May 2011 17

New council leader wants to hold a referendum5

It’s out with the old, and in with the new in Hull. The ruling Liberal Democrats were booted out, and Labour swept to power in what was a very dramatic election night. Walking around the Guildhall during the count, there were many shocked faces; not only from the Liberal Democrats, but many from Labour, too.

We know some cuts are not going to take place. We also know some planned voluntary redundancies are going to be scrapped. We also know the new ruling group (who formally take control this week at the council’s AGM) plan to hold a referendum on the sale of the city’s KC Stadium.

A great deal for taxpayers?

The KC Stadium (the home of Hull City AFC and Hull FC – the rugby league club) was built in 2002. It was funded with £42 million of public money raised from the sale of some of the council’s shareholding in Kingston Communications. A Stadium Management Company was set-up, with any profits paid back to Hull City Council. This has not proved a great deal for taxpayers, and the owner of Hull City AFC, Assem Allam, has been fighting a war in the media saying he wants to buy the stadium, extend it, and build a new complex on the current site.

I made it clear last week in an article for the Hull Daily Mail that if the price is right, the council should sell. It will cost millions of pounds to increase the seating capacity. This is money the public purse cannot afford, and should not pay for. For the stadium to flourish, it needs to be in private hands.

What the new leader of the council, Stephen Brady, intends to do is not make a decision on the future of the stadium; something he is elected to do. He plans to hold a referendum and let the people decide. This referendum could easily cost in excess of £100K; money we cannot afford.

If Cllr Brady and Mr Allam feel there is a deal on the table, he should put this through scrutiny and then before the full council to make a decision. We don’t need a referendum. It’s decisions like this one we elect councillors to make. If they shirk their responsibilities, what is the point of having elections?

I urge all our supporters in Hull to write to Cllr Brady and tell him this is a referendum we don’t need and can’t afford. It is up to him and his colleagues to make a decision, and if a good deal for taxpayers is on the table, the decision should be made to sell.

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  • Geoff Pickering

    If they hold a referendum they can hold one for an elected executive Mayor at the same time.

    • Andrew Allison

      Hull is not part of the first wave of elected mayors. The city will only get a referendum on that subject if enough people petition for one. I’m not holding my breath!

  • Daniel Bond

    Not sure how I feel about this one, on the one hand there is no reason for HCC to keep something which makes a loss like the KC does, but on the other hand can anyone realistically see the new Labour administration resisting the temptation to blow all of the proceeds?

    As for referendums, I’m with Daniel Hannan on this one, they are always and in all situations a good thing, allowing people more direct influence on the democratic process.

    • Andrew Allison

       ”Always and in all situations a good thing.” Taking that to its logical conclusion, we would never be away from the polling booths! What is the point of having elected councilors? I know many of them do a poor job, but is that a reason for having more referenda?

      • Daniel Bond

        “Referendums are always and everywhere a good thing, serving to remind politicians that they are representatives, not rulers.”

        I don’t think you would necessarily need to be in a voting booth any more than you do already, for anything which is sufficiently big to warrant a referendum you could happily wait until May of each year and hold the referenda then. It shouldn’t add significantly to the costs and would allow some of the bigger issues, particularly where the public might not 100% agree with councillors, to be settled in the clearest possible way. Hell, make it possible for people to initiate (possibly non-binding) items for inclusion on the list of referenda each year as long as they have sufficiently broad support.