WARRINGTON Borough Council has been accused of ‘dithering’ as delays to identify a location for the town’s future £2 million transit site for travellers continue.
In February, leader Cllr Russ Bowden said the location will not be confirmed before the scheduled all-out elections in May – but they have since been postponed for one year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A task group made up of councillors was set up to identify and recommend a site to the cabinet but this is yet to happen.
And it can be revealed the task group has not met since October 2018.
Hundreds of pieces of land have been assessed for the site but, so far, none have been deemed to be deliverable.
Around £2 million has been set aside in the Labour-run council’s capital budget for the facility, which Town Hall bosses believe will reduce the number of costly unlawful encampments.
It would allow officers to direct groups to the land.
But the delays on the issue have sparked fresh concerns from the town’s Liberal Democrats.
Leader Cllr Bob Barr said: “The saga of the travellers’ transit site in Warrington has been going on too long to no avail.
Cllr Bob Barr
“Unlike other authorities which have bitten the bullet and designated sites, even when unpopular with immediate neighbours, or those that have given their public a full explanation of the options and the basis on which the decision will be taken, Warrington has simply dithered.
“The administration tells us at every cabinet meeting about the ‘hard choices’ it is making, yet this ‘hard choice’ eludes them.
“The attempt to push the decision past the elections, as our neighbours in Cheshire East tried to do, is no longer viable.
“The time to make a choice and explain it to Warrington’s public has come.”
The council says the task group will meet again ‘when there is business to discuss’.
“Council officers were given a work programme that was agreed at the previous meeting and the group will meet again when that work is completed,” said a spokesman.
Cllr Bowden says none of the hundreds of the sites that have been reviewed have been deemed to be deliverable.
The Labour politician added officers continue to look at other options.
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