£30bn shortfall threatens rail and road plans

The Guardian reports today that the recent nationalisation of the country's most expensive rail contract has exposed details of a £30bn funding gap in Britain's transport system.

The newspaper has had sight of a leaked industry memo that warns of "looming spending cuts" on major transport projects, raising fears that major schemes could be delayed, reduced or scrapped in an expenditure freeze.

The list of improvement schemes in the firing line include the £16bn Crossrail scheme linking Heathrow airport to Canary Wharf and Essex; a £6bn road building programme including the extension of the hard shoulder on Britain's motorways; a proposed new high-speed rail route and the rail fare cap of inflation plus 1%.

As a result of Treasury plans to bring public finances back into line over the next 10 years, the paper claims that the DfT is braced for a reduction in its capital expenditure plans that could total £28.9bn over the next decade.

Yet despite this looming funding crisis evident in this single government department - who knows how many others - the government still sends billions of pounds a year to the EU, the accuracy of whose accounts have been criticised by auditors for 14 years running.

At stake according to this article is public transport improvements totalling almost £30bn. When we consider that Britain hands the EU £10.2bn (gross) every single year, by just 2012 the EU instead will have swallowed up the funds needed to ensure these transport improvements stay on track. Unless our EU cheques are stopped now.

Handing such a vast amount of cash to the EU, rather than using it to stop our transport system crumbling, is completely unjustifiable given auditors have for 14 years running had considerable trouble explaining how the EU is spending that money.

Meanwhile reports abound of waste and fraud on a vast scale, even within the EU's own institutions.

The money for essential services is running out and it's time for some tough choices. The EU budget deal agreed in the pre-crisis days of late 2005 is no longer sustainable. If anything must be cut, spending on the EU should be top of the list.

The government must go to Brussels urgently, re-open the EU funding deal, secure drastic cuts and show us that it is serious about maintaining properly funded public services in this downturn.

Shocking state of roads costs UK drivers £1m every day

A survey has confirmed what every motorist already suspected - our roads are becoming almost as potholed as the surface of the moon - reports the Daily Telegraph.

British drivers are now paying out an estimated £1 million every day in repairs because of the shocking state of some highways.

Over an eight-year period up to May 2008, six per cent of cars each year suffered axle and suspension damage thanks to bad roads.

With some claims as high as £2,710 and the average repair costing £240, it means drivers are paying out a total of £413 million a year - even if they do manage to claim the costs back on insurance, or from the roads authority concerned.

Blackpool: Famous seafront trams face axe

Blackpool's trams will stop running for five months on Monday - and could disappear from the seafront for good - reports the Manchester Evening News.

The 11-mile-long line will be shut until Easter for an £11m programme of essential maintenance.

But the resort's transport chief has warned that if it doesn't get another £66m in funding from the government for a complete upgrade of the tracks and trams, the famous machines could stop running for good.

The first tram appeared in the resort in 1885 and they run every day apart from December 25 and 26 and January 1.

Blackpool Transport managing director Steve Burd said: "If we fail to get the money then there is a chance that the trams could stop running in Blackpool."

The council hopes transport minister Tom Harris will make a decision by Christmas.