Letter to the editor of the Warrington Guardian

 

Dear Editor 

 

I am very pleased that last week you marked the progress that has been made on Omega and celebrated the fact that work on the northern part of the site will start soon, bringing jobs and prosperity. 

However, Helen Jones MP appears to have resorted to a straightforward untruth to slur Warrington Borough Council. In the Warrington Guardian she is quoted as saying “The council has sold the land to Miller to make a fast buck….” 

WBC doesn’t and hasn’t owned Omega. It was acquired by the New Town Development Corporation, passed to English Partnerships which became the Homes and Communities Agency, all central government controlled. 

So if anyone sold Omega land to Miller “for a fast buck”, it was her own government. She should feel ashamed and apologise. 

She also chose to make another damaging and ill-informed attack on the Council’s record on housing and our intention to see a balanced offering of affordable and aspirational housing provided at Omega. The inclusion of housing and retail, in the scheme now proposed by the Homes and Communities Agency and Miller, will make for a much better balanced community in the area while not damaging the employment prospects across the site. 

The public will have their say on the new plans and will note that the untrue scare stories, spread before the election by the two parliamentary Labour candidates (Helen Jones and Nick Bent), about an incinerator had no substance.  

The truth is that an improved, sustainable and appropriate development is starting under a Liberal Democrat / Conservative administration which will complement the regeneration of the Town Centre and will benefit the whole of Warrington.