Cllr Swainston asks, "Why was Cllr Wallis moved?"

8.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sun 27th Apr 2008

Appropriately enough, since the topic of the day is a road, Cllr Nick Wallis, in the Echo yesterday accused the Lib Dems of "gutter politics" for suggesting that he might bear some of the responsibility for the £1.9m overspend on the Eastern Transport Corridor.

So, let's take a look at the facts:

1. Within a year of presiding over a multi-million pound overspend on the Pedestrian Heart, the Labour Council presided over a £1.9m overspend on the ETC.

2. The causes of these overspends was substantially the same: weak, ineffective leadership and management, a failure to hold contractors to account, a failure to implement appropriate contractual arrangements, a failure to allow sufficient contingency money and a failure to allow for basic requirements like moving services.

3. Cllr Wallis proudly states in his blog that responsibility for managing this budget rested with him.

Lib Dem Group leader, Cllr Martin Swainston, raises a legitimate question, "Why was Cllr Wallis moved from his long-held role in charge of transport within three months of the scheme getting underway?"

Cllr Wallis, instead of doing the decent thing and apologising to the Council Tax payers of Darlington for the repeated mistakes made by the Council, simply brushes the whole thing aside by accusing the Lib Dems of descending into gutter politics.

Yet somebody, sometime, will have to admit responsibility. Somebody, sometime, will have to say sorry. Somebody's head must roll for this. Right up to the highest levels within the Council it seems as though this whole affair is being casually dismissed as someone else's mistake. A recently departed and affable senior officer is being whispered against by Labour people. Now that's gutter politics.