Quote Originally Posted by goats View Post
Yes and Caerphilly centre too, yet they voted leave without a clue who paid for it as seen on sky news at the time….
I spent 8 years driving all over Europe. Every few miles there were signs saying the development was supported with finance from the ERDF. So Blaenau Gwent, Merthyr et al were not the only beneficiaries of European money. However, the money was not European money; it was partly ours. The system worked like this: The Government contributed into the ERDF each year but received far less back from the EU for ERDF projects. Decisions on allocations were made by the EU in consultation with Member States.

All I know is that the roads and rail links in Europe are far better than those in the UK. It seemed to me that we were getting short changed and when I went to one of the rail tunnel openings (in Benicassim on the main rail link between Valencia and Barcelona) the Mayor welcomed those of us from the UK and jokingly thanked us for our generous contribution..