All politics is local

+On a recent visit to Whitby's St Mary’s church atop the east cliff, a port of call before the famous abbey, the visitor is greeted by a sign which reads ‘Please don’t ask where Dracula’s grave is. He’s not buried here.’ I assume this is only half a joke. A great many visitors who have taken the reality of Dracula to heart will be disheartened to find their pilgrimage yielded so little. They’ll just have to put up with the abbey instead, where at least real history was made, namely a seventh century synod which determined on what dates Easter should fall. But I’m left wondering how many people really believe(d) in the corporeal existence of Count Dracula? Some will leave St Mary’s thinking if he’s not buried here, then where? Hopefully they’ll find the answer on the internet.
 
+A debate is brewing in Yorkshire about the revival of what was known as Doncaster/Sheffield Robin Hood Airport, a project which is slated to cost taxpayers £100s of millions in public subsidy. The airport only ever came into existence originally because it was an abandoned RAF nuclear V-bomber base with an exceptionally long runway. The airport closed after it signally failed to live up to its passenger numbers promise. The re-opening proposals provide a classic example of a local vanity project, as I moaned about in a letter published last week by the Yorkshire Post:
 
'That North Yorkshire Council is having to write off £7m plus in relation to the failed Alpamare Waterpark project in Scarborough might raise a few questions for the good citizens of South Yorkshire, who may soon bear a debt of hun­dreds of millions for the new vanity project formerly known as Robin Hood airport – otherwise Doncaster Sheffield Airport.
The alarming reports of The Yorkshire Post on that project has reminded me of our own Scarborian experience of dealing with officers who convince themselves, and then their elected members that despite risk reports, everything will go swimmingly and that the best case scenario will be magically exceeded beyond all expectations.

In Scarborough, the now defunct borough council held a special, unprecedented council meeting to hear directly from the developer how the waterpark would be a surefire bet. It became difficult to gainsay the pressure members faced not to deny the developer’s case.
It felt to do so would be like denying that Scarborough had any future as a tourist destination. At least the Labour group, of which I was a member at the time, rejected the plan. Some of those who supported it are now of course ensconced in North Yorkshire’s regime.

That leads me to another lesson with earlier precedents, warning how elected members could be sent barking up the wrong tree.

It is reported that Scarborough’s town hall, now half empty it seems, may be disposed of and remaining staff working for North Yorkshire relocated to an office block out of town, on the market for around £4.5m. This the council says contrasts with their estimate of renovating the town hall at a cost of £19m. I wonder who checks North Yorkshire Council’s cost estimates? The latter figure is clearly such an exaggeration it beggars belief that any officer could present it with a straight face.

Thankfully, (I hope) no North Yorkshire Council Tax (or income tax) payer will be asked to contribute a single penny to the vanity project which is the doomed Robin Hood airport relaunch.

But from my experience the term ’due diligence’ will be bandied about and elected members face being bamboozled into supporting a very high-risk venture. When it goes belly up those responsible will be nowhere to be seen.'

This may be a local story, but it has a universal application. Indeed, only today the BBC reported that Britain’s second ‘high speed’ railway may have to operate at reduced speeds to ‘save money.’ As they say you couldn’t make it up (HS2 as it’s called is already a much truncated version of original itself due to massive cost over-runs).

What is it with vanity projects (or vanity wars for that matter)?