Anger as £200m returned to EU

THE Government has turned down the chance to claim more than £200 million — the cost of Oldham’s Metrolink extension — for the North-West from the European Regional Development Fund.

Hazel Blears’s Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has refused a European Commission offer of a six-month extension to the time to use unspent money which was earmarked for the English regions from 2000 to 2006.

Local Government Minister John Healey says it would have been “difficult if not impossible” to spend the money in the time allowed and the regions should concentrate on applying for money.

But local transport chiefs, still reeling from the loss of the Government’s Transport Innovation Fund money after the resounding congestion charge no vote, are furious.

The £202 million is roughly the same as the cost of the Oldham-Rochdale Metrolink extension and almost five times the cost of taking trams to Chorlton and Manchester Airport.

The offer was originally made last November by Danuta HÜbner, the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, to an informal meeting of Ministers for Housing and Regional Development in Marseilles.

Although Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland accepted it, the Government turned down up to £671 million for England and has now confirmed that decision after a review by officials following an outcry.

Now, local leaders are to meet North-Westminister and Stretford MP Beverley Hughes to protest.

Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority vice-chairman Councillor Keith Whitmore said: “The government talks about spending its way out of the recession and at the same time hands back this money which we so desperately need.

“London is getting more and more all the time. We could complete all the Metrolink extensions for what it is spending on the Crossrail train link across the capital.”

The unclaimed money will, in fact, be deducted from Britain’s future contribution to the EU.