Calls for council to hold more housing company meetings in public

Future plans and financial considerations for a housing company owned by West Lancashire Borough Council look set to be discussed privately this week, as a struggle between different political groups over the company's future direction continues.

There has also been disagreement about whether Tawd Valley Developments should only build within the borough. Councils are increasingly under pressure to find new sources of income and to develop more commercial activities as traditional funding from Westminster governments has fallen in recent years.

However, the Labour group won a subsequent vote which scrapped the winding-down decision. Labour argued that new Tawd Valley homes are desperately needed and popular, and that the Conservatives and Our West Lancashire are simply politically opposed to council-run house building. In April, the Tawd Valley Developments Shareholders Committee was given a series of potential locations for possible future developments. However, councillors at that same meeting recommended sites outside the borough be removed. These were at Much Hoole, Heswall, Cheshire East, South Ribble, St Helens, Wigan, Warrington, Preston and Liverpool. They also argued that the committee's purpose, its 'terms of reference', should be changed.

He claimed: "Many more building sites are being eyed-up by the controversial council-owned housebuilding company. Yet the public are not permitted to know where. Most agenda reports for the committee meeting are being kept from public eyes. " The Tawd Valley Developments committee meeting agenda is partly public on the council website, with recommended exempt items shown in a lower section, which is the standard method on agendas. The agenda states that press and public be excluded from the items in accordance with Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972. The public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, it adds.

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