£1.5million on a lift to nowhere... EU waste sinks to a new level

FRESH anger over Brussels waste was sparked yesterday after £1.5million of EU funds were squandered in Italy building a mountainside lift, despite authorities not having the cash to operate it.

The mountain liftPA

The local council cannot afford the £75,00 annual cost of operating the lift

The farce began when the tiny Sicilian settlement of Sutera was handed an EU grant to build the elevator which has been dubbed “the lift to nowhere” by locals.

It was completed in 2012 but has never been used because the local council cannot afford the £75,000 annual operating, maintenance and insurance costs.

The 120ft-high structure has been branded an eyesore and there are claims that money paid out to contractors found its way into the pockets of the local mafia.

The metal, peppermint-green lift was intended to connect the village to a hilltop monastery.

The idea was to boost tourism, but few visitors make it as far as Sutera, which lies about 45 miles from Palermo, Sicily’s capital.

An investigation by magistrates from the nearby town of Caltanissetta found that some of the money provided by Brussels was probably skimmed off by the mafia.

Ashley Fox, the leader of Conservative MEPs in the European Parliament, said: “We’ve had motorways to nowhere, phantom airports and now a lift that never moves. It would be wrong on so many levels – if only it went up or down.

“Apart from the gross waste of public money, the serious worry is that the cash might have fallen into the hands of the mafia – in which case it would have been better if they had just thrown the money over the cliff. 

    

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