“A Douglas South MHK who pushed for a business case to be brought forward to Tynwald - focused on how the horse tram tracks would be fully restored - has called for more transparency.
Sarah Maltby has told Manx Radio she believes the business plan from the Department of Infrastructure has been rejected by Treasury.
It was due to be discussed at the May sitting of the court but didn’t appear on the Register of Business by the 21 April deadline.
Infrastructure Minister Tim Crookall has told Manx Radio the business case - which would see the tracks extended from Broadway to the Sea Terminal - is a ‘work in progress’.
He’s denied that it’s been rejected.
Instead, he says his department is working through questions raised by Treasury and it may be brought to Tynwald later than planned."
They both spoke to Manx Radio’s John Moss, and the relevant sound bites can be listened to HERE, and their comments are also reproduced in full as follows:
SARAH MALTBY MHK: The Douglas Bay Horse tramway. Motion was brought to Tynwald and unanimously backed by everybody, requesting that the DoI bring to May Tynwald the updated Business Case proposal and hopefully seek the views of Tynwald at that point to say whether they progress with that capital bid. And I've been led to believe that that deadline has now completely been missed. They've certainly missed the Register of Business deadline, which does give me some great concern. I do worry now that we may not see this on the May order paper.
The DoI and the Treasury, I'm led to believe, are working together on this. However, it would have been good to have that update before just spotting that it hadn't been put on the Register of Business. I don't think the DoI minister perhaps understood how much people are looking out for this and waiting for it to appear on that Register of Business, and I think it's taking them maybe by surprise that we've noticed.
JOHN MOSS: I have it from someone inside the department. They're not happy with the Business Case, and they feel they cannot grant permission for funds until the Business Case is adequate.
SARAH MALTBY MHK: Yeah, that's what I believe as well. I've not been told that officially. I've only heard that through people getting in touch with me from outside of Tynwald or to say, what's happening with this? You know, we were expecting to see it at the Register of Business. I've made some initial inquiries, and that basically has come back to me as well, to say that the Business Case from the DoI to Treasury hasn't met the right criteria, and that there's further work to be done. It would. Be nice…
JOHN MOSS: It seems ridiculous because this has been going on for years. Surely there must be an adequate Business Case somewhere.
SARAH MALTBY MHK: It has been going on for years and it just seems absolutely ridiculous. And what's more frustrating is that you hear about this through third hand. You know, you don't hear from it from the ministers themselves. And it would be really helpful to be able to understand what the problem is. This is the whole point of the motion in the first place. What is the problem? Why can't we see it? That was the whole premise with my motion in the first place, because there's people who have seen the information, but for some reason that's not being filtered down to the wider population within Tynwald, so we can actually have an understanding of it.
We seem to be at this point again, that it doesn't look like it's going to become to May Tynwald. If it does now, it will have to get extra permission, and it will also have to get suspension of standing orders to be moved, which is just another level of process. And I believe it would receive that support because we've had endorsement from that Tynwald where I moved the motion. However, nothing is guaranteed . Tynwald members haven't been given the opportunity to properly scrutinise the information, then that won't help the Business Case.
JOHN MOSS: But the Business Case, I mean, the Horse Trams is going to cost a lot of money and lose money when it's operating. We know that. So, a Business Case has to be more subjective and objective, surely. And can Treasury accept that?
SARAH MALTBY MHK: I understand Treasury have got their questions that they need to ask. And they have a lot of financial regulations that they need to work to. I understand all of that and nobody is getting away from that. I think the point is that we don't seem to be given that information from the minister's mouth themselves. We hear it all third hand. And I think what I'd like to be able to see is the information that they've all got and actually be able to make…. At the moment, I can't make any view one way or the other because I've not been presented with the information. All I want to see is some action from those from the ministers involved.
And just to get this moving along, and to be far more transparent about it than what's currently happening,
An agitated Sarah Maltby. So where are we then? Has the Business plan been rejected by Treasury? Asked the Infrastructure Minister, Tim Crookall.
TIM CROOKALL DoI MINISTER: No, it hasn’t. There are some questions on it. Obviously, we put it to Treasury two weeks ago, yesterday, tomorrow. Sorry. Um, and we had that discussion with them and then they came back afterwards with some questions on it. And we're working our way through those with them, now on that.
JOHN MOSS: Why isn't it on the Business Register?
TIM CROOKALL DoI MINISTER: Because those questions need solving. Hopefully, we'll still get it on for May. If not, it'll be June. But… we need to work that out with Treasury first. Obviously, it's got financial implications. So, we need their support to go to Tynwald. And I obviously need to work on that with them. So… it definitely hasn't gone anywhere. I think we're working on it still. It's still, um… work in progress.
JOHN MOSS: Are you as a minister 100% behind this extension?
TIM CROOKALL DoI MINISTER: On the prom? Absolutely. Yeah. I've said that before to other people, and I'm getting criticised on social media by a few people saying I'm not supportive, and that's why I'm dragging my heels. Absolutely not. I actually voted, and I think I've told you before, I voted against it going back to, I think, 2017, purely because I didn't want it in the middle of the road and I was the only one at that time. But I absolutely believe that that should go back. And I know it's not a financial winner, if you like. It doesn't mean it's not going to make money. It's not going to make money, but it's part of our heritage. And we had part of that conversation with Treasury a couple of weeks ago.
It's part of our heritage and it's part of what we do, and it's part of what people come here for. And there are plenty of other things that we do across government as well that don't make money, you know, but it's an essential part of the island, I believe. And I just want to get this into Tynwald so we can get a decision from members as to whether it goes forward or not. And we're working with Treasury, and hopefully, we'll get that done fairly quickly.
"In a statement to Manx Radio
the Isle of Man Government said: ‘The Department of Infrastructure has been
asked to review a recent proposal to the Treasury and return with a revised
business case. An update will be provided in due course.’ "