LEADING councillors are being asked to "rush through" the decision to bail out the Arcade site scheme with public funds, according to the council's deputy leader.

Cllr John Macklin, deputy council leader and Lib Dem group leader, said he was unaware of the authority's plan to fund the project until a cabinet report was published last week.

Cllr Macklin said: "We certainly did not expect to find that it would be the council tax payer, not St Modwen, who were taking on the financial risk.

"The goalposts seem to keep moving on this project with regards to the role of St Modwen, the content of the development and the financial risk to the council and the taxpayer."

The council has decided to borrow £35m to fund the Arcade site redevelopment project because it is not profitable for developer St Modwen, or any other private company, to fund the scheme in the current economic climate.

Referring to the plan to recoup the borrowed money by selling off the Waltham Forest Pool & Track site, in Chingford Road, Walthamstow, Cllr Macklin added: "While quick progress on the site is important, this should not be achieved by making rushed, poorly thought-out decisions that could simply swap one area of derelict land for another.

"We are always being asked to rush through reports as ‘urgent’ and are now being asked to do this again for an enormous financial commitment that we believe has not been fully explained to either councillors or residents.

"We do not want this to be yet another false dawn and we need to see a much deeper financial analysis of this proposal."

St Modwen will be paid £500,000 to continue with its pre-planning design work.

The decision is expected to be agreed by cabinet members at a town hall meeting tonight.