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Cross Gates sculpture: Final bill revealed
Fresh details about the spiralling cost of the controversial Cross Gates sculpture can be revealed.
Cross Gates Today has obtained the final bill for the Cross Gates "crossed gates" feature which has been widely condemned as a waste of cash.
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The bill – footed by Leeds City Council – shows that a whopping 50,000 alone was spent on lighting the structure and more than 10,000 was forked out on design fees.
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Last weekend's repainting work – which saw the much-mocked gates painted in Manchester United colours – came in at a not-inconsiderable 11,400.
New stone signage with the words "Welcome to Cross Gates" added a further 17,300 to the total which now stands at 143,200.
And Cross Gates Today can reveal that the bill is set to rise still higher.
It has emerged that councillors have agreed to set aside another 46,000 to pay for the upkeep of the gates over the next 10 years.
Today, city council deputy leader Coun Andrew Carter (Con, Calverley and Farsley) condemned the local Labour ward councillors who approved the scheme.
He said: "The ward councillors who allowed this to happen have clearly lost the plot. It's incredible just how chronic a waste of money this is.
"What makes matters worse is they have tried to pass the blame off on to others but this has their fingerprints all over it.
"They should hold their hands up and say 'we took our eye off the ball.'"
The gates, installed on a roundabout at the main entrance to the east Leeds suburb, were paid for from the 15m pot of Leeds City Council's Town and District Centre Regeneration Scheme – which is mostly made up of taxpayers' cash and some donations from organisations like the National Lottery.
The local community forum, backed by local councillors, bid for the monument money and they were installed in January.
However, they now claim they have been made scapegoats for the project's overspend and blame interference from council officers.
They say the repainting costs were caused by a council officer who decided to scrap the original red, black and white colour scheme for fear of the gates being vandalised by Leeds fans.
Instead, they were painted in blue, white and silver.
However, local councillors insisted they be repainted in the original colours which was done at the weekend – much to the astonishment of football fans who have already threatened, on supporter websites, to damage the gates.
Coun Carter added: "I just cannot understand why they (the councillors] have persisted with this red, white and black scheme.
"They must have had some sort of memory blackout not to consider the impact of this."
He said he was also "extremely annoyed" that the gates sculpture had blighted the Town and District Centre Regeneration Scheme which had been "enormously successful" in regenerating Leeds's outer towns, villages and suburbs.
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Weather for Leeds
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -5 C to 2 C
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