Councillor David Rendel is this week demanding to know the true extent of the damage caused to Newbury’s cinema project by Conservative West Berkshire Council’s poor and lazy attitude towards project management. In a letter penned to Emma Webster, Executive Member with responsibility for the cinema, Councillor Rendel asked for:

“…the dates of all the meetings which have included any discussion of the cinema which you or any other member of the Executive have held since May 2005 (incl.) with either the owners of the Kennet Centre or the expected developers or operators of the new cinema.”

Furious at the false accusations made by the Conservatives last week, Lib Dem leader Jeff Brooks explained why he felt it necessary to get details of the cinema’s progress in writing:

“Last week the Leader of Council made some grossly untrue accusations, saying that the cinema was making no progress due to constrictions of the contract signed by the Lib Dems. Local people will recall Mr Jones’ countless boasts over the past two years that the Conservatives were delivering a cinema for Newbury – only in March they were expecting work to start imminently. Now, through their own carelessness and lack of involvement the project has ground to a halt. This is why we are pressing for details of their meetings with the parties involved in the cinema development – we firmly believe they have taken no action at all, and just left things to drift.”