The whirligig of power

The scheme could have given the area a boost and removed a local eyesore - a dilapidated swimming baths that had languished for 20 years while the local authority debated what to do with it. Before the proposals were signed and sealed, the last local elections came along.

Then the LibDem backers of the scheme were ousted and the Tories voted in. The LibDem scheme was promptly ditched, the baths demolished and the park created on a large chunk of the site. The long-term future of the overall site is now back up for debate.

That is what happens all around the country following local elections. From Birmingham, where political wrangling has dogged proposals to build a new city library for the past three years, to Tower Hamlets, where George Galloway's Respect Party is aiming to halt the transfer of council homes to housing association hands if it wins the local elections on 4 May (see page 14), politics has the power - and the will - to intervene in the regeneration process.

Those wielding political power would say they do so with the purest motives, because proposals are flawed, they offer poor deals for the electorate and they must be replaced with something better. In fact, some may claim that they win elections on the back of their opposition to local development and regeneration plans.

And yet all too often the rejection of proposals consigns the electorate to years of inaction while deliberations restart, the community is consulted afresh, and new architects asked to produce even better masterplans.

Political prevarication over regeneration plans not only impacts massively on the public purse, but can also impact negatively on residents' lives. My neighbours now have a new park, to sit alongside the borough's many other open spaces. But the shops in the high street are closing for want of regeneration. It is not a case of swings and roundabouts.