I AM pleased to have started a debate on the future of where Otley Town Council should be based and how it should allocate our money. It is just unfortunate that we did not have this and indeed a local referendum before the town council took on a ten year lease on a privately owned shop costing around a quarter of a million pounds.

Now we also know it is a lease with no break clause, which ties the hands of any future town council, which is simply undemocratic as well as financially irresponsible.

There are some people who believe, as Garfield Jones does, that the Civic Centre is a “white elephant” and he and they are of course entitled to that view. It is not one I share and I believe we should again have a modernised town hall and a large venue for events like Otley Folk Festival as well as civic functions. It is the only building in the town that will ever be both things and the only realistic chance of Otley having a large capacity theatre.

However what everyone including those who don’t support this need to realise is that if the Civic Centre does not again become our town hall and a venue/theatre, then the town and its residents will receive nothing for it. Leeds City Council officers have told me that they would have to give it away to a developer as the cost of refurbishment would be so high. So the town council turning its back on the Mechanics Institute risks leaving the town and taxpayers with nothing at all.

We also have the former library and council offices on Boroughgate up for sale. So we have two council owned civic buildings both empty and deteriorating, how different from Yeadon and Morley with their majestic and publicly owned town halls.

What an extraordinary attitude from Labour run Otley Town Council that sees no civic role or value in either of the Otley council owned buildings and would rather hand our money to a property company rather than investing in an asset and a civic building for the town.

So what people need to debate is this: should the town council be renting a shop or instead investing in a community owned town hall and theatre, when not doing so could condemn the Civic Centre to be given away for nothing or even ultimately demolished.

Whether they now like it or not, the Otley Labour promised to save Otley Civic Centre and yet now they are refusing to fund it and have turned their back on it as our town hall. The Labour town council’s plan means no civic building, no town hall for Otley, which for a proud town of its size is unacceptable. It is time for this plan to be challenged.

Greg Mulholland MP 12 Holt Park Centre, LS16 7SR