Half a billion investment needed to upgrade or replace Cheshire West and Chester council facilities

Dec 3 2009 by Barry Ellams, Chester Chronicle

Where does Cheshire West and Chester council find the cash to upgrade its buildings and services? DAVID NORBURY reports

TORY chief Mike Jones believes CWAC may also have to pay up to half a billion pounds to bring facilities and services across the borough up to standard.

“As a council we have inherited a huge number of assets which are not up to standard.” he said.

“I am aware that our rural roads are deteriorating at a rate greater than we can invest in them, so they’re getting worse by the day.

“The view is we shall need at least £100m to get into a position where actually the money we invest now will maintain the roads at the same level.

“We have taken over sports, recreational and culture assets that are old and tired, or even closed in some cases such as Chester, the exceptions being the Olympic athletics track in Ellesmere Port, the Lifestyle Centre in Winsford, which opened in March, and the swimming pool at Christleton High School.

“Other than those, all our assets are 10, 20, 40 years old.

“The Northgate Arena needs £15m spending on it, the Epic in Ellesmere Port is so obsolete that if anything breaks down we would have to close it.

“That needs replacing, £24m to replace that like-for-like if we did that.

“We have swimming pools that are tired, there are many assets we need to spend money on.

“We need a new theatre in Chester, we need a cultural and arts venue for Northwich, we probably need something in Winsford and there is a lot of money needed to be spent in Ellesmere Port.

“So what we are looking at, a finger in the air, could be £150m of expenditure.

“We have inherited schools, we have 50 or 60 mobile classrooms and it costs half a million pounds to replace one of those with a proper building.

“At the moment the teachers freeze in winter and cook in the summer.

“If it was a business, they would probably have been closed down by now.

“We have five primary schools which have no hall which means they can’t deliver the whole curriculum.

“So there’s another £2m or £3m.

“We have schools which were promised they would amalgamate under the county council’s Transforming Learning Communities which there is no money available for.

“We have secondary schools which in some cases are in a dreadful state with windows falling out, 1960s buildings, there is a bill there of anything between £100m and £200m.

“Technically I could turn round and say that is the Government’s fault because that is ring fenced money.

“But actually that’s not looking at it from a young person’s point of view.

“In fact we should be doing something about it, particularly where the water is coming through the roof and blowing their computers up while they are learning IT.

“In adult social services, we have buildings that are institutionalised where we need investment in new buildings to provide much more up to date and modern and better services for those with disabilities.”

The general view, according to Cllr Jones, is we are looking at something between £400m and £500m of investment if we want to create the right facilities that will help keep our residents fit, enjoy culture, enjoy the arts, be able to walk the streets safely, those types of things – all capital expenditure.

“How do find that sort of money?” said Cllr Jones

“We have some interesting issues and I have already started to develop the ideas.

“We could raise council tax, but against the current economic background that is probably unacceptable.

“We can make savings in our costs, which we are doing and creating some space so that for every £8m we save I can invest £100m.

“I can borrow at preferential rates, so that’s one answer.

“I can sell assets which we are now looking at doing.

“My view is we could probably sell assets, not now but maybe in a few years’ time when the market is better and raise a great deal of money to reinvest in assets that people want to use now.”