Plea to government to help fund work on the Beaminster Tunnel falls on deaf ears (From Dorset Echo)
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Plea to government to help fund work on the Beaminster Tunnel falls on deaf ears
12:00pm Friday 2nd November 2012 in News
A PLEA for government money to help fund the re-opening of Beaminster Tunnel has fallen on deaf ears.
Dorset County Council faces additional costs of around £2.3million to make the tunnel safe and re-open the A3066.
It asked the Department for Transport for money but was told by Parliamentary under secretary of state Norman Baker that the council would have to use its own budget to meet the cost, saying it would be unfair on national taxpayers to give additional funds to Dorset.
County councillor Rebecca Knox said it was disappointing to be turned down but the money would be found from somewhere.
She said: “Obviously we are going to be looking at other sources of funding for it.
“We will find the finance for whatever option is chosen. I believe that there is an argument for national government funding, and we will continue the discussion.
“We are not going to give up. It is a lot of money but it has got to be found because the A3066 needs opening.”
The two preferred options for the works are to stabilise the soil above the tunnel and to build protective concrete hoods around its entrance.
County councillors will be deciding which option to vote for at their cabinet meeting on November 7.
The tunnel has been closed since July 7 when a landslip killed Rosemary Snell and Michael Rolfe. Their bodies lay undiscovered for 10 days.
Comments(2)
Micke12
says...
1:16pm Fri 2 Nov 12
But the truth is, as long as the politicians are getting their high wages and exhorbitant expenses for everything from a meal to toilet rolls, they will never give a monkeys about the little people and what we want from them. Politics is the most corrupt enterprise in this country, form local government to parliamentary level, politicians never give a toss for us once they are in their respective positions, be it local or national.
It does not matter whether or not the local authorities can find the money, it is the fact that the government take billions each year on road fund licences but are not willing to provide some of that to repair what is, to all intents and purposes, a national road, regardless of where the road is in the country, it is a road that everyone in the country can use, not just the people of the relevant county.
That **** in the DoT should be ashamed of the way she just dismisses everything that people want, and I am not talking just about roads, I am referring to every part of what the DoT does.
snowleopard says...
12:32pm Fri 2 Nov 12
On a more serious note, whatever scheme is decided on for the tunnel I would hope that consideration is given for a memorial plaque to the two that lost their lives.