“The Department is
providing £10.958m of funding for a scheme costing a total of £26.898m.
That funding is provided as a contribution to the scheme as a whole and not for
any specific elements of the scheme.
So far we have paid out
£3.2m and have received a request for a further £2.4m. The current profile of
payments suggests that by the end of this financial year March 2013 we will
have received claims from BANES for some £9.2m of our funding.”
It would appear that this money has been paid out although the proper
planning permission was not in place. One of the DfT’s criteria for funding projects
is that they are ‘value for money’. We have submitted a freedom of information
request as to how much B&NES Council has spent to date on the Newbridge
Park & Ride extension, and will share their answer with you once we receive
it. We do know that the purchase of the donkey field cost £90,000, which alone
would mean each space in the new extension would cost £360.
Seemingly the 250 space extension is not ‘value for money’ when a pot of
paint could be used to mark out the existing car park to enlarge that by 100
spaces!
