---

Summer Adjournment

I start by saying how pleasing it is to see my hon. Friend the Deputy Leader of the House, a fellow Durham MP, on the Front Bench to answer this debate. I would like to concentrate on an issue in my constituency that I have already raised in an Adjournment debate, which concerns View Lane park in Stanley and the absolute scandal of Derwentside district council selling more than half of the park to a development company called Mistal Homes, for a centre for the treatment of adults with autism. The company made an unsolicited bid to the council to buy more than half of the park. The bid was fiercely objected to by local residents, who value the green lung in their town centre. Despite that the council steamrollered ahead, as has become all too commonplace, and not only gave Mistal Homes planning permission, but sold it half the park. It did that even though the district council has no responsibility whatever for the provision of autism services or adult services; that is the function of the county council. When the council took that decision, it did not look at the track record of the company. In fact, it had no track record, because it was registered at Companies House only in January 2006. Nor did it take a close look at the directors of the company, including a Mr. Hampshire, who declared to Companies House that he was a director of no other companies apart from Mistal. In fact, he is also a director of several other companies, one of which, Chartnell Ltd, is late in filing its accounts and Companies House has proposed that it be struck off. A post in the London Gazette last September suggested that the company in question was going to be wound up under the terms of the Insolvency Act 1986. I raised my concerns and those of angry local residents with the Audit Commission earlier this year. I wrote to the commission on 1 February 2007. Alas, I did not get a reply until 4 July, as a result of a follow-up letter to the chief executive. I finally got a letter on 10 July from Paul Heppell, who described himself as the audit manager. He said in his letter that he had noted my"““concern about ‘the adequacy of assurances gained by the Council over the potential buyer of the land’.””" He went on to say:"““My understanding of the position is that the Council is not proposing to be involved in an ongoing contractual relationship or joint delivery of services with the developer.””" Well, that is what I thought until a few weeks ago, when the leader of Derwentside district council, Mr. Alex Watson, and its chief executive, Mr. Mike Clark, had a meeting with the chief executive and the leader of Durham county council to ask the county council to procure 20 beds over a five-year contract for Mistal homes at the autism centre, even though the district council has no responsibility for the procurement of adult services. Quite rightly, the leader of Durham county council, Mr. Albert Nugent, and the chief executive, Mr. Mark Lloyd, were not going to be strong-armed by this approach. They wrote back to stress that the commissioning of services by the county council was done on an individual basis and that they could give no block contracts to the company. This worries me. What on earth are the leader and the chief executive of a district council that has no responsibility in this area doing trying to procure business for a private company, Mistal Homes, which has no track record of delivering this type of service? I shall write to the Audit Commission again to ask about this matter, as there are some very serious concerns surrounding the entire deal. Who approached whom in the first place? What is the relationship between certain individuals on Derwentside district council and Mistal Homes? Mr. Heppell’s letter goes on to say:"““In common with other sales of land, officers took the view that the track record and financial status of the developer or individual Directors was not relevant to the sale itself.””" If the council is now going round touting for business for this company, what is that relationship? Mr. Heppell is clearly not doing his homework. Part of the so-called deal relating to the sale of this land involved the reinvesting of a proportion of the capital sale of the park into improving the remaining park area. People ask whether that is really a concern. Well, yes it is. I raised this matter in an Adjournment debate recently. Derwentside district council has made no attempt to apply for lottery funding for improving the rest of the park, so it is relying on the success of this development for the improvement of this vital remaining piece of green space in Stanley. There are some disturbing unanswered questions here. If the leader and chief executive of a council are touting for business for a private company, I want a full investigation into the matter. If that is not carried out by the Audit Commission—to which I shall write again, because I do not accept that it has carried out a full investigation—I shall refer the matter to the police. This week, I was pleased to hear that Derwentside district council is to be abolished. That will be welcomed by many of my constituents. I am concerned, however, that the dying days of the council will lead to more shoddy deals like this, to fire sales of land, or to commitments with private companies, which will hamper the new unitary council’s ability to make certain commitments. The Audit Commission and the Minister need urgently to ensure that no further dodgy deals like that are entered into in the next few months during the dying days of Derwentside district council. I have welcomed the formation of a unitary council for Durham. Indeed, I think that it is long overdue and it will certainly abolish Derwentside district council and others that are, frankly, pathetic for having delivered such a poor service to my constituents for so many years. As I have suggested, that council has done things that are highly questionable, if not verging on illegal. Durham now has an opportunity to have a dynamic and strategic new county council—not the existing one, but a new one. I understand that it will be painful for the 249 councillors to be abolished in the process, but it will lead to better governance in county Durham. In looking forward to the new county council, we should reflect on how best to promote the county and ensure that developments in former mining communities—across my constituency and that of my hon. Friend the Deputy Leader of the House—are pressed forward. I would urge the Liberal Democrat council in the City of Durham, which is threatening judicial review, not to waste a single penny more of taxpayers’ money on attempting to challenge the decision. My understanding is that there is no legal case whatever, so going ahead would be a scandal. I suspect that Durham taxpayers would never forgive the Liberal Democrats; they would quite rightly be very angry about it. The decision to move towards a unitary council is part of a broader agenda, which includes the abolition of the regional assembly. Once again, I believe that that is long overdue. Regional issues about transport are important; and the new Select Committees announced by the Government—and designed to scrutinise what happens in the regions—are quite exciting. I believe that those new Select Committees will need to have teeth. They will need to hold to account not just the regional development agency, but organisations such as the Environment Agency and the strategic health authority. They should help to ensure that local people have a clearer understanding of how those organisations work, while also providing a key role for parliamentarians in this place to scrutinise the quango state of the north-east. To conclude, I wish you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and right hon. and hon. Members a successful and enjoyable recess. Speaking as a member of the north-east tourism board, it would be remiss of me not to say that if people wish to visit the north-east, there are great attractions in Northumberland, Durham, Teesside and Newcastle. No one coming to North Durham should miss the Beamish open air museum, in which the constituency takes such pride, and my hon. Friend the Member for City of Durham (Dr. Blackman-Woods) has the fantastic attraction of the Durham cathedral.