Rutland and Stamford's MP fears Rutland County Council's decision to pull out of taking on the Rutland Seadragon from Anglian Water for the museum due to rising costs could cost the county in many ways.
Alicia Kearns believes a 3D representation, which is now proposed, wouldn't have the same draw and also fears the council could be in breach of contract as she believes the conservator could take legal action against them. The subject of the 180 million year old icthyosaur fossil is expected to dominate tonight's meeting of full council after a 2000 signature petition forced it onto the agenda. Alicia says she does have some sympathy for the council's position.
"So costs have increased, I don't doubt that. But what's really frustrating is that what Rutland County Council has published every single sentence is if costs, maybe, they haven't actually gone out and got specific quotes. There is no specific detail. I asked for the budget. The budget they provided did not align with what I've been shown as hard cold facts with very specific funding.
The icthyosaur conservator offered to drop the price by hundreds of thousands of pounds. Find the money. It's there in the reserves. This is about our long-term economic prosperity. And the worst thing is when the council made this decision, without warning me or Anglian Water or anyone else, they hadn't done the calculations about how much money we will lose if the Seadragon doesn't come home.
That's not just in terms of long-term prosperity. They signed a contract with the conservator and now they're reneging on that. So it's actually going to cost us not to bring the Seadragon home."
