Tory James Duddridge slams decision to pull Southend pier funding (From Echo)

Tory James Duddridge slams decision to pull Southend pier funding

8:00am Friday 8th January 2010 in Local News By Emma Thomas

A TORY MP has attacked the Government for pulling £5million of funding from Southend Pier.

In November, Southend Council was told it had missed out on £5million needed to build a design put forward by Swedish company White Arkitekter, which would have included a cultural centre and a restaurant on the pierhead.

Speaking in the Commons, Rochford and Southend East MP James Duddridge, attacked Government quangos which made the decision.

He said: “We have extremely good directly-elected councillors, and they should be allowed to get on with the job of spending the money as local residents desire, rather than the money going through an alphabetti spaghetti of acronyms and quangos.

“Frankly, those not only add little value, but are sometimes destructive of the value the council could add.

“I ask the minister to get rid of some of those organisations and to fund everything directly.”

The money would have come from the Government’s Sea Change grant, which was set aside to help coastal resorts. Southend lost out to places including Margate and North Tyneside.

David Amess, Conservative MP for Southend West, led a debate about regeneration in the town.

He praised Southend as the “finest seaside resort along the Thames estuary” but added he was disappointed about the pier decision.

Shahid Malik, parliamentary under-secretary for communities and local government, said: “The Sea Change partnership had to make difficult choices among good projects. Written feedback on why the bid was unsuccessful has been given to Southend Council.”