Hexham Mayor hits out at Tory leadership over Antony Gormley’s fire station bid

The county council refused to sell the building to the Angel of the North sculptor and have their own plans to knock it down to make way for an expanded council depot.

Thousands of local residents signed a petition urging the council to reconsider, but the local authority held firm and argued relocating the depot or using a two-site solution would bring significant extra costs for the taxpayers. The council has also been criticised for the manner in which the decision was made, after a report came to cabinet as an urgent item with little prior notice.

Speaking at a meeting of the county council, Hexham West councillor Derek Kennedy, who also leads the town council as the mayor, said: “What a mess. The council was presented with an offer from Sir Antony Gormley – gift horse.

“They have looked at it, and they have led it to the knacker’s yard and shot it. We should not be in this position.

“It got really dirty. There were some despicable actions throughout all of this.

“I would ask that we go back to Sir Antony Gormley and start a further negotiation with him.”

The issue was brought to council after being called in by five councillors – Coun Kennedy as leader of the Independent Group alongside Labour leader Coun Scott Dickinson, Refom UK’s Coun Mark Peart, Green leader Martin Swinbank and Hexham East councillor Suzanne Fairless-Aitken of the Liberal Democrats.

At a scrutiny meeting in December, it was agreed that the decision should go before full council. But with Sir Antony withdrawing his interest since then, scrutiny chairman Coun Martin Swinbank proposed endorsing the cabinet’s decision with no further recommendations.

Conservative councillor David Bawn said: “This is a bit of a mess. What we have here is a council using proper procedures to use its own assets to do its statutory role and to do a scheme for the benefit of the taxpayer.

“It would be giving the site to be used as a private storage by a very rich individual. It wasn’t some kind of public gallery open to the public, it would be storage for his stuff.

“People want to jump on bandwagons. I really don’t understand how we have got here – Coun Kennedy has made himself look silly.”

Despite Coun Bawn’s remarks – and claims made by other Tory councillors – there were plans for a public gallery space.

A business case submitted by Sir Antony said the fire station had the necessary qualities to accommodate a gallery which “could eventually host specific displays of Antony Gormley’s work or selections of the core collection of drawings” and that the building “would include a gallery in which key works could be exhibited” as well as supporting emerging and local artists.

Other opposition councillors also backed Coun Kennedy’s stance.

Independent councillor Malcolm Robinson said: “I don’t think the procedure which was followed is adequate. I think this was a strategic decision on behalf of this council – it should have at least had cross-party scrutiny, if not full council support.

“Instead the decision is tacked onto the end of a cabinet meeting. It had no scrutiny.

“We are willing to work with you, but you have to release the chains a little bit.”

Labour leader Coun Scott Dickinson added: “I do have to say I think it is disrespectful to refer to Northumbrians who decided to sign a petition to show the strength of feeling of their community as jumping on a bandwagon.

“I think actually these people are interested in Hexham, they had an idea and they wanted the council to listen and explore it. Calling them names isn’t helpful – the council is supposed to listen to the residents it represents.

“The discussion is on the abuse of power from the authority to circumnavigate the procedures of the council and call something urgent and slip it in under the radar without being open and transparent. Nobody can tell me why the urgency of that decision was.”

Responding to the criticism, council leader Glen Sanderson said: “There has been some very unfortunate language over the last few months and today. I have not risen to that and I won’t today.

“This is not a new issue. The 2018/19 Medium Term Financial Plan put aside £4 million to demolish the fire station and build a new depot.

“We have had a number of discussions with interested parties about the old fire station. They have been told repeatedly that it is not for sale.

“Other options outside of Hexham would cost more money and cost more each year. I delayed the decision for three months to look at other options.

“We had to press on, we had already lost three months. I didn’t want to wait another month again because we have 127 people working in conditions we would prefer them not to be working in – I decided we had to take it quickly because we had spent too long on it.

“On reflection, I think we should have included an item on our regular group leader meetings. That should have been on that so group leaders understood where we were. That is a lesson learned.”

Coun Swinbank’s proposal to accept the cabinet’s decision was voted through by 30 votes to 13, with 18 abstentions.