Call for answers on medical school deal collapse

Dudley’s leaders are facing calls for more detail on how a deal with Worcester University to run a new college collapsed.

After news of the failure of a deal between Dudley Council, Dudley College and the university to open a centre to train health workers in a £26m purpose built facility, opposition councillors are demanding answers from the Conservative administration.

Health Innovation Dudley, on the site of the demolished Hippodrome theatre in the town centre, was set to open this autumn but just a few weeks before the university pulled out.

A new partner to take on the college is in the pipeline but councillors are concerned about the management of major projects.

Dudley’s Reform UK leader, Cllr Marco Longhi, believes the college is not the only example of delay and confusion.

Cllr Longhi said: “Portersfield was promoted as an £82 million development bringing homes, jobs, retail and leisure to Dudley. It still has not materialised.

“BCIMO and Very Light Rail were supposed to put Dudley at the forefront of rail innovation. BCIMO subsequently went into administration and the council had to step in.

“The Metro is finally arriving, which I welcome, but years of delay have pushed back the wider regeneration benefits. The Dudley Interchange has also been delayed.”

Dudley Council’s leaders blame the West Midlands Combined Authority and Transport for West Midlands for delays with the Metro and the interchange but Cllr Longhi, a former Dudley MP, wants answers about how Dudley does its deals.

He said: “How was this allowed to happen? What contractual protections were in place? What due diligence was undertaken? And who is now carrying the risk?

“We need a proper account of what was promised, what was spent, what was delivered and what went wrong across a range of ‘developments’.”

During a private session of Dudley’s cabinet on October 8, members heard more details about a possible new partner and in the interim, Dudley College will take on a short-term lease for the bespoke building to avoid it standing empty.

Dudley Labour leader Cllr Shaukat Ali said: “I think there are big lessons to be learned, the council was the receiver of the funding and coordinating with Dudley College and the university.

“Any partners signing up should have been legally bound to occupy the building.”

Liberal Democrat leader in the borough, Cllr Ryan Priest says the Hippodrome should have been restored to boost the night time economy rather than demolished.

Cllr Priest said: “I don’t see the benefit if we are not having a proper campus, all I see is we are shipping people in and they are being shipped out again afterwards.”

Meanwhile University of Worcester has spoken for the first time on their withdrawal from the deal.

A University of Worcester spokesperson said: “The University of Worcester remains very committed to working in Dudley and the wider Black Country in partnership to advance the educational achievement and professional success of young people in particular.

“It is a great shame that the proposed health education building in Dudley was so delayed and was left unfinished.”

Dudley Council’s leader, Cllr Patrick Harley, lays the blame with the university; he said: “Despite regular meetings at a senior level to finalise the terms of the respective legal agreements, which moved from monthly to weekly the closer we got to building completion, the university found themselves unable to agree to the documents or find suitable solutions/compromises to the matters they disagreed with.”

By Martyn Smith | Local Democracy Reporting Service