EDITOR’S COMMENT from this week’s Coventry Observer
Coventry council’s multi-million-pound purchase of the Coombe Abbey Hotel it formerly owned without success – a story exclusively revealed on our website on Sunday after a leak – was always going to be controversial, amid deep cuts.
But that is not an excuse to entirely shut out from decision-making the very council taxpayers who will be paying for it.
There is no clear reason why the matter could not have been publicly debated at Tuesday’s council meeting, or previously, with only the most commercially sensitive data being privately discussed, with press and public excluded.
Unfortunately, there are ingrained habits at the council, as followers of the Ricoh Arena saga and other issues are well aware.
