Connect2 Kenilworth - Warwickshire's Conservative Cabinet Intend to Scrap It

From John Whitehouse

Dear Connect2 Kenilworth Supporter,

I have very bad news.

The Conservative members of Warwickshire County Council's Cabinet, meeting in private today, have decided to withdraw all funding from the Connect2 Kenilworthproject and to order an immediate halt to further work on the scheme.

They are prepared to reject:

• The £300,000 of Sustrans/Big Lottery money awarded after Connect2 won the national £50 million prize.
• The additional £100,000 offered by Sustrans recently to help WCC complete the scheme with the bridge as planned.
• A further £100,000 which Sustrans offered this week to seek urgently from other funding sources.

They "cannot support spending any more money on this nice to do project". The 1,690 signature "Save Connect2 Kenilworth" petition, lodged with WCC this week and due to be presented to Full Council on the 2nd November, has been dismissed as being of no importance.

From today, with the twoincreased funding offers from Sustrans, the net cost to Warwickshire to complete the project as planned would have been £170,000. This is not a revenue cost which could therefore be spent on something else like supporting jobs. In line with WCC's normal policy for capital projects, it would be financed by borrowing on a 20-year basis - i.e. perhaps £15,000 a year to finance and repay the borrowing.

This is despite the fact that WCC's integrated transport budget, which is the funding source for Connect2 Kenilworth, still has an unspent balance of about £800,000 this year after all known commitments are accounted for. The Cabinet is not prepared to release any more of these funds, for one clear reason - the multi-million pound overspend on the Rugby Western Relief Road.

So our low-cost high-value scheme, which was voted for by thousands of residents and which is half built, is to be sacrificed.

If work on our scheme is stopped this year, we shall have lost the Sustrans/Big Lottery money for ever. Sustrans has a binding contract with the Big Lottery to deliver its Connect2 schemes within a 5 year window, and if our scheme stops they will redirect the funds elsewhere in the country.

Fortunately, and in the short term at least, Cabinet members do not have the authority to take such a decision.I have confirmed this with the County's chief legal officer today.

If Cabinet members want to cut off funds and kill this project, they have to do so in a formal and public Cabinet meeting, and elected members such as myself have the right to "call in" the decision, all the way to Full Council if necessary. Be assured that I will use the full powers available to me to challenge and delay this appalling decision. The next scheduled meeting of the Cabinet is on the 18th November.

Ultimately though, the only thing that is going to change Cabinet members' minds now is the force of public opinion.I shall be consulting with others over the next few days as to how best to mobilise this.

Kind Regards,

John Whitehouse

Chair - Connect2 Kenilworth Steering Group