EXCLUSIVE by CHRIS WOOD

COUNCIL leaders have made a U-turn over controversial plans to spend a night in a plush hotel at the expense of the town's Council Taxpayers.

A two-day conference at the Thistle Hotel, Haydock, just a short taxi ride away from most councillors' homes in Warrington, has been booked for November 17 and 18.

The original plan was for councillors to stay overnight at the £105-a-night hotel using council money.

But this week, council bosses hastily cancelled the 30 rooms they had booked. The bill for just the conference is now set at £2,600.

The conference, the first the council has held since becoming a unitary authority last April, is designed to coach councillors on their role in the community - including getting "best value" for the town.

It runs from lunchtime to lunchtime over the two days. The itinerary shows that it could have fitted into one day, but councillors voted to spread it out into two. However, many had expressed worries over the reasoning behind spending the night there.

Earlier this week, council leader John Gartside denied that any councillors were planning to stay overnight between the sessions. But shortly after speaking to him, the GUARDIAN learned that there were 30 rooms booked at the hotel in the council's name. These have since been cancelled.

Clr Gartside said: "I don't think anyone is staying overnight, and I think the cost will be in hundreds rather than thousands. We have not normally gone for the big residential thing, and it's so localised that it really doesn't make much sense."

The organiser of the event, council chief executive Steven Broomhead, added: "At one point we thought people could stay overnight, but when we looked at the cost of it and the demand, not many people wanted to stay."

The council owns its own conference centre at Walton Hall, but leaders say it was fully booked up on the days they wanted. They say they also tried to book a venue within Warrington itself, but ran into the same problem. Using the town hall as a venue was vetoed because they wanted councillors to get away from their usual surroundings.

When told that the GUARDIAN had found out that the rooms were still being held, Clr Gartside stood by his claims. "As far as I'm aware, no-one is intending to stay. And if they did, it would be at that councillor's discretion," he said.

He added that if a councillor did decide to stay, the bill would be picked up by the council.

And Mr Broomhead said: "The rooms were cancelled by my secretary on Tuesday. The cost of the conference is working out at £65 a head for 40 delegates."

Liberal Democrat councillor Judith Walker said: "We have told them that we are not staying overnight, and that it is not an appropriate use of funds. We didn't feel there was a need for an overnight stop, and I can't understand why they have chosen to have it at Haydock. You would think that if money was to be put into an economy, it would be better to put it into Warrington's."

On Wednesday, a circular was issued telling councillors that the overnight stay had been cancelled.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.