The report of the Wales Audit Office into Project Red Dragon is sobering reading. It reveals that the £113m super hangar built at RAF St. Athan cost the taxpayer £2.5m for every job that it created. Two years after signing the deal the Ministry of Defence switched the repair contracts to Norfolk and Rutland instead. In the end only 45 jobs were created instead of the 4,000 envisaged.
On Radio Wales this morning the First Minister argued that despite this apparent waste of money it had been the super-hangar that had helped to secure the planned Defence Technical College on this site. He asked the question as to whether the Welsh Government should have gone ahead with the original hangar project or allowed St. Athan to close? It is a fair comment.
The most telling criticism in the report however is that there was a lack of co-ordination between the Welsh Government and UK ministers. It is a criticism repeated by the Welsh Affairs Select Committee in its report on cross-border services. They say that the lack of communication between Cardiff Bay and Whitehall has ‘potentially serious consequences’ for patients.
It is about time that the One Wales Government learnt that it is good to talk. In particular they need to lift their head from their narrow Wales-centric agenda and enable people to benefit from services the other side of the border as well as those provided locally. It is the only way to get value for money for the Welsh pound.
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