Last year SEMLEP (The South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership), which was set up by the government, withdrew its offer to part fund the access road to Century Park due to continuing delays. The true purpose of this £124m access road was not for a business park but for a road to a second terminal although this was never mentioned by the Council to SEMLEP, which some would view as an act of deception.
SEMLEP now wants to redefine the LLAL Enterprise Zones by taking the site for Century Park and thus Terminal 2 out of a zone meaning the road would not be needed after stating the project was undeliverable and unrealistic. The Council is holding out as they know what the road is really meant to serve but they can’t admit it.
As the road already has planning permission it could be funded by a new concessionaire in the years to come but it would add to the total bill they would be expected to pick up in addition to a Dart extension to a second terminal that would also be needed.
Recap
The access road was going to be funded directly by the Council with SEMLEP support and paid for with cuts to council budgets of £4m per year. This fact has never been disclosed by the Council who held Council meetings in secret but this fact has appeared in other SEMLEP minutes.
As stated before, cuts close to £50m have already taken place at the Council due to Covid leading to the exposure of financial mismanagement of its airport by the Council owned LLAL who also never publish minutes of their meetings. This has left LLAL with debts close to half a billion pounds with no income to pay off its loans to the Council for the Dart or other airport projects. Not bad for a zero risk company that still has no staff and was set up just to just collect concession fees and rents.
Last edited by LTNman; 2nd Apr 2021 at 11:32.