LEAKED emails appear to show conflict in the Bromsgrove Conservative Group over the controversial plans not to build a sports hall as part of the town’s new leisure centre development.
In a message dated January 21 to a member of the Save our Sports Hall Group – who has asked not to be named – Coun Malcolm Glass wrote: “There are some councillors in the district who really care about local issues and are prepared to stick their neck out even if it is against their leader’s wishes. I am certainly like that.”
Coun Glass claimed there were two other councillors and an officer who were ‘firmly in our camp’ and added in the email he would happily help residents find alternative sources of funding to build a new sports hall.
In another email, Coun Glass wrote: “I’m not finished yet and I have started to look into other ways to get a Sports Hall built.
“This has to be very hush hush… Not just from Labour, but from my own side as I do not propose to involve them until an appropriate time.
“I am looking into other funding options.”
And in another leaked email from February 14, Coun Glass wrote about ‘making a new discovery regarding sports hall funding’, stating: “I have found out that we could have possibly got a grant from two EU schemes that may have provided up to 50 per cent of the cost of providing the facility.
“I say ‘may’ because there are a lot of hoops to jump through first but the money is there if you do. I found this out after having a meeting with one of our MEPs.”
But, despite that, Coun Glass voted against Coun Chris Bloore’s motions to stop the building of the new leisure centre without a sports hall and one asking for land to be put aside so a sports hall could be built in the future if funding was found for it.
That move by Coun Glass has led to a complaint being lodged against him by the Labour Group.
Coun Michael Thompson, who first raised the issue of leaked emails at the last full council meeting, said: “If these three would have voted with Chris Bloore’s original motion – as it seems they would have wished for – the plans would have been stopped.”
