Independent review slams Woking Borough Council

Earlier this month Woking Borough Council agreed to implement all the recommendations of an independent review into the decisions and Council processes behind the Woking Football Club development.

This review heavily criticised the way the Conservative-run Council is managed and made more than 20 recommendations for improvement.

The independent review confirms the serious issues raised by the cross party task group from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, led by Lib Dem Councillor Deborah Hughes last year.

Following the plans to build a 10,000 seater stadium and over 1,000 flats at Woking Football Club's Ground, as well as to relocate David Lloyd to Egley Road in Mayford, an independent investigator was called in to look into the decision-making process in the Council.

Lib Dem Councillor Deborah Hughes said, "Many Councillors and local residents raised concerns regarding the Council processes in regards to the Council's offer of a £250 million loan to a company with few publicised assets. This raised further questions on what due diligence had been conducted by the Council into this proposed development."

"That is why the task group was set up to assure residents that due process had been adhered to, sadly the outcome of the task group was that this assurance could not be given. This review completely backs up our concerns and the work of the task group."

"The Council agreed the report, but all the recommendations of the independent investigator must now be acted on. This review raises so many questions about how the Tories have run Woking Council, why were these gross failures of basic governance not picked up by them previously? It is hard to believe this project was an isolated case."