Medway Tory tax timebomb on Medway Tunnel

       
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Taxpayers will be stuck with millions of pounds of costs with a council deal to buy the Medway Tunnel. Jonathan Shaw MP (Lab) and local Labour campaigners have attacked the deal by the Rochester Bridge Trust (RBT) to transfer its ownership of the tunnel to Medway Council.

Council tax will rise

If the transfer is approved by council chiefs in May, then the council will take full liability of the tunnel. The conflict of interest is that the same council chiefs also sit on a number of boards of the RBT itself would see the costs of upkeep for the tunnel shift entirely to the council. This could be as much as £2 million a year.

Since 1998 Medway Council has had a responsibility to maintain the tunnel, but the RBT has made contributions to the upkeep. These contributions would cease after the deal. Mr Shaw, who is also the minister for the South East, said: "This bad deal will burden Medway residents with a £2 million bill every year.

"This bad deal could lead to a cut in services or higher council tax bills."

Leading tories hands are dirty

Labour Candidate for Rochester & Strood, Teresa Murray is supporting Jonathan Shaw MP and working with Labour Councillors to stop this poor deal. The Tories are landing Medway’s residents with a cash devouring Black Hole potentially leading to higher council tax bills or cuts to services or both. Residents have also criticised the accountability of the deal because council leader Rodney Chambers is the senior warden of the RBT, and has had to be excluded from council discussions about the purchase. Residents are calling not only for the cost of the tunnel to be transferred to Medway Council, but the full assets of the RBT as well.

Elected tories run Medway Council and it is therefore extremely questionable that they can act in the interests of both forums. Medway Council agreed it would buy the tunnel in May. The offer was the subject of detailed negotiations with the RBT, which was refusing to pay the full cost of maintenance.

Tories will leave Medway with tax timebomb

If the deal is finalised, it will leave council taxpayers with the responsibility for one of the most criticised tunnels in Europe. The tunnel has been criticised by safety experts as being past its sell-by date and controlled by an antiquated computer system. It is clear that despite the millions of pounds of assets the RBT it has simply rid itself of having to maintain the tunnel onto a council which is itself in a mess financially.

JONATHAN SHAW MP - "Medway Tunnel - Is it a liability on Medway taxpayers"

KENT TODAY - "Medway Tunnel would leave Medway with £2m bill"

Notes to editors

(i)In 1987 the Kent County Council enlisted the help of The Rochester Bridge Trust. The Medway Tunnel Bill, promoted by the Trust, was submitted to Parliament in November 1988. On 26 July 1990 the Medway Tunnel Act finally received Royal Assent, granting to the Trust the power to build and own the tunnel. English Estates, who are responsible for regenerating the former dockyard, contributed £15 million toward the tunnel cost. The Trust contributed another £5 million, including purchasing all the necessary land, and agreed to contribute toward the running costs of the tunnel, amounting to about £½ million a year

(ii)Current owners of the Tunnel are the Rochester Bridge Trust and the council leases part of the Tunnel and has rights over the remaining part of Tunnel (the part in fact within the river) under a 999 year lease from Rochester Bridge Trust.

(iii)The current lease contains a covenant that the council will keep the tunnel in good and substantial repair and that it will rebuild or reinstate as necessary. The Bridge Trust entered into a contribution agreement with the Medway Council, whereby they contributed to the annual running costs of the tunnel. The current contribution agreement between the council and the runs until May 2021 but the Trust decided that it no longer wished to contribute to the upkeep of the Tunnel.