THE leader of Cornwall Council has criticised the Government after the authority lost a High Court battle to pay back £2.1m in funding.

Earlier this month (July), a High Court judge dismissed Cornwall Council’s challenge to a decision requiring the repayment of more than £2.1 million in European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) support for the construction of a new bridge over the A30.

The money was paid by the council to Costain Jacobs Partnership (CJP) for the construction of the walking, cycling and horse-riding bridge over the A30 at Chiverton Cross.

The court noted that the council made a direct award of the contract to CJP without advertising the contract, which the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government determined did not comply with relevant procurement rules.

However, Cllr Leigh Frost – the Liberal Democrat leader of the council – declared the decision “disappointing”, as the Government had previously okayed the decision to award the contract to CJP, which was carrying out the dualling work on the A30 at the same location.

At a meeting of the council’s corporate finance scrutiny committee on Tuesday (July 28), Cllr Frost told fellow councillors the ruling was “very frustrating”, adding: “This decision was taken in the previous administration. It was a timeline issue – it was ERDF money that had to be spent in a certain time, and if they’d gone through the full procurement route they would have gone over the deadline for spending that money.

“They got an agreement from Government to forego the full tender process and directly award it to the current contractor. Government then didn’t audit in 2023 and also said it was fine, then in its 2024 audit changed its mind and decided it was not okay and demanded that we claw it back.

“That was brought to me. We got a King’s Counsel opinion that we had a very strong case for appeal, so I decided we should take the Government to court. Unfortunately, we lost.”

He added: “It goes to show that even when you agree with Government, you can’t trust the b*ggers, so there’s a lesson learned there. However, what I would say is that we put that £2.1m aside in this year’s budget so it will not give us a financial pressure.

“However, it is disappointing that we can’t free up that money for other things now.”

A spokesperson for the council said last week: “We are extremely disappointed at the decision from the High Court. The ERDF bid for the Chiverton Bridge project clearly set out the council’s procurement strategy and was supported by the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) team at the time.

“As with any ERDF-funded project, this scheme was rigorously scrutinised and audited – indeed, the findings of an audit by MHCLG in September 2023 found no issues with our procurement approach.

“We believe the funding was spent appropriately, following the required processes to deliver the project within the timescales set out by MHCLG as fund administrators. We are considering our options for appeal.”