The Welsh Assembly has scrapped a £16.5m project to help
people in deprived communities get online, leading to accusations
that it has not provided the investment needed to take advantage of
European Commission funding.
The e-Communities initiative was designed to help 100 deprived
urban and rural communities across Wales establish public IT
centres, but the assembly canned the scheme after it failed to
launch a single project in the two years since it was set up.
Welsh Nationalists in the assembly condemned the scrapping of the
scheme. They were particularly concerned because it was a major
element in the Welsh Assembly's Online Wales strategy.
Plaid Cymru Euro MP Jill Evans said the project had been axed, at
the expense of communities that needed help, because the Labour-led
assembly government was "hard-pressed" to find the matching funding
needed to get EC investment.
A Welsh Assembly spokesman said, "There have been a number of
concerns about the effectiveness of the e-Communities programme."
He said the £16.5m would now be allocated to other projects related
to innovation and technology, including a scheme under which poor
communities will be able to appeal directly for funds to finance
their own IT projects, instead of having them financed through a
single large project.
The spokesman rejected Plaid Cymru's claim about a lack of matching
funding being the main reason for the axe, and described it as
"mischief-making".