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Time to cut white elephant building projects

(Letter to the Surrey Advertiser)

The key to the debate on the town shuttle bus is how the £100,000 per year cost of a replacement could be funded. The financial situation is tough given Guildford has been short-changed by Whitehall to the tune of £400,000 a year in providing the government policy of free bus travel for pensioners and the disabled.

Using the revenues from on-street parking charges (assuming council lawyers get their act together) would be a fair and logical way of funding a town centre bus.

However, this revenue is being thrown at a financially reckless expansion of Park & Ride. The unsightly new Merrow site has cost local taxpayers £1.6 million in capital, and an ongoing revenue cost of £270,000 every year. The planned Worplesdon site on the Green Belt is likely to have a similar price tag, but there is insufficient cash in our parking reserves to fund such a large amount – raising the prospect of future hikes in council taxes or town centre parking charges.

By not going ahead with the Worplesdon site at this point in time, this would free up money to bring back the shuttle bus, and ensure that we avoid additional rises in parking charges or council taxes. No cut is ever going to win unanimous support. Yet at a time when the public finances are so stretched and people are suffering from the soaring cost of living, white elephant building projects should be the first to go.

Cllr Sheridan Westlake
 

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