Conservative Senedd member for the Vale of Glamorgan and Bridgend Andrew RT Davies has warned Plaid Cymru ministers the proposed Global Centre for Rail Excellence is in danger of becoming a “money pit”.
Mr Davies warned there is a long record of Senedd related projected incurring huge costs to taxpayers without yielding results.
He pointed to the Circuit of Wales, which consumed millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money before the project was cancelled.
Speaking in the Senedd, Mr Davies said the Global Centre of Rail Excellence has “burned through £70 million of public money to date”, but “not £1 of private money has gone into it”.
He warned it would cost up to £400 million to build the Centre and told ministers to “show leadership” and take a decision regarding the project’s future before costs spiral any further.
Mr Davies said:
“There is a long list of projects on which Senedd ministers have burned through hundreds of millions of pounds without yielding results.
“Plaid Cymru separatists must not let the Global Centre of Rail Excellence become the latest.
“Ministers must show leadership and take a decision on the project before costs spiral any further.”
ENDS
NOTE: Please find below the Senedd’s record of proceedings from Tuesday 22nd September
https://record.senedd.wales/Plenary/16262#C770708
Andrew R.T. Davies
13:30:34
Thank you for that update, First Minister. The ETRA committee in the last session visited the site and looked into the proposals that were presented to us. When this concept was first thought through, there was potential for 1,000 jobs coming to the site, and the Government of the day was told that there was huge demand for this testing facility. Regrettably, to date, not £1 of private money has gone into it. It is a huge site. I saw a media report saying it’s the size of Gibraltar. There’s a lot of remediation work to go into it. The one thing we were told as a committee was that the incoming Government, whoever that Government would be, needed to make a quick decision about future investment. The site has burned through £70 million of public money to date. When will you be in the position to formulate what the Government is going to do, bearing in mind £70 million of public money has already gone in, and £350 to £400 million is required to build this Global Centre of Rail Excellence?
Rhun ap Iorwerth
13:31:34
The Member makes very important points. Significant amounts of public funding have gone into the site already. I’m not going to criticise the concept that came from the current leader of the Labour Party, but we have to understand what has happened as those tens of millions of pounds have been spent on the site, and what maybe hasn’t happened to enable us to be at a place where there is private funding willing and able and keen to come in. As I say, my Minister has commissioned that work now because I agree that we need to come to a decision soon in order to make the most of the opportunities for what is still a very important site.
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