Questions over £1m Maltby quarry restoration

PRESSURE is mounting on council chiefs to come clean about the total cost to the taxpayer of their ill-fated legal battle over the unfinished restoration of a quarry. Rotherham Borough Council confirmed two weeks ago that the row with Ibstock Brick ov

PRESSURE is mounting on council chiefs to come clean about the total cost to the taxpayer of their ill-fated legal battle over the unfinished restoration of a quarry.

 

Rotherham Borough Council confirmed two weeks ago that the row with Ibstock Brick over Maltby Quarry had cost £1 million to the public purse in compensation and opposition costs.

 

But the authority has still to reveal the total overall cost to taxpayers as it has not yet confirmed the sum of its own legal costs in the dispute.

 

Tory councillor Tony Mannion, who raised the issue at a full council meeting last week, demanded this week that the council break its silence on the matter.

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He also called for the authority to explain how and why it had come to the decision not to honour a license relating to the clean-up and restoration of the Maltby site—a move which which led to the council being taken to court and left with the £1 million-plus bill.

 

The Advertiser and activist Don Bird, who uncovered details of the legal dispute last year, have both submitted formal requests to the council, using the Freedom of Information Act, for details of its costs.

 

Under the act, the council is required to provide that information by later this month.

 

Cllr Mannion said that the council’s failure to reveal its costs or details of why the quarry had not been properly restored was indicative of a tendency to keep certain problems quiet.

 

At last week’s full council, the Tory councillor asked Cabinet member for economic development, planning and transportation: “Why did the council fail to fulfil its contractual obligations with regard to the Quarry landfill at Maltby (Brickyard) and who is responsible?”

 

After the meeting, Cllr Mannion said he felt that he had been fobbed off.

 

The Sitwell councillor, a long-standing critic of perceived council secrecy, said: “There are a lot of questions to be asked about restrictions on the press and public when it comes to council meetings.

 

“Things like Ibstock will happen because they don’t allow scrutiny and keep making decisions behind closed doors.

 

“We have never been privy to who made the decision (not to properly restore the quarry), when and why?

 

“It has cost over £1 million so far plus whatever the council’s costs are, which they won’t tell us.

 

“They just won’t answer the questions.”