A damning report to next week’s Tynwald says there is no final budget for the Prom scheme and claims there’s been an attempt to hide the true overall cost.

Tynwald’s environment and infrastructure policy review committee blames the failures of the scheme on the a number of ’strategic level’ issues in the Department of Infrastructure related to its ability to manage large projects.

It says little has changed since the committee’s last interim report was debated in Tynwald last July.

’The Promenade scheme continues to be heavily delayed, has no definitive budget, and continues to cause severe disruption to businesses, residents, the wider public and the economy,’ its final report notes.

’We are concerned by the lack of clarity over the project budget. The taxpayer has no certainty over how much of their money will ultimately be invested.’

The committee says it is concerned at the DoI’s plan to complete the laying of the single horse tram track between the War Memorial and Sea Terminal as a separate phase.

’We believe this plan delays the project further, hides the true overall cost from the public and prevents the will of the current Tynwald from being carried out,’ the report concludes.

’We see the splitting of the work into two phases with two separate budgets as an attempt to hide the true overall spend from the taxpayer.’

DoI Minister Tim Baker told the committee that the contract for the work to extend the horse tramway had yet been put out to tender and that this was likely to take place over the summer. It will then have to be voted on in November, after the general election. The committee described this as ’unacceptable’.

Following the third lockdown, the project is not now expected to be completed until the end of August this year.

But the committee questioned why work could not have continued during the last circuit breaker under sole trader rules. It welcomed a review of the DoI being carried out by Beamans.