Labour should apologise to people of Sunderland at official opening of “shameful” new City Hall offices
Speaking ahead of the official opening of Sunderland Council's new City Hall offices later today (17th March) Leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats on the city council Niall Hodson said:
"When the Mayor officially opens these new civic centre offices he should do the decent thing and apologise to the people of Sunderland.
"Firstly for letting the Vaux site stand empty and undeveloped for well over 20 years, and secondly for lumbering generations of Council Tax payers in our city with the astronomical costs of renting these new City Hall offices from Legal and General for decades to come.
"Despite the Council owning scores of empty office buildings in the city, this shameful vanity project is costing us £2.4 million a year - plus inflation - and we don't even own it.
"It is nothing short of a scandal that when our roads are crumbling, our streets are dirty and vital services continue to be slashed, Labour bosses in charge at Sunderland Council will be wasting millions of pounds each and every year to rent swanky new offices on the Vaux site."