Basingstoke: 'council is flailing around'

Cllr Dr Paul Harvey, former leader of Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council, and current leader of the independent group on the authority, has been following the exchange of views between our own anonymous Secret Agent and leader of the council Cllr John Izett. He says a new approach is needed for Basing View.

I’ve been a councillor in Basingstoke & Deane for the last 20 years and I have seen Conservative leaders and cabinet members come and go, your ‘Secret Agent’ should not tar all councillors on B&DBC with the same brush.

It is worth remembering that Ranil Jayawardena, the new Environment Secretary, was once a Basingstoke councillor who had responsibility for Basing View and property policy. You can draw your own conclusions on his competence given your Secret Agent’s commentary on the Conservative administration that has run the council since I was the last non-Conservative council leader in 2006.

I remember Basingstoke in the early 2000s doing great business with the likes of Grosvenor to bring major investment into the town centre. We had a forward-looking perspective that wanted business growth through partnerships with the private sector.

It’s not wrong that the council owns land or seeks to make money for local residents from those holdings, after all in an uncertain financial climate for local government those investments can secure stability for many local services that both businesses and residents rely on.

It’s about vision, it’s about a willingness to work in joint ventures that are well thought out and it is above all about competence.

Basingstoke is open for business; it is a superb location with key links across the South East and reaching up into the midlands. We have superb opportunities for people to succeed at all levels and sizes of business.

We want space that offers small enterprises the opportunity to grow and develop. We want to attract and foster entrepreneurs. We want large employers who bring investment and partnership to our town to help us compete regionally.

We need to recognise the new pattern of working and office arrangements. We want to see services provided with infrastructure first that helps keep the businesses we have and offers enticement to those we wish to attract.

We want to secure the future of our major employers in the town by listening to them and delivering on their needs and aspirations. We need to be the brokers, enablers and harness the best the private sector has to offer in regenerating our stock of assets.

Criticism of the current council administration is justified. They have dropped the ball, and continue to flail around without a sense of really understanding Basingstoke. They seem to be attracted to bright shiny things that burn them – they have consistently failed on major projects.

In 1994 the borough council purchased Manydown with the express intent of building homes, 25 years later still not one home has been built on the land as the Conservative administration has spent decades playing silly games finding themselves on the wrong side of the High Court. They lack a genuine connection to the businesses and communities in the town.

My own ward is in the town centre and I see the need for a wholly new approach to Basing View that links and complements a grand vision for the town. Now because of housing target pressures the council is seeking to dump over 300 flats on Basing View, cramming over 2,000 more new flats into the wider town centre. They are misguided in their approach to planning and it will continue to do damage.

I say that Basingstoke can have a really bright future if it embraces a new relationship with the private sector that offers what businesses need, looking forward beyond the recession that is inevitably coming. It’s about grasping the opportunity with an open mind, but knowing also that the council can be the enabler.

There is a lot of truth in what your Secret Agent had to say. From my point of view, as leader of an opposition group on the council and former council leader, I am more interested in changing the direction and policy so that Basingstoke can succeed and not repeat the same old mistakes from the same old Conservatives.

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