At last night’s Stop The Cuts Meeting, Labour councillor Geoff Lumley made it clear that he no longer supported the Isle of Wight Highways PFI project.
Cllr Lumley told the meeting that he’d originally supported the Highways PFI when it was first mooted, as the “country was in a reasonable shape, but not now,” going on to say “there’s no flexibility on the expenditure”.
He thanked Mike Starke for sending through the expenditure on highways over the past five years, saying that he’d been trying to get the information from officers for some time.
He told VB, “When PFI was first mooted I supported it as the economic circumstances were good. However, five years later, after the bank bailouts they are not good at all and I’m not sure we want to be tied to 25 years of £8m+ annual PFI payments when there will be massive pressures on more essential local services.”
