Susan Jefferies

The QE saga rumbles on, or does not, depends how you look at it.

We hoped to have resolution on July 9th but I don’t think work has restarted, still a quiet site. We hoped that the contractors could make great progress in the 6 weeks of the summer holidays, no students, good weather.

All that we do know is that the project is now hopelessly over budget, before even a brick has been laid. Increased by nearly a third since May ? and it was well over by then already. I cannot believe that it will stop there, I doubt we will see much change from £50m by the time students actually move in.

Did the Tories not have a legal contract ? a binding price ? Have they learned nothing from the fiasco of Lytchett Minster School ? At the moment they are trying to keep the whole thing under wraps, ‘Confidential business’ they say. On Thursday, at the Council Meeting, we LibDems will attempt to get the whole story aired in public, the tax payers need to know.

The project will go ahead, but other capital projects in the pipeline will suffer.