Blunt from Bluntisham
I don’t normally print articles in full from other publications, but this one from Fred King in the Hunts Post deserves to shown almost in full.
Maths was never my strongest subject but I do know what two plus two equals, and judging by the figures for the Guided Bus that have been banded about by Cambridgeshire County Council finance officers, I have my doubts that they do.
The original estimate for the Busway was £116million, £92m from the Government and £24m from the developers of Northstowe (don’t hold your breath as no houses have been built yet).
There is an overspend – all parties agree on this – and the council is set to borrow £40m this year to cover this. What was not widely published is that they will borrow a further £10m next year to pay the contractors, and I understand that the final bill for the Busway will be £161m. Bearing in mind that none of the predicted £24m from the developers has materialised that leaves £69m to recover.
I am not conversant in commercial law but it seems strange to me that a client pays a bill in full and then has to resort to legal action to recover part of that sum back from the contractor.
However robust the council thinks its contract is, I have my doubts.
Despite the council saying that the Busway will cost the ratepayer nothing it will be interesting to see how much the rates increase in the future.
The letter writer was from Bluntisham.
And the government is thinking of building some more of these busways. Surely, if they were that good, there would be busways everywhere.
Venice in the Snow
I’ve just looked at some of my Venice pictures from last year.
It was in early March, slightly earlier than now, and although it was cold, the sun was out and it was perhaps ten degrees or so.
But now on the news, Venice has been pictured in the snow. I can’t find any pictures on something like the BBC or the Times, but here’s a blog post from the 3rd March.
Venice looks really surreal in the snow. But then it looks surreal in good weather too! And the rain! I guess it just looks good at all times.
You can understand, why it was my late wife’s favourite city. And mine too!
The Anonymous Widower 