COUNCIL’S GREEN ELEPHANT UPDATE

By Greta Thunderface

HAVING spent a grotesque £8.3m of public money building new net zero council offices for itself in Penrith, spin doctors at Westmorland and Furness Council have been crowing recently about how Voreda House there has won a new “energy efficiency” certificate.

A press release proclaiming this “massive achievement” was duly issued far and wide as the council enthusiastically patted itself on the back with glowing quotes from its own net zero-obsessed councillors.

Conveniently forgotten in the council press release was the fact that Voreda House was purchased for a price significantly over its actual market valuation.

The new building also cost more than THREE times the original budget while the move-in was more than THREE years behind schedule.

And while the new offices in Penrith may have been generating “significant” reductions in heating costs this summer (who has the heating on then, anyway?) a key fact was also omitted.

How much is the ongoing gas and electric bill for Mansion House in Penrith; its vast and now creaking former HQ in the town?

The rattling 18th-century building, dating back around 270 years and with several gas boilers, is about to enter a winter devoid of staff.

It has been put up for sale again having been on the market three years ago and failed to sell.

The council will still have to fork out for Mansion House to remain heated, maintained, insured (and possibly secured), despite the arrival up the road of the much-vaunted “Green Elephant”.

So what are the costs of that?

In other news, Westmorland and Furness Council was recently asked by the Taxpayers’ Alliance to detail how many empty non-residential properties it has on its books, such as empty council buildings.

The public spending watchdog asked 381 councils in total because local authorities are spending millions of pounds of public money on maintaining empty buildings instead of selling them off and using the income to lower our council tax bills.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance reports that it received “no data” from Westmorland and Furness Council in response to its inquiries.

However, it is known that W&F Council has “around” 500 buildings of what it calls “differing age, function and efficiency”.

Quite how “green” these buildings are, how many are empty and how costly they are to heat in winter or cool in summer, the council’s ‘green-minded’ spin doctors never seem to find time to write a press release about!