TUESDAY’S [September 6] special council meeting called to consider investment in the new Cinema for Newton Abbot was thrown into disarray as the Leader of the Lib Dem group, Alan Connett introduced an amendment to a proposal being made by one of his own executive, effectively telling councillors that the proposal did not have enough information for councillors to make a decision.

The matter concerned a report produced by officers on behalf of the executive and was, up to the point of the meeting, an issue that had received the scrutiny of the executive, had cross party support and contained proposals that addressed the urgent need for decisions required to enable the council to deliver the investment in Newton Abbot.

Background information was provided including reports from external auditors and consultants used by the council on other similar projects that confirmed that the recommendations coming forward were appropriate and met the agreed vision for the future improvement of Newton Abbot, met requirements for government financial support, met the aspirations of the cinema operator and also generated a financial return for Teignbridge Council Tax payers.

To the surprise of all present and the concern of officers, the Lib Dem Leader, Alan Connett expressed his wish that the decision should be delayed for additional work by other external consultants to verify the work already carried out by the Executive, officers and their consultants.

A delay that has serious potential implications for the £9million project funding provided by the government.

The managing director of Teignbridge Council and the officer in control of the application expressed their serious concern that nothing had been said during the two months during the preparation of the report to council and that the implications of another failure to act will result in serious issues for the council.

The programme to deliver by the required deadline date of May 2024 was now in doubt and the government offer of a £9 million investment in the town centre could therefore be withdrawn.

A number of councillors complained that they had not read the background information, a number challenged the requirements of the cinema operator as to why the town needed a cinema at all and others wanted to delay the project any way they could and therefore voted to accept the delay.

The Lib Dem’s voted to accept the amendment and delay the project.

Residents should therefore be aware that the plans for our town are now in doubt.

All changes are subject to different opinions but one thing is certain, failure to invest to improve our town will make future plans difficult to deliver and potentially condemn Newton Abbot to be a dormitory town serving Exeter and Plymouth.

Over the last three years we have seen a constant stream of delays and indecision by the Teignbridge Lib Dem Executive who have failed to deliver investment on behalf of residents, been forced to return money to developers as they failed to meet conditions, not delivered on other developer funded projects, failed to deliver the homes our residents want and need whilst being profligate on pet projects.

The role of councillors in these issues is to decide on policies and ensure that the policies being followed by the council are impartially delivered by officers whose role is to ensure the legality of policies and impartially deliver them as mandated by the council.

In these roles, the independent professional advice of officers is made without any political bias.

Effective governance requires informed debate and a willingness to work across the political spectrum to address and understand differing viewpoints.

It also requires a close working relationship with officers.

It is not in the interests of Teignbridge residents for the controlling party to be afraid of making decisions or ignore the advice of officers.

I sincerely hope that the delays inflicted by this decision to delay will not cause the current cinema to close, (Its lease expires in 12 months) that the market hall will not close (despite current losses of £70,000 per year) and the supporters of the Alexandra Theatre can come forward with plans to repurpose the old cinema and that the improvements for shoppers in Queen Street can go ahead.

I hope and will work to make the plans happen for the benefit of our town but I am worried that we have just thrown the baby out with the bathwater!