Today the Daily Express reported that £1.5 million of EU taxpayers’ money was spent on a lift for the tiny Italian town Sutera on the island of Sicily. Some of this money will have come from UK taxpayers and it is an unacceptable waste.
Despite completion in 2012, this lift has never been used as the town cannot afford the £75,000 per year operating costs. The Express reports that the town have dubbed it “the lift to nowhere” and it is now suspected that some of the funds were skimmed off by the mafia.
Waste on this scale is an affront to the millions in Europe who have faced financial difficulties in recent years. On hearing of projects like this there can be no surprise that the EU’s own auditors refuse to sign off their accounts.
Perhaps one day, like the shattered visage of Ozymandias, a man will find the Suteran lift and wonder where it all went wrong.