Bolton Council: Key vote on £1.2M NCP debt write off plan

At an often heated meeting held on Wednesday evening, a majority of elected members voted in favour of a motion put by Cllr David Grant, of Horwich South and Blackrod, demanding the council reject these plans.

He described the proposed write-off as “not financially prudent and not what the public expects of the council at a time of serious financial hardship for residents and local businesses.”

Cllr Grant said: “It is our duty to safeguard the financial assets of our community."

He added: "If you go through with this, residents will punish you at the polls and rightly so."

The vote was held at Bolton Town Hall (Image: Newsquest)

The request made by National Car Parks Ltd, better known as NCP, which was made public earlier this year sparked widespread controversy since it was first discussed by councillors.

The company had asked for the debt to be written off "in the spirit of partnership" after having suffering a huge loss of revenue during the Covid pandemic.

The council cabinet had at first approved the request to write this debt off at a meeting on October 2, but this was called in for further scrutiny by the opposition.

The scrutiny committee then considered the proposal at a further meeting on October 18, ahead of the vote this week at town hall.

The debate heard from other party leaders about the reaction the move had provoked.

Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Roger Hayes said it "must seem very bizarre" that a council that is "strapped for funds" like Bolton is prepared to write off so much money to a company "owned by a Japanese bank."

He said he is "also rather perplexed about the timing" and claims the Conservatives were in control when "the bailiffs were called off."

Cllr Hayes said: "I would think possibly that it was kicked into the long grass until after the next election."

But Conservative leader Cllr Martyn Cox said it would be "incredulous" to members of the public to discuss "on the one hand of the dire financial circumstances that we find ourselves in" and on the other propose about writing off such a huge amount of debt owed by a company like NCP.

He said: “The residents of this town find it incredulous that we are prepared to write off such a sum of money at the stroke of a pen."

But leader of the ruling Labour group Cllr Nick Peel said he also had “some issues” with how the controversy was handled by previous administrations.

He said: "We have to remember that during the pandemic NCP's revenue was reduced to almost zero across the country."

He added: "If we had operated our own car parks instead of using NCP then we would be in the same situation, losing that revenue but possibly without that Covid grant funding."

Cllr Peel also pointed out that the write off period occurred during a time "entirely under Conservative control."

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He said: “It was them who took their eye off the ball, it was Martyn Cox who called off the bailiffs." 

Council cabinet member for planning, housing and highways Cllr Khurram has also said that the remaining funds owed by NCP can be "spent locally" but initiating legal action against NCP could be costly and time consuming.

He said: "We need to end this matter, which should have ended earlier."

But ultimately the councillors voted to reject the write-off and vote for Cllr Grant’s motion.

It will now be debated further before it can be passed.