District Council Purchase Marriotts Walk

I’ve spent the last few days really thinking about the District Council’s purchase of Marriott’s Walk Shopping Centre.

Overall, I think it is a brave decision and a big risk – let’s just look across the border at Cherwell District Council. Their Officer’s recommended purchasing a Shopping Centre and it is now really costing them.

Then I looked at how much Marriott’s Walk cost to build, it was about £59 million – so how much did WODC pay? It must be in the several £million – is this from their reserves? Is this from a loan? Who knows, very few details have been shared….

At the end of the day, it is a shopping centre – whilst from a high level it seems fantastic that with reduced rates we can introduce further local business, is there anyone qualified in the Council to run a shopping centre? As the council is spending your money, should residents not have a say? As the council say, "This is your council." Or is it?

We need to introduce a variety of business, small and large. Something like a Sports Direct would not only be huge for Witney but a real boost of confidence for West Oxfordshire. Along with Free Parking across the town, it could be a good investment, but is it something that us as taxpayers should be paying for?