
So the lie is:
As owner HDC has responsibility for the major maintenance and a responsibility to ensure the agreement was being carried out. If toilets were in a bad state of repair that is down to Conservative run HDC. HDC then decided to run these toilets themselves. Having upgraded these toilets, which it owned, HDC then decided to end the service and close the toilets. Unlike the agency agreement the cost of running the toilets eventually fell on St Neots Town Council.
The statement on the front of the leaflet should have read:
Conservative run HDC allowed our public conveniences, it owns, to fall into disrepair. It ended the agency agreement with the Town Council and decided to run the service itself. Conservative run HDC spent loads of money upgrading these facilities only then deciding to scrap this service. St Neots Town Council eventually submitted to the Conservative bullying and took on two public conveniences at a cost of £30,000 a year to the St Neots council taxpayer.
