The magicians at Cheshire East

Cheshire East, the council that can turn a white elephant into a black hole

The latest news from our leaders (Cheshire East Council) is that Crewe’s new £11 million multi-storey white elephant car park has lost the council just shy of £70,00 in its first six months of operation.

And you all thought the council’s £100 million black hole couldn’t get any bigger.

The car park’s income of just £17,244 was dwarfed by its operating costs of £87,000 resulting in a loss of around £70,000.

In October, we learned the 395-space car park was bringing in just £75 a day for the council, but Cheshire East declined to reveal its operating costs. Every single car parking space ‘lost’ £177 over the six months – and that’s ignoring the whopping £11.2 million construction cost!

Following a Freedom of Information Request (FOIR) by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) we’ve learned that parking income has increased to just £110 a day.

Cheshire East says the primary costs of the car park were business rates of £29,860, £34,480 for utilities, £19,800 for maintenance and £2,860 for security.

It said “the cost of constructing the Crewe town centre MSCP was £11.3 million – fully funded by Cheshire East Council. £5 million of external grant (Local Growth Fund) had been allocated to the project, but as this was time-limited, it was reallocated to another project which defrayed the costs within the required time-frame.

“The £5 million CEC funding for that project was reallocated to the Royal Arcade MSCP and bus station project.”

Several car parks have closed in Crewe – at Oak Street for the construction of a Youth Zone; the Civic Centre for the Development of the Historic Centre and Lyceum Square for construction of an Outdoor Events Space.

While all this rash development goes on and our hard-earned continues to be flushed down Crewe’s toilets be aware that the council has even bigger and better things planned when it joins forces with Cheshire West and Warrington Councils.

You think Cheshire East plays fast and loose with your money? You ain’t seen nothing yet!