POLITICAL posturing or a genuine plea for Otley people to have their say on an important issue?

MP Greg Mulholland’s call this week for a referendum to be held to decide the Civic Centre’s future looks certain to split opinion.

Some will dismiss it as a ‘stunt’ whose real aim is to discredit Otley’s Labour controlled Town Council while keeping the Lib Dem MP in the spotlight as May’s elections draw nearer.

Others may regard it as a perfectly legitimate attempt to get, once and for all, a definitive take on public opinion – with a view to then proceeding with a plan that truly reflects the community’s wishes.

Referendums are, after all, about as close as we can get to the kind of direct democracy enjoyed by the ancient Greek city states that started the whole concept off.

A neutral observer, however, can’t help but question why the MP has left it so late to make this appeal.

After all, the Civic Centre was closed in early 2010 by the then Lib Dem-controlled town council and things have moved on considerably.

Mr Mulholland is quite right to point out that running repairs, such as those carried out by owners Leeds City Council this week, and future refurbishment costs will only get more expensive the longer the property stands empty.

His belief that Leeds would be only be obliged to help cover refurbishment costs if the town council committed to being based back at the Civic Centre looks more debatable.

But, more importantly, it also seems to be beside the point.

Because the town council is now based in a popular town centre location where it looks certain to stay for many years to come.

And it has taken out a long-term lease on the Core that it would be financially suicidal, as Mr Mulholland himself recently pointed out, to break.

It is also a fact that the town council has already sought the public’s views while putting together the Civic Centre feasibility study.

Local businessman Jamie Hudson has since used that study as a template for his Venue 21 bid, a private scheme recently hailed by the whole town council as the ‘best chance’ of getting the building back into use - and one without any council involvement at all.

All of this leaves Mr Mulholland’s referendum call looking a bit like a case of trying to close the doors after the horse has bolted - and that is why it is vulnerable to accusations of party political ‘posturing’.