I READ Councillor David Harrison’s letter with interest (November 15). He states that the EU is spending £16m in the New Forest, which on the surface of things appears to be great news.
What he fails to mention, however, is that this “grant” is spread over the next ten years, so we only get back £1.6m annually.
More importantly, he fails to mention how much EU membership costs!
On average the UK gives £1,000 per head of population to the EU. As 172,000 people live in the New Forest that means the residents of the Forest spend £172m per year to be members of the EU!
It doesn’t take a financial wizard to understand that such a low return for an annual subscription of £172m is a really, really bad deal?
I have been unable to find evidence of any other substantial EU investment in the New Forest area so assume there is none.
Faced with these figures the TV dragons would utter those immortal words “I’m out!”
DAVE HILLS, Totton.
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