Mid Beds MP Misses Key Point over County Council's Commitment of Taxpayers' Money to Support Nirah Scheme

Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats have responded to comments from the Conservative MP for Mid Beds in which she lamented the council tax money spent on the Nirah Project by pointing that it was her party colleagues, as the ruling group on the County Council, who took the decisions to hand the money over. The Lib Dems have cited the case as yet another example of the Tories' "relaxed attitude to frittering away massive amounts of taxpayers' money."

In a letter to the local press, Bedford Borough Liberal Democrat Group Leader Cllr Dave Hodgson writes: "The Mid Beds MP misses one important point when she states correctly that the ailing Nirah project has 'taken council tax money which could have been used to provide local services:' That money was handed over by her Conservative colleagues on the County Council. It was they who decided that pledging around £2 million to support a project short of backing from commercial investors was a sound use of the public's money.'

"As this is just one of many examples of Bedfordshire Tories' relaxed attitude to frittering away massive amounts of taxpayers' money, perhaps Ms Dorries did not think to comment on it. That's no consolation to local taxpayers left out of pocket once again."