Future of Control Tower project thrown into doubt
Councillor removed from project calls for review of Greenham Parish Council
Greenham Parish Council operated beyond its powers and without proper legal authority, for two years during its botched handling of the beleaguered control tower project the can reveal.
And now one of its longest- serving councillors – Julian Swift-Hook, is paying the price after councillors voted to remove him from parish council’s flagship redevelopment project.
At a dramatic meeting of the parish council held last Thursday, councillors voted by a majority to throw Mr Swift-Hook off the project – which aims to convert the Cold War tower at Greenham Common into a visitor centre and café – and strip him of his responsibilities.
The news follows revelations last month that the council had wasted around £60,000 in submitting a second, redundant, application for the tower despite already being granted permission more than 15 years ago.
In the latest blow to the much-delayed project, a damning audit blasted its governance and finances, and pointed to a crucial meeting in December 2013 where the council approved decision- making powers for the scheme’s working group.
This resulted in the parish being “ultra vires” for two years; acting beyond its legal powers, before realising the error and disbanding the group in August 2015.
The mounting problems were first laid bare in an audit, seen by this newspaper and conducted by accounting firm BDO, outlining a wide range of failings.
A statement from Greenham Parish Council following last week’s meeting and the release of the audit read: “The auditors identified a number of failings with the purchase and subsequent on-going refurbishment of the control tower.
“The chairman of the Control Tower Committee, Councillor Julian Swift-Hook, the only remaining councillor who had been directly involved in the project from its inception, will no longer be involved with the project.
“Despite the problems connected to the project, it would be inappropriate for Greenham Parish Council not to recognise that Councillor Swift-Hook has given a considerable amount of time and effort to the control tower project.
“The council is now considering the recommendations of the auditors and is examining all of its processes and procedures to ensure that they are fit for purpose.”
The entire future of the control tower project has now been cast into doubt, and with warnings that costs will rise and with no end date confirmed the ousted councillor is demanding a full review into how the parish council operates.
Speaking after the meeting Julian Swift-Hook said: “There are clearly problems with the way the parish council is being run at the moment.
“Removing me from the Control Tower Committee doesn’t fix the underlying problems, it only adds to them.
“All I’ve done for the last three years is dedicate myself to getting the control tower open to the public, as the chairman acknowledged.
“As I said at the meeting last Thursday, the only way forward now is to have a full and independent external governance review, looking at every aspect of how Greenham Parish Council is run.
“Every standing order, every committee, every working group should be looked at.
“An internal review by the same councillors who have just voted against me would not be independent.”
Speaking of his involvement in the project, he said: “After years of hard work and long hours to make the project happen, in the face of all kinds of challenges, and often without any support from other councillors, it’s a really disappointing way for my involvement in the project to end.
“But my over-riding concern is to see the control tower open to the public as a community asset.
“At the end of the day that’s all that really matters.
“This hiatus will delay the project and add to the costs.
“I just hope that Greenham Parish Council still has the will to see it through.”
Greenham Parish Council will hold a control tower committee meeting on Thursday next week at 7.30pm at Greenham’s St Mary’s Church to discuss its future.
