Queensway Gateway: Is Council Awaiting LEP Abolition?
HUGH SULLIVAN
The Accountability Board of SELEP (South East Local Enterprise Partnership), which channels government funds into local infrastructure projects, is due to meet again today (Friday) for its quarterly review. Completion of the Queensway Gateway road, intended to connect the Bexhill link road to the A21, is once again on its agenda. But there’s little indication from the documents prepared in advance of the meeting that the stand-off between East Sussex County Council (ESCC) and its project partner Sea Change Sussex over funds required to complete works to the outstanding road junction is any nearer being resolved.
At each Board meeting since July of last year, a representative of ESCC has been called upon to report on progress, or lack of it, accompanied by reminders that the money already spent on the project (upwards of £10m) might be recouped from the Council if they could not achieve completion of the project within a reasonable time. On each occasion Richard Dawson, Head of Service Economic Development,Skills and Infrastructure at the Council, has produced a written resume in advance, explaining technical difficulties but avoiding any clear explication of the funding issue.
In June this year he confirmed that ESCC remained “in disagreement” with Sea Change Sussex regarding funding, but told the SELEP Board that the Council was “fully committed to resolving any contentions with Sea Change” and that there was “ongoing dialogue seeking to find a resolution”. The minutes of the subsequent meeting record SELEP’s Capital Programme Officer, Helen Dyer, as demanding that “a more comprehensive update on project delivery is provided at future Board meetings which clarifies the funding package and delivery programme”.
Mr Dawson has now had another go, filing his latest report in advance of today’s meeting. Since June, he writes, ESCC and Sea Change “have met and held constructive dialogue to progress the project. Both parties are working together to bring the project to a close through the construction of this final connection to the A21. Further work will take place over the coming weeks to ascertain the extent of the additional funding package, delivery programme, and the legal agreements that will be required to support project delivery. Whilst additional funding will be required, it is anticipated that the Project will be delivered within the amount estimated in the original 2015 Business Case of £15m”.
But this, he must be well aware, doesn’t address the fundamental issue. Although it’s true that £15m was offered at an early stage, that budget was long since reduced in order to justify the diversion of funds to projects in Bexhill at the other end of the link road, to which the Council wanted to give higher priority. The SELEP Board has previously made it clear that no further funding will be offered from its resources to complete the Gateway junction.
On the other hand, both Mr Dawson and members of the Board are likely to remind themselves at today’s meeting that SELEP itself will be abolished within the next seven months or at least stripped of any further funding from central government. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt announced in his March budget that the government was “minded” to withdraw its support from all LEPs and transfer their responsibilities to local authorities from April 2024, in line with a policy of “empowering democratically elected local leaders at every opportunity”. This was confirmed by a further government announcement last month.
So where could the “additional funding” referred to by Mr Dawson come from? ESCC’s future options seem to be either a ‘cap in hand’ request for direct government funding, sidestepping past controversies by presenting its case as an unfortunate casualty of the abolition of SELEP – or else swallowing the loss at the expense of its own council tax and rates payers. In the meantime, don’t expect relief in the pile-up of traffic in and around The Ridge any time soon.
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