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Top e-government news, updated daily, and regular features from the top people in the public sector.
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| Fury at Northern Bypass PFI plan |
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Moves to use private business money to build a £100 million northern bypass today met with fierce criticism, as County Hall prepares to examine the controversial funding option.
Politicians voiced their horror at the prospect of Norfolk County Council entering into a PFI deal to build the road, after recent private finance disasters at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and the failed Jarvis schools' contract.
Councillors and officials will meet at County Hall tomorrow to discuss launching a bid for a large slice of £600 million in PFI credits from Government in order to help fund the Northern Distributor Route (NDR).
They will consider a report regarding how to win PFI funding for the NDR, which could involve tying a controversial private finance deal in with a highway maintenance contract.
Barbara Hacker, leader of the county council's opposition Liberal Democrat Group, said: “We see PFI as a method of mortgaging our children's future; it is a very expensive way of financing things.
“However, until the Government starts funding public expenditure properly we have to look at PFI, but I do not like it.”
Norwich North MP Ian Gibson said: “This project should not be funded by PFI. Have we not learned the lessons from the N&N?
“A PFI deal for the NDR would create exactly the same problems we have seen with the hospital.
“The council will find itself under the shadow of the costs for years.
“They need to explore better options than this.”
In the report, David Pearson, Norfolk's director of planning and transport, says the council can express its interest to Government in using PFI by the September deadline, but that “a later submission might significantly increase the chances of securing PFI credits, and the opportunity to include the NDR in any project might be enhanced.”
Mr Pearson states: “At one extreme is the option for the maintenance of the highway network across the whole of Norfolk. At the other extreme is a PFI for the NDR on its own.”
He concludes the Government is unlikely to look favourably upon a PFI bid for the NDR on its own, but a scheme linked to projects such as the Long Stratton Bypass or maintenance work could be more successful.
Councillors are expected to vote to provide money to complete a feasibility study to decide which type of project would be most successful in getting PFI funding - a move condemned by critics.
Steve Morphew, leader of Norwich City Council, said today: “I have strong suspicions about using this method for the NDR.
''We need to look at other alternatives and, in general, I don't think PFI would provide the best option.”
County Hall planners have chosen a route for the NDR, which starts at the A47 in Postwick - linking via the A140 and A1067 - through to Weston Longville. It hopes the road will cut journey times and provide an economic boost for the city, various planning and environmental agreements have yet to be set, not to mention the funding.
Adrian Gunson, the county council's cabinet member for planning and transport, said: “This is an analysis to see if there is anything worthwhile we can get from PFI.
“How seriously we take it will depend of what type of deal we can get. There's no doubt the Government is pushing people down this route; they like it because PFI does not show up as public sector borrowing in the accounts.
“That's why we are using PFI for highway lighting, as it's the only way we can afford to catch up with repairs.
He said he did not know how much PFI credits the council would bid for were it to register a formal request for the funding for the NDR.
A spokesman for the Labour Group at Tory-controlled County Hall said: “This is an issue on which we would urge the council to tread very carefully, especially given what has happened with the N&N and the Jarvis contract.”
It has emerged taxpayers will have paid massively over the odds for the £229 million PFI deal which funded the new N&N by the time the contract expires.
While a £92 million PFI deal between County Hall and engineering firm Jarvis, and its successor Vinci, to upgrade 37 Norfolk schools, collapsed in 2004 after it became clear the company could not even find a builder.
It is understood the £600 million in PFI credits the government is offering is for just four or five major schemes, to be implemented from 2009. |
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