‘£6million of public money wasted on the Marble Arch Mound fiasco’

• EVERYONE now knows that Westminster Conservatives have wasted £6million of public money on the Marble Arch Mound fiasco.

This spectacular failure to safeguard council tax payers’ money is an absolute disgrace, for which Conservative councillors should take total responsibility.

For the past decade, the Conservatives have been making severe annual cuts to budgets and telling residents from Paddington to Pimlico that services on which they depend must go.

And now we find out that the same Conservatives have wasted £6million on a failed project to build a fake mound at Marble Arch.

The tragedy is that this £6million could have gone a long way to helping Westminster residents.

So what can you do with £6million? You can do a lot of good work for that amount of money.

Here is a “menu” of what you can spend £6million on:

• Build 20 new homes for overcrowded families and those on the council’s housing waiting list; or

• Reinstate the massive cuts over the last decade to Westminster Council’s children’s play service, youth services and to children’s centres; or

• Employ 30 extra newly qualified primary and secondary school teachers for the next five years; or

• Employ 35 extra police officers for the next five years; or

• Employ 35 extra Police Community Support Officers for the next five years; or

• Employ 40 extra newly qualified nurses for the next five years; or

• Install solar panels on 500 blocks of flats in Westminster to address the climate emergency and cut energy bills for residents; or

• Fill 120,000 potholes in Westminster’s roads; or

• Give a new computer to 20,000 primary, secondary and university students living in Westminster.

Whatever you choose would be much, much, better than frittering away £6million on this unforgiveable disaster.

The Marble Arch Mound debacle should mark the end of an era for Westminster Conservatives.

Their massive incompetence and huge waste of public money must surely signal that it is time for change in Westminster next May.

CLLR PAUL DIMOLDENBERG
Labour City Management
Spokesperson
City Hall
Victoria Street, SW1