'I warned weeks ago that Westfield were planning to sell the city centre site,' said George Galloway, 'and was told by council leader Dave Green, the company's main cheerleader, that I didn't know what I was talking about. Now it turns out that either he didn't have a clue whether what he was saying was true, or he deliberately misled the council and the people of Bradford. Fool or a knave, own up Dave!'
Galloway was commenting after it was revealed that the Australian developers were selling the 23-acre site to the investment company Meyer Bergman. 'Last week we had the farce of a five-hour meeting in front of what was supposed to be a council scrutiny committee where two senior Westfield executives repeatedly batted away incisive questioning with the claim that they couldn't answer because of “commercial confidentiality”. Green mouthed the same mantra.
'It turns out what Westfield were keeping confidential was that negotiations for sale were going on. So did they tell Green? Did he ask? How can a man who is privy to this commercial confidentiality and is supposed to be on top of one of the most important and contentious issues in this city be trusted to hold any kind of public brief? He should pipe down after explaining why it was that the councillors and the public were so deceived. '
Galloway continued. 'This is why I have put down parliamentary questions and motions and called on the government to set up a public inquiry into not just the Westfield debacle but the city centre regeneration project, or lack of it.'
He added: 'If this really does mean that the scheme will finally go ahead then of course I welcome it. But after the farce and farrago of the last 10 years I will reserve judgment.'
