£25m Monmouthshire County Hall Scandal

6.07.40pm GMT Sat 2nd Jan 2010

The new County Hall for Monmouthshire near Usk has now rocketed to £25m from an initial bill of £18m a few months ago.

Liberal Democrat Councillors on Monmouthshire Council warned at a special council meeting in 2008 not to proceed with the project. Lib Dem Group leader Phil Hobson said "This is something that we can no longer afford and it is an unfair burden on local tax payers. Whilst the Conservative and Labour parties voted for this, we were not prepared to sign a blank cheque."

The original plan was to build a new Civic Centre for a small number of staff and councillors and rent office accommodation near where council staff worked. This would have been paid for by the sale of land at the old County Hall in Cwmbran meaning a very small bill for local council tax payers. Official council papers now show that in the region of £20million will now need to be borrowed to pay for it.

Liberal Democrat candidate for Newport East, Ed Townsend said: "This is unacceptable. We believe that money should be spent on improving crumbling school buildings before a new palace for politicians. Our children should be the priority."