Lourie slams Tories' Twickenham lies

1.47.01pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 19th Oct 2008

• [Oct 13] SERGE Lourie writes: 'At the Council meeting last week, the Tories implied that they were proposing a cost free solution to Twickenham Riverside . .

A totally landscaped public space including a sensory garden, as proposed by the Riverside Group and the Tories would cost the local tax payer around £2 million. In the present financial climate, this was never an option - and we made that clear from the start. The Tories are playing games - none of their proposals stack up - a few months ago we conservatively estimated their proposals would cost the council in excess of £2 million although now they say they would not put a penny into subsidising the project. The original Twickenham challenge invitations made clear that this would be paid for by "enabling" development. The fact that the River Centre, Busen or the Duke of Edinburgh Trust were expected to raise the cost of the building would have killed the scheme stone dead.

Our scheme will not cost the tax payer a penny and we have made this clear from the outset. There just is no spare money, which is why anything on the riverside must be self funding. The Tories talk about the current economic climate pushing costs up. All the more reason why this can not be a burden on local taxpayers. The only way in which the dereliction of the past 28 years can be ended is to make the scheme self funding. It's time for the Tories to put up or shut up - tell us what they would do and how much it would cost - we have done this - In the meantime be very clear we are getting on with this and sorting this problem out once and for all.'