Major schemes across Cannock Chase district to be reviewed to identify priorities, authority's leader says

Conservative Councillor Olivia Lyons said the previous Labour administration had committed money to different schemes within the captial programme.

And she added her administration was now in charge and had "new priorities" in light of the pandemic and the current issues facing people in the district.

It comes after a senior independent councillor accused the authority of denying youngsters "much-needed" social activity over plans for new toilets in Rugeley.

Upgrades to the Community Sports and Recreation Hub at the Cannock Stadium site, on Pye Green Road, have been halted whilst the scheme is reviewed.

And some of the funding is being diverted into demolishing the toilet at Rugeley's Elmore Park and replacing it with two accessible ones – costing £110,000.

Councillor Paul Woodhead, leader of the Chase Community Independent Group, said: "This is just wrong on so many levels removing a much needed social and physical activity from the young people of Hednesford, Chadsmoor and Cannock to place a toilet in Rugeley defies belief.

"In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis it is staggering that the inertia of inaction by this administration is taking away the opportunity for free activities and the development of a park for a toilet block in another town – it is quite literally taking the p***."

But Councillor Lyons, who represents the area covering Elmore Park and is a councillor on Rugeley Town Council, has defended the move – and said a review is taking place of all the projects in the capital programme.

She said: "The report (to cabinet) talks about work on the stadium being paused, but we're reviewing the whole capital programme. The previous administration has committed different pots of money and we've got new priorities, we're a new administration. We want to look at everything we've got and see what we need to prioritise.

"And the toilets are something I feel very strongly about. It's in my ward and it's something I raised a petition over whilst we were in opposition two or three years ago and got hundreds of signatures at the time.

"The toilets are disgusting and do not have any disabled access and there's no running water, you have to use an alcohol solution. The toilets have been, for me as a ward councillor, a priority for me."

A feasibility study was commissioned in January 2020 following the petition but no money was put aside for the project, with the report also stating there were "no funds currently available in the council's capital programme" – unless money is freed up.

"When I submitted the petition, they agreed to do a feasibility study to look at the options but no money was put aside for the project because they didn't know what the outcome would be, whether it be to adapt it or demolish it," the authority's leader, whose Conservative Group took control of the council in May last year, said.

"We've got that now and the recommendations are to demolish it and build two new ones and I think, especially post-pandemic, it's wrong you've got toilets in one of our main parks which doesn't have disabled access – we've got to have them at a suitable standard."