If you’ve listened to our most recent news roundup podcast, you will’ve heard the latest news about funding for Ryde public realm work.
Readers may remember back in October last year that after years of negotiation and deliberation, the Isle of Wight Council (IWC) pulled the plug on the long awaited Ryde Interchange Project.
In its place, they promised a sum of £1.5 million for “improvements to the public realm and Council assets in Ryde aligned with the Council’s corporate priorities” (as recorded in the minutes of the Cabinet Meeting).
Talking about da money
Members of the Ryde Town Council have, quite rightly so, been wondering when this money will be released.
Given the assurance was made only four months ago that the money would be allocated, we expect they might have been a little surprised when they received word from Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, Eddie Giles, last week that this money would not be forthcoming.
“Not prudent”
In an email to councillors he referred to the difficult budget decisions encountered by the IWC and stated that “I am afraid it has been decided, after the due consideration referred to in last October’s Cabinet resolution, that it is not prudent or possible to allocate £1.5 million of Council resources (or to borrow this sum) to public realm works on Ryde Esplanade.”
All is not lost?
Eddie does mention however, that officers have been tasked with investigating external funding opportunities, so there may be funding on the horizon after all.
Image: Secret Pilgrim under CC BY-SA 2.0
