Sunderland Civic Centre demolition is no surpirse

Last year I submitted a question to the former leader of the council asking if the Civic Centre was going to be demolished as rumours suggested.

The answer was that the rumours were totally inaccurate and pernicious.

Well, here we are again yet another rumour that has been proven to be right.

Councillor Miller has stated in the Echo that neither he or any other councillor will make any monetary gain in the new venture. Why has he made such a statement? Has this been a practice in the past?

He also said that the Labour-run council has attracted 20,000 jobs to the city since the shipyards and other historic industries were closed down because of foreign competition.

In return we got the development agencies and Nissan, which have boosted employment beyond those of past providers.

The reason we got the latter was because Margaret Thatcher persuaded the then Chancellor to agree tax breaks for the Japanese motor giant to establish its plant in Sunderland. The rest as they say is history.

However, when we talk about history the Vaux site should by now assume the status of a Site of Special Interest and become protected from any further threat of development. Anyway moving away from fanciful dreaming, I’ll bet if it was turned into a green field site the houses would appear overnight.

Coun George Howe,

Conservative

Fulwell Ward