Council accused of wasting £225,000 on ‘pointless’ refurbishment

Martin Shipton

A tip-off from a council employee has led to an allegation that a local authority has wasted more than £220,000 on refurbishing a building for no reason.

Cllr Nigel Dix leads the Independent group on Caerphilly County Borough Council.

When a council employee told him that a building at Tir-Y-Berth depot near Pengam had been turned into offices for the housing department, but that the housing department had soon moved out and it was now being used for storage by the parks department, he submitted a freedom of information request, asking for the cost of refurbishment work undertaken between 2020 and 2022, the reason for the work, who authorised it and what the current use of the building is. .

The council has now responded to the FoI request, stating: “Building B10 was refurbished at the Tir-Y-Berth Depot. This was authorised by the Head of Service for the Housing Department. It changed the use from a storage building to an office space at a cost of £224,959.94.

“Housing have since moved out of the depot and are based at Ty Penallta. Building B10 is now being used by the Parks Department.”

‘Wasting taxpayers money’

Cllr Dix, who represents Blackwood, said: “I am very concerned that the council has been wasting taxpayers’ money .

“We all know that during the pandemic staff were working from home, yet the Labour-run council spent £225k on refurbishing the depot for the housing department, only for it then to be used by the parks department.

“Labour is cutting funding – we see our cultural heritage including Blackwood Miners’ Institute and other landmarks being closed due to cuts. Highways has seen its budget cut by £1m. We are all paying the price for Labour’s reckless use of public money.

“Wasting the best part of a quarter of a million pounds on a needless refurbishment would be a disgrace at any time, but it’s even worse when we know further cuts are coming down the line.”

Office accommodation

A spokesperson for Caerphilly County Borough Council said, “The investment into the accommodation was necessary to change the use from a storage space to provide office accommodation. Whilst the Housing Team have been relocated to Penallta House the depot remains an office base for Parks Services, Waste Services, Fleet, Cleaning and the CCTV team. The reduction in staff numbers has had a positive effect on the Health and Safety risk profile of the depot as it was considered to be densely populated and staff safety is of paramount importance.”

Cllr Dix retorted: “The council’s response is pathetic. They can’t get away from the fact that the refurbishment of the building was funded from the housing budget to provide office accommodation for the housing department and it’s now back in the hands of the parks department. It’s a total waste of money.”

Recently Caerphilly council has been criticised for finding itself at the centre of a controversial and expensive row involving its top official for the second time in a decade..

The authority’s chief executive Christina Harrhy has not been at work for more than nine months, but no coherent explanation has been offered as to why that’s the case.

What is known is that during her absence Ms Harrhy applied to be the chief fire officer at South Wales Fire and Rescue Service. She got to a short list of two, but failed to be appointed.

Pay scandal

Plaid Cymru group leader Lindsay Whittle said: “Councillors and the public are being kept in the dark. I’ve been pressing for information but all I have been told is that meetings have taken place in private and everything is confidential. This is concerning since the public pays the wages of all employees.

“I don’t want the council to repeat the mistakes of the senior officers’ pay scandal which dragged on for six years. Millions of pounds was paid out to three top officers, including a former chief executive, as well as enormous legal and other costs.”

It has been suggested that Ms Harrhy is, in fact, on “special leave” rather than sick leave, in which case she would be entitled to full pay. In the 2022-23 financial year – the last year that salary figures were published – she was paid £148,773, along with pension contributions of £28,640, making a total of £177,413.

At the centre of the senior officers’ pay scandal referred to by Cllr Whittle was the then chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan, who was paid more than £1m from the public purse in pay and pensions from his first suspension in March 2013 until his sacking in October 2019.

Mr O’Sullivan was suspended after the Assistant Auditor General for Wales said he had acted unlawfully when recommending himself for a secret salary increase of £26,000 in 2012, to £158,000 a year. In total 21 senior officers would have received pay rises at a time most staff had their pay frozen.

Later Mr O’Sullivan’s status was changed from being suspended to being on special leave. He was eventually dismissed on the basis of an independent report for Caerphilly council which concluded he had been “grossly negligent (if not reckless)” and had “wilfully breached his contract”.

However, he lodged a claim against the council at an employment tribunal. The case was settled by negotiation, with Mr O’Sullivan getting a final pay-off of £110,700. The decision to settle was made after the council was advised it would potentially have bills totalling £500,000 if it lost.