26.2.07: Northern route funding – report reveals ‘economic benefits’ dramatically less than original claims.

Documents revealed following a Freedom of Information Act request, show that behind the scenes Lancashire County Council (LCC) has had to slash its economic regeneration claims for the Northern route by 70%, making the chances of obtaining Government funding even less likely.

In its original economic impact report of July 2005, LCC claimed a notional £162 million ‘regeneration benefit’ for the area based on the scheme creating 6,014 new jobs. This LCC described as ‘very significant’ in relation to the scheme cost estimate of £118 million (LCC 2005 figure).

A Freedom of Information Act request made by Transport Solutions for Lancaster and Morecambe (TSLM) has discovered the existence of a revised economic impact report, dated December 2006 but not published, by LCC consultants Faber Maunsell. In the revised report the original forecast has been revised downwards from 6014 to 1,822 theoretical new jobs.

The effect of this reduction on the notional regeneration benefit is a drastic cut of 70% from £162 million to £49 million.

“I am appalled that they overestimated new jobs by a massive 330%!” says David Gate chair of TSLM. “For two years they have used the 6,000 new jobs claim to justify the scheme. Now it turns out to be a mistake.

“This makes the value for money claim for the destructive and polluting road highly questionable; even more so now that inflation has pushed the construction costs to £137 million, and that’s not counting recent changes to the plans.

“LCC have been keeping these figures to themselves; only last week LCC County Councillor Jean Yates quoted the original new jobs estimate in an interview with a national planning magazine.

“These figures are pie in the sky, but they are very important to LCC’s as yet unsuccessful bid for Government funding,” says David. “We warned LCC that the original figures were wrong, and it is possible that, had these new figures been available in November 2006, the decision to go ahead with the planning application may not have been taken.

“The Northern route destroys the Green Belt, adds to CO2 emissions, impacts on communities and does not deal with the congestion problem. Now that the theoretical regeneration benefits have been slashed, it is time for the Government to tell Lancashire County Council that the plan will not be accepted into the funding programme and that taxpayer’s money will not be made available.”