A political spat has broken out over which political administration was actually responsible for Cornwall Council buying a former pub for £1-million, which has remained empty and will now be sold for a figure which is likely to be significantly less than the purchase price.

At a meeting of the council last week, Cllr Tim Dwelly, the Independent cabinet member for economic regeneration and investment, said the council was now looking to sell the General Wolfe building in St Austell, which was supposed to be used to provide temporary accommodation for homeless people but never has.

His comments – blaming the previous Conservative administration – have been slammed by Tory politicians, including the former leader of the council, Linda Taylor, who have pointed out it was a decision made by the previous Liberal Democrat / Independent cabinet to purchase the pub in 2020.

Cllr Dwelly said at last Tuesday’s full council meeting: “This was a decision in the last administration that I, personally, do not understand at all. I think it was a really stupid thing to do, to buy that building with all the risks attached to it.”

He was then interrupted by a cry of “point of order”.

Conservative councillor Martyn Alvey intervened to say the decision to buy the General Wolfe wasn’t made by the last Tory administration, of which he was part, but the coalition administration before that, which included Cllr Dwelly.

“No, I’ve checked, it was actually made by your administration,” responded Cllr Dwelly. “I’m going to stand by that as I did double check.”

However, he has now admitted he got it wrong, but stands by his comments that it was a “stupid” decision; a decision which now turns out was made by an administration of which he was cabinet member for the economy.

The confusion has come about because the General Wolfe was purchased by Corserv – Cornwall Council’s public services company – in March 2020, but the council took full control of the building in 2022. It has stood empty and deteriorating to the anger of St Austell residents.

A spokesperson for Cornwall Council said: “The purchase date of the building by Corserv Facilities Limited was March 19, 2020.”

Cllr Alvey, who pointed our Cllr Dwelly’s mistake, said: “I think part of the confusion centres on the fact that we (the Conservative administration) brought housing services back in-house from Corserv. So the General Wolfe will have transferred from Corserv to Cornwall Council in 2022, but the original purchase date was March 2020 as Land Registry records show.”

Linda Taylor, the former Conservative leader of Cornwall Council, who retired before last May’s council election, said: “It’s very easy to blame the Conservatives but the Land Registry clearly shows that the Lib Dem / Indie administration were responsible for the purchase at a cost of a million pounds.

“It was a very silly mistake but perhaps Cllr Dwelly has inadvertently opened up the burning question of who in his cabinet agreed to that very silly statement.”

Cllr Dwelly, who said during the meeting that he’d double-checked that the last Tory administration had made the decision, has admitted he got it wrong, saying he based what he said on his understanding of previous press reports.

While acknowledging the date Corserv purchased the building in 2020 before it was transferred to the council in 2022, Cllr Dwelly said he stood by his view that it was a “stupid” decision; a decision made by his then cabinet.

“It was a bad decision whoever made it in my opinion,” he added.