THE cost to Waveney council tax payers of the now abandoned Waveney Campus project is not �1.3 million, as previously reported, but a staggering �3.916 million, Waveney District Council budget papers reveal.

THE cost to Waveney council tax payers of the now abandoned Waveney Campus project is not �1.3 million, as previously reported, but a staggering �3.916 million, Waveney District Council budget papers reveal.

�1.3 million was spent in 2008/9, but budget papers for 2009/10 show that WDC also spent an additional �400,000 on land purchase and �2.216 million on quay heading works - all financed by the council.

It has also been revealed that WDC has borrowed this money with a loan that will take 60 years to pay back, with huge amounts of interest.

Waveney MP, Bob Blizzard, said: “This is money wasted on a colossal scale. It's equivalent to �90 for every household in Waveney, but on top of that, with interest payable over 60 years, it will be a millstone around the necks of local residents for generations to come. Our children and their children will continue to pay for this fiasco for decades.

“There will also be a cost in cuts in staff and services to accommodate this massive sum in the council's budget. For example, the budget for 2009/10 also shows �1.340 million in costs of redundancies.

“People will ask why the ruling councillors went for broke on the Campus project, with such enormous costs and risk, when all we have now is nothing. They put up a scare story that CEFAS might leave Lowestoft, but Fisheries Minister, Huw Irranca Davies has confirmed to me that CEFAS will stay in Lowestoft.”