WIRRAL’S Conservative group will next week demand a referendum on the future of public services across the borough in the light of proposed closures by the council.
At its meeting next MondayWirral Council will have the chance to vote on two competing notices of motion about the recently announced closure plans.
The local authority has said it faces mounting bills for a backlog of repairs on libraries, leisure centres and museums and its leaders have brought the need for action to a head with the call for “tough decisions” to be made.
At least a dozen libraries will be closed, Birkenhead central library’s historic building will be shut and its functions moved to a new centre at the Europa Pools site.
Pacific Road Theatre will go, along with the Transport Museum there and Wirral museum at Birkenhead Town Hall. Among the leisure centres facing closure are Woodchurch, Guinea Gap and Grange Road West.
In their place the council has said the plan also includes an investment of £20m over four years to develop a network of “state-of-the-art multi-purpose complexes”.
It is also possible these could be share sites with other public services such as the police, fire and health service, or even private sector organisations.
Tory leaders say the plans “should have electoral support” and in their notice to the council say: “Such support for these proposals has not been demonstrated at the ballot box. A Wirral-wide referendum should be held before any decision is implemented.”
The notice by Conservative leader Cllr Jeff Green adds: “If our local services are as derelict and starved of investment as the leader of the Council claims, he is accountable and should accept his responsibility for this by submitting his resignation to the Council.”
But in a contrary notice council leader Steve Foulkes calls for support for the scheme to “invest £20m in new or modernised multi-purpose buildings which are fit for the 21st Century”.
Cllr Foulkes highlights the imminent opening of the new Floral Pavilion theatre as part of the £60m regeneration of New Brighton, along with a new archive centre, new education and health facilities across the borough and plans by Peel Holdings to regenerate the dockland area among many recent achievements.
And he will call on the council to welcome “this progress towards the regeneration of Wirral, and the plan to use council assets in Seacombe to kick-start regeneration in one of Wirral’s poorest wards”.
PROTESTERS have organised a march from Guinea Gap Baths to Wallasey Town Hall tonight to highlight opposition to the closure plans.
The march will start at Guinea Gap baths at 5.30pm and will reach the Town Hall in time for the special meeting of the Council's Cultural Services Committee called by Conservative councillors.
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