A councillor has told a committee he doesn’t regret a decision to go-ahead with purchasing a property amid claims he was ‘overruling democracy’.
South Holland District Council’s Performance Monitoring Panel had previously voted that Coun Rodney Grocock should not allow the purchase of a third identified property in Spalding and instead instruct officers to find a more suitable home.
However Coun Grocock, who had been given the power to approve the purchase, agreed to let it go ahead.
In September the district council was granted £400,000 of funding by central government to be matched by the authority to help purchase properties to house nine homeless households.
The government said they needed to be in the properties by March 31 for the council to receive the money.
Two properties in Spalding had been identified and purchased but the criteria had to be widened to find a third in the Monks House ward to meet the deadline.
The panel voted against that purchase airing concerns that the decision was being rushed through and saying it wasn’t suitable due to lack of parking and the potential costs of getting it ready for such living.
At last week’s follow up meeting the panel quizzed Coun Grocock on the decision.
Coun Angela Newton told the panel she’d suggested other properties that she felt were more suitable.
She asked if Coun Grocock believed “this council is run by officers and not members.”
“No,” he said. “I sat there and listened to all the evidence and the comments but I’d also attended three months of meetings with housing officers, homelessness officers and all those people.
“I was trying to weigh up if the decision was the right one and I still, to this day, believe I made the right decision.
“I was trying to sum up and work out what was the difference between this property and Park Road. I couldn’t see for the life of me what the difference was.
“If there was a difference, why haven’t the PMP called those ones in to account?
“If they had that would maybe give me more evidence and food for thought in making the decision on the third property.”
Coun Newton responded: “I think that’s a pathetic answer and I don’t think it’s even an answer.
“Clearly the paper states you’ve taken the officer recommendation over 13 members.
“That gives the impression to this public and members that their views were discounted.
“This was a cross-party decision, it wasn’t a political decision and none of us said we didn’t want a third property. We only suggested it be looked at again.
“You’re overruling democracy, this council and this panel might as well pack up and go home.”
The panel heard that since the previous meeting, the government had granted SHDC an extension to the March 31 deadline.
“There was no evidence that was going to happen,” Coun Grocock continued.
“I was told that this money from the government was only available until March 31, the housing team and everybody involved had to do what they had to do in such a short period of time.”
When questioned Coun Grocock told the committee he had not visited the property in question and when asked about the local plan, which says all homes should have parking, he admitted not knowing
Panel chair Coun Bryan Alcock, who said he had been out to view the property, said: “There’s the possibility that people who are made homeless, through all kinds of unfortunate instances may well be in a situation where they have a vehicle.”
Coun Grocock said: “To lay in a doorway and not have a roof must be a frightening thing to happen and as my Christian faith has taught me everybody needs to be treated the same and they must find a home.
“When the government offered money I thought it was a wonderful thing and homelessness is one of our priorities.
“If you were in my shoes and you had to make the decision you look at it for humane reasons. You look at value for money, three people who are really suffering into a house and that’s worth it’s weight in gold.
“You’ve got to keep these houses for 30 years, so I don’t think there’s a financial concern like that.
“I think it would cost more if we purchased houses that were newer.”
