Browse content similar to 15/03/2017. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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In Look East tonight, over budget and now out of pocket. | :00:09. | :00:10. | |
How Corby Cube left the council facing multi-million pound losses. | :00:11. | :00:13. | |
And experts suggest radical solutions to the mental health | :00:14. | :00:15. | |
And a cloudier forecast expected for tomorrow. | :00:16. | :00:18. | |
A ?13 million overspend is bring written off | :00:19. | :00:36. | |
by Corby Borough Council, who today admitted that they will not | :00:37. | :00:39. | |
Building the Corby Cube cost the tax payer ?48 million pounds in total | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
But opposition councillors say the council | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
"lost control of the project". Stuart Ratcliffe reports. | :00:47. | :00:49. | |
The Cube is now as much a Corby icon as The Steel Man, | :00:50. | :00:52. | |
After years of wrangling, the council has now decided | :00:53. | :00:57. | |
it has no chance of clawing back the ?13 million overspend. | :00:58. | :01:03. | |
The Labour administration managed the Cube project appallingly. | :01:04. | :01:05. | |
The Cube board was led entirely by them. | :01:06. | :01:07. | |
They lost control of the project and allowed costs to spiral. | :01:08. | :01:10. | |
We will now not recover those overspend costs, | :01:11. | :01:11. | |
which is an enormous loss to the taxpayers of Corby | :01:12. | :01:14. | |
Nearly seven years after the Cube opened, parts of this building have | :01:15. | :01:21. | |
The top floor was originally supposed to be a restaurant. | :01:22. | :01:25. | |
Then, plans were revealed for it to be turned into | :01:26. | :01:27. | |
offices, but no-one has moved in yet. | :01:28. | :01:32. | |
Corby Borough Council did not want to speak to the media today. | :01:33. | :01:34. | |
In a previous statement, they have said they believe | :01:35. | :01:38. | |
there were failings with a number of parties connected | :01:39. | :01:40. | |
But they have been advised that there is is insufficient | :01:41. | :01:45. | |
evidence to show that the conduct of those parties was the sole | :01:46. | :01:48. | |
Not surprisingly, news of the multi-million pound write-off | :01:49. | :01:52. | |
They could have spent the money on more housing and helping | :01:53. | :01:59. | |
They do not need a big shiny building like that, do they? | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
I think there should be a full-scale enquiry into this, as to why. | :02:05. | :02:07. | |
They just seem to use people's money in any way they want. | :02:08. | :02:14. | |
In 2015, the council admitted miistakes, | :02:15. | :02:15. | |
but said that lessons had been learned. | :02:16. | :02:17. | |
They had this to say about large-scale building programmes. | :02:18. | :02:21. | |
There are not too many major construction projects which come | :02:22. | :02:24. | |
in on time and on budget all the time. | :02:25. | :02:26. | |
But it is unfortunaste when it does happen. | :02:27. | :02:34. | |
And there are plenty of examples to back up that claim. | :02:35. | :02:36. | |
The Cambridgeshire guided bus was meant to cost ?116 million, | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
and was over ?60 million over budget. | :02:41. | :02:48. | |
The Luton-Dunstable guided bus was again late and over | :02:49. | :02:50. | |
And Delapre Abbey in Northampton, orginally budgeted for ?6.3 million. | :02:51. | :02:57. | |
Now, almost ?1.5 million extra has had to be found. | :02:58. | :03:03. | |
And, finally, a solar farm near Peterborough. | :03:04. | :03:04. | |
Over ?2 million was spent on preliminary work, but then, | :03:05. | :03:07. | |
Back in Corby, most agree that the Cube is the centrepiece | :03:08. | :03:14. | |
of the town's regeneration, but it raises the question of whether | :03:15. | :03:17. | |
a small council, like Corby, could or should, undertake | :03:18. | :03:19. | |
So, why do councils overspend like this? | :03:20. | :03:32. | |
I asked an expert in local government, from the London School | :03:33. | :03:34. | |
of Economics, Professor Tony Travers. | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
Well, of course, big projects do not come around very often, | :03:39. | :03:41. | |
so whereas councils will be relaying roads or | :03:42. | :03:43. | |
putting up streetlights or mending schools, in some cases, | :03:44. | :03:48. | |
quite regularly, they will not be doing that with major theatres | :03:49. | :03:51. | |
and equivalent big projects very often and there is just always | :03:52. | :03:53. | |
the risk that the skills they need to do that are less present | :03:54. | :03:56. | |
Is it also that council offices, or councillors, are also | :03:57. | :04:08. | |
not fully qualified to deal with the financial arrangements | :04:09. | :04:10. | |
necessary for these large-scale projects? | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
I think, in fairness to councils, they often get it right. | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
But sometimes they get it wrong. We have seen examples of tramways | :04:20. | :04:22. | |
that run over budget or big libraries and so on. | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
But central government also gets them wrong at scale, as well, | :04:28. | :04:30. | |
So, there is a wider public sector problem here, | :04:31. | :04:34. | |
but occasionally, councils do get it wrong and not only | :04:35. | :04:37. | |
Is there enough good-quality advice available to councils | :04:38. | :04:44. | |
when they have taken on this kind of thing? | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
The question of advice is a crucial one, because obviously councils do | :04:49. | :04:51. | |
seek advice from various companies who are used to big construction | :04:52. | :04:53. | |
The problem may be, of course, that all of the advisory industry, | :04:54. | :05:01. | |
at some level, has a vested interest in big projects going ahead. | :05:02. | :05:04. | |
So, getting really good advice and keeping the project motoring, | :05:05. | :05:08. | |
when, in the end, the taxpayer can always step in, | :05:09. | :05:10. | |
is more difficult than, say, you or me getting | :05:11. | :05:17. | |
some work done on our house, for example. | :05:18. | :05:23. | |
Is it sometimes deliberate, in the case of councils, | :05:24. | :05:25. | |
setting a low price mark, to get approval from fellow | :05:26. | :05:29. | |
councillors councils and to make it more palatable for the public, | :05:30. | :05:32. | |
but you know know it is going to be over that and there will not be | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
Certainly, in some big national projects, | :05:37. | :05:38. | |
national government projects now, the UK Treasury insists | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
on calculating a so-called "optimism bias" - | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
that there is a risk in coming up with the figures for a project | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
that there is an under-statement of cost. | :05:52. | :05:55. | |
The public sector is trying to do something about that now, | :05:56. | :05:58. | |
to make sure they do not run over budget. | :05:59. | :06:01. | |
So, yes, there is a risk that, in an attempt to get | :06:02. | :06:04. | |
a particular project started, that councils may understate | :06:05. | :06:06. | |
Should local authorities with a lower council tax take | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
lower their expectations and not take on these big projects? | :06:11. | :06:13. | |
The difficulty is that councils, who have the | :06:14. | :06:15. | |
for ensuring it is attractive to look at, has good facilities and has | :06:16. | :06:23. | |
things that makes people want to go there, to invest in business and to | :06:24. | :06:26. | |
live there, do have to undertake these projects from time to time. | :06:27. | :06:31. | |
We would not have town centres, if this had not | :06:32. | :06:33. | |
The difficulty is that they are infrequent, | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
these big projects, and, therefore, often, the expertise is lacking, | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
not only in the council, but even sometimes in some | :06:43. | :06:44. | |
of the big companies that advise councils, | :06:45. | :06:46. | |
because this particular project, in the one place, may be | :06:47. | :06:48. | |
Northampton Town Football Club says a "big step" has been taken | :06:49. | :07:00. | |
towards resuming work on the club's East Stand. | :07:01. | :07:02. | |
The stand was to be redeveloped, using a multi-million pound loan | :07:03. | :07:05. | |
from Northampton Borough Council, but little work was done | :07:06. | :07:07. | |
and the project is being investigated by | :07:08. | :07:09. | |
Tonight, the club said a legal deal has been reached over a parcel | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
of land at Sixfields, between the company | :07:14. | :07:15. | |
that owns it, which went into liquidation in 2015, | :07:16. | :07:17. | |
and administrators and those owed money by this company. | :07:18. | :07:26. | |
A human rights committee heard evidence today on how best | :07:27. | :07:28. | |
to manage mental health problems within our prisons. | :07:29. | :07:30. | |
Last year, a record number of people killed themselves | :07:31. | :07:32. | |
in jails across England and Wales and Woodhill Prison | :07:33. | :07:34. | |
in Milton Keynes had the highest suicide rate of them all, | :07:35. | :07:37. | |
Diagnosed with schizophrenia and dead before the age of 30. | :07:38. | :07:45. | |
Kevin Scarlett was on remand when he took | :07:46. | :07:47. | |
his own life at Woodhill Prison - a victim of the services inability | :07:48. | :07:50. | |
The jail was criticised for failing to assess him properly. | :07:51. | :07:57. | |
was, at the time, echoed by his family. | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
Nobody actually believes that he wanted to kill himself. | :08:03. | :08:04. | |
The prison guards should have found him, | :08:05. | :08:07. | |
should have treated him medically and, then, | :08:08. | :08:09. | |
The Milton Keynes prison has the highest suicide rate | :08:10. | :08:19. | |
Today, those statistics were pored over by | :08:20. | :08:22. | |
a cross-party committee looking into why prisons are failing | :08:23. | :08:24. | |
Anyone with mental health issues is going to become a lot more | :08:25. | :08:32. | |
ill by being in prison, because of the nature of prison | :08:33. | :08:35. | |
Even those people who enter prison without mental health | :08:36. | :08:38. | |
issues, I think you're looking at the large amount of time kept | :08:39. | :08:41. | |
You only need to talk to people about how that can | :08:42. | :08:48. | |
One solution proposed is to introduce | :08:49. | :08:50. | |
more heaslthcare workers into the prison system. | :08:51. | :08:58. | |
In a visit to the region earlier, the Justice Secretary announced an | :08:59. | :09:09. | |
extra ?100 million to employ more staff. But that does not go far | :09:10. | :09:13. | |
enough, according to one of the witnesses today. | :09:14. | :09:23. | |
People who have reoffended because of their mental | :09:24. | :09:25. | |
health issues may have to be in a more secure environment. | :09:26. | :09:28. | |
We might be better dedicating a prison for these individuals | :09:29. | :09:30. | |
and have people trained to deal specifically with them, | :09:31. | :09:32. | |
rather than have the situation now where they are part | :09:33. | :09:35. | |
Campaigners want urgent action, but the government says that solving the | :09:36. | :09:45. | |
mental health crisis within the prison service could take many | :09:46. | :09:46. | |
years. Passenger numbers at Luton Airport | :09:47. | :09:51. | |
grew by 19% last month, compared to the same period last | :09:52. | :09:53. | |
year, marking nearly three years Over one million people used | :09:54. | :09:56. | |
the airport in February. Plans have now been submitted | :09:57. | :09:59. | |
for a new light rail link that will connect the airport terminal | :10:00. | :10:02. | |
with the rail station, which the airport predicts | :10:03. | :10:04. | |
will increase annual passenger We can catch up with the latest | :10:05. | :10:06. | |
weather outlook now, Temperatures hit 18 Celsius in some | :10:07. | :10:10. | |
parts of the region today. It will be cooler tomorrow, | :10:11. | :10:17. | |
with more cloud. At the moment, we have clear | :10:18. | :10:19. | |
sky and it is expected to turn quite misty | :10:20. | :10:21. | |
as we go through the night. Some cloud coming through | :10:22. | :10:24. | |
from the west later. These are the sort of values | :10:25. | :10:26. | |
we can expect overnight. Around 6-7 Celsius, with a light, | :10:27. | :10:29. | |
south-westerly wind. Tomorrow, things should get | :10:30. | :10:31. | |
off to a bright start, We have got this weather front | :10:32. | :10:33. | |
coming in from the north-west and that will turn things cloudier | :10:34. | :10:37. | |
as the day progresses. It could also bring | :10:38. | :10:39. | |
us some patchy rain. But early brightness | :10:40. | :10:41. | |
and sunshine to start with. But more cloud piling | :10:42. | :10:43. | |
in from the west and, Temperatures for tomorrow, | :10:44. | :10:45. | |
around 10-11 Celsius for most of us and more of a noticeable breeze | :10:46. | :10:50. | |
coming from the south-west. The national forecast is coming up, | :10:51. | :10:52. | |
but here is the outlook. A cold night, Thursday | :10:53. | :10:55. | |
night into Friday. A lot more cloud around | :10:56. | :10:56. | |
during the day on Friday. Rain arriving later | :10:57. | :10:59. | |
and an unsettled weekend. it stays dry I will be surprised. | :11:00. | :11:04. | |
Here is Nick with the national headlines. | :11:05. | :11:18. | |
For large parts of Wales and England there was blue sky and warmth. | :11:19. | :11:24. | |
Warmest day of the year, a clumsy way of saying the UK had the highest | :11:25. | :11:34. | |
temperature of the year so far. There have been big contrasts. Some | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
of that misty, murky weather to the south-west is advancing across other | :11:40. | :11:41. | |
parts of England and Wales through the night. Ahead of that, where we | :11:42. | :11:45. | |
have clear spells, central and eastern England there could be fog | :11:46. | :11:50. | |
patches developing, outbreaks of rain | :11:51. | :11:52. |