The Portsmouth Society - News

News The Tower - What Cost?
Earlier news The News is constantly coming up with the figure of £8 million for the amount that the Millennium Tower is costing council taxpayers. On the other hand the councillors responsible have always assured us that it will not cost us a penny. We decided to try to find out the truth. We wrote to the Audit Commission. Their answer was as follows:

The Council's Director of Finance and Resources has informed me that spending on the tower to the end of October 2003 amounted to £22,213,423. This has been funded from the following sources.

Millennium Commission grant £12,858,28
Contributions in kind - Berkeley £3,130,000
Cash contribution £3,000,000
Interest earned on cash contribution £165,000
Contributions in kind - PCC £455,600
Cash contributions - PCC £2,604,536

We were not quite satisfied with this and wrote back asking further questions:
  1. Does this account include compensation payments made to various contractors?
  2. Does it include officers' time?
  3. Does it include legal expenses?
  4. What was the source of the capital reserves if not from council taxpayers?
  5. What will be the indirect cost to council taxpayers of the deferral of other capital schemes?
On 11 December the Audit Manager wrote to say that he would write again when he had made further appropriate enquiries.
So, more in our next newsletter!