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Shameful secrecy that corrodes our political system
WE could be very broadminded about the debacle at the newly completed Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre and put it down to the sort of one-off structural failure that could plague any new building.
But we believe that would show a level of tolerance few politicians and most of the objectors to the development would find acceptable.
Nor can we stand back and irrationally dismiss the new complex as being jinxed.
The fact is that the whole operation, from start to finish, has been mired in controversy.
Residents lined up with their objections; a few councillors were riven with doubt; and when the cost rose millions of pounds beyond the level initially agreed, a report into the project was kept from the public.
It was clutched tightly to their chests by the governing Labour councillors. The public – and this newspaper – were told that there was nothing to be worried about, and that, in any case, matters of “confidentiality” were at stake and these could not be discussed.
This newspaper even wrote to the chief executive at the time, Steve Bundred, and we were informed again that because of “commercial confidentiality” a report into the overspend could not be made public.
And this wasn’t put forward as a matter of opinion but as a matter of law.
So secrecy, from the start, shrouded the project.
As for democratic accountability, the history of this project shows this phrase has been hollowed out over the years until it has become, in many respects, simply a cliché mouthed by politicians.
But what is not an abstract matter are the millions of pounds of public money, largely council tax revenue, that have been poured into the project.
Public money should not be spent without public scrutiny.
Councillors are elected as the servants of the public. In turn, council staff, both officials and manual employees, receive salaries, later pensions, that come out of the public purse.
But bearing in mind the behaviour of politicians – and, occasionally, council staff – you would not think this is the case.
A lesson learned here is that there should be full public disclosure of what has gone wrong at Swiss Cottage.
After that, councillors should encourage the widest possible public debate.
Unless this happens, this mistake will be repeated again and again, and politics will mean even less than it does today.
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