Westminster Tories’ £30,000 hole

Westminster Labour Councillor, Paul Dimoldenberg, has expressed how appalled he is that such a waste of Ward Budget public money has been allowed to proceed.

The cost of £30,000 for digging a hole in the pavement so that a Christmas Tree can be installed is an absolute outrage.

How can Westminster Council, run by Nickie Aiken, the Conservative candidate for Cities of London and Westminster, justify this when there are local residents using food banks, school budgets being cut, and care homes cutting the pay of staff.

Cllr Dimoldenberg has asked to see the tender documents for this project that apparently show that the Conway tender was the lowest, especially when Trees4Xmas, via Paddington Youth Enterprises, a social enterprise set up by Alderman Barrie Taylor, have managed to fit retention sockets for community Christmas trees at a mere fraction of the price. 

This sort of flagrant expenditure brings the whole Council into disrepute.

Why are Westminster Council allowing this sort of thing to happen? There appears to be no ‘common sense check’ when allowing public money to be spent.

We know it’s Christmas soon, but is this the sort of “magic money tree” that your average Westminster resident needs?