A Euro MP is calling on the National Audit Office to launch an investigation into controversial £57 million Black Country arts centre The Public.
Philip Bradbourn, Conservative MEP for the West Midlands, is furious that an extra £3 million of taxpayers’ cash has been approved to bail out the West Bromwich arts centre, despite the project being two years behind schedule and millions of pounds over budget.
He believes costs will continue to be passed onto the taxpayer and has demanded answers from Sandwell Council which has spent around £18 million on the project and Advantage West Midlands, which has given more than £7 million in grant aid.
Mr Bradbourn, said: “At present neither Advantage West Midlands nor Sandwell Council has justified why an outlay of so many millions of pounds on the West Bromwich arts complex has come to nothing, and why no steps were taken to halt the project at an earlier stage.
“Frankly, it’s unacceptable for Sandwell Council and the regional development agency to give no consideration to the public purse. With council bosses admitting to further uncertainty over the art centre’s operational performance and year-on-year run- ning costs, enough is enough.
“I call on the National Audit Office to launch a formal investigation into what appears to have become a bottomless pit for taxpayers’ money.”
Sandwell Council’s cabinet approved funding of £3 million to finish off the centre last week when councillors claimed that if work was not completed they could be forced to pay back European grants of up to £13 million.
A spokesman for Sandwell Council and Advantage West Midlands were unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.
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2 Comments
this white elephant is a total disgrace,when half the real jobs are going to the wall,this useless sandHELL council don’t give a toss about the areas like tipton,wednesbury,old hill etc,yet worst bromwich get everything millions and millions of our council tax money to waste on rubbish like this,tiptons been waiting over 30 years for the tunnel near tipton crossing,owen st used to be a thriving town now it’s like a ghost town,the police should look in to this i think and maybe everyone else thinks this is a crime.
Quite agree Besty, but when did politicians ever take any notice of what the people want or need.
I notice last weekend that a Councillor was saying that this money was coming from reserves and not the council taxpayer. Well 99.9% of the Council income comes from the Council Tax and grants from Government funded by income tax.