Council ploughs £40m into road that probably won’t be built
The Norwich Western Link, decried as an environmental disaster by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, has been shelved by the government, facing an indefinite delay. This leaves our council roughly £40m out of pocket on the money it has already spent on the project without a spade even hitting the ground.
This comes as Norfolk County Council raised council tax by the maximum legally permitted amount this year, while cutting back service provision to the bone. All the while debt grows ever-higher, with levels accrued last year costing the taxpayer £86,000 a day in interest alone. That has only increased since.
Yet after all this pain, they will still face another budget deficit next year of £42.6m, so more cuts, and more tax rises will be thrust upon us in the coming year.
Leader of the Lib Dems on NCC, Cllr Brian Watkins said:
In essence, we will be paying the price of poor economic decision making by the council, who decided to pump so much of our money into a project that wasn’t even guaranteed to happen, the losses from which almost entirely total the amount of “new money” that will have to be found to keep themselves afloat.
Cllr Brian Watkins
When council tax bill rockets up again, rememer why that is.