Medway Tunnel to be Considered Again as Labour Seeks Answers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday night will see Cllr Godwin’s Member’s Item on the Medway Tunnel brought before the Regeneration Scrutiny committee.  The request to call-in the item was refused on dubious grounds, and therefore, the Labour Group was forced to use a Member’s Item to get this important issue back into the public domain.
Although the current report is an improvement on previous occasions, when the item was debated in closed session, several issues are still being held back from the public.  These include details of the financial and contractual considerations. 
As thousands of people rely on the tunnel, and its continuing structural safety every day the Labour Group believes that this is a matter of considerable public interest and will be calling for all issues to be heard in open session.
Cllr Paul Godwin said,
“This matter has been dragging on since the middle of last year.  The level of secrecy seems ridiculous- when the Tories overspent by £450,000 on the Tour de France the Council was happy to give out this information broken down into subject areas.  However in this case they have been less than forthcoming.”
“It is interesting that during the previous two discussions of this item all the information was held to be secret, yet now, after our intervention, it appears most of it is fit for the public.  This just shows that the previous attempts to keep it secret were unfounded.”
“This new report also has a very bombastic tone that was lacking from the previous reports- apart from the exempt appendix.  I cannot help but think that the embarrassment of senior Tories is all that’s keeping the remnants of this report hidden.”
“For me, the matter is simple - this is an issue that affects the majority of Medway residents, and could also have serious financial implications for Council tax payers.  As such, it is in the public interest to be debated openly and transparently and I will call for it for it to treated as such.”
ENDS