Cllr Theo Blackwell

• I WISH to correct the claim of secrecy or lack of scrutiny over the contract failure put forward by the Camden Conservatives and uncritically reported and editorialised in the July 27 New Journal (Town Hall’s £2.5m bungle kept secret).

That might be the newspaper’s or Conservatives’ point of view, but it is not actually what happened.

The failure of such a large procurement was treated as a very serious matter indeed and elected councillors on our audit committee scrutinised the matter in June as a first step.

As there were ongoing disciplinary matters there was a confidential briefing initially as any prejudicing this could cause further costs to the taxpayer.

Once completed there will further opportunities for the public and councillors to scrutinise what went wrong (and the steps taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again).

Elected councillors of all parties work to make Camden Council committed to openness and transparency and ensure the Town Hall does not shy away from answering the questions that need to be asked.

CLLR THEO BLACKWELL
Cabinet Member for Finance, Technology & Growth