THE Borough of Poole has to pay back at least £1million this year of money it borrowed to build the troubled Twin Sails Bridge.

The council received a grant of nearly £10m in 2008 and it is this money it now has to repay, beginning this financial year.

But it needs the economy to pick up if the payback is to come from new developments.

The project stuttered six years ago as the council struggled to find the funding for the £37m project – of which the bridge cost £21.6m. A jigsaw of public and private sector money was then put together.

In 2008, the government’s South West Regional Development Agency pledged £9.96m from the Regional Infrastructure Fund and it is this sum that needs to be found from planning development contributions.

Council leader Cllr Elaine Atkinson said: “During the current financial year, a minimum £1m repayment has to be made in respect of the Regional Development Agency funding provided to enable delivery of the Twin Sails Bridge.

“We set aside sufficient money in our budget this year to make the first loan repayment.”

She said: “In future we are confident the loan will be repaid using developer contributions from regeneration both in the town centre and across Poole.

“We have seen considerable interest from a number of potential developers in the regeneration area in particular.

“We believe that development across Poole will progress but until developer contributions are received, the council has made contingency plans to support the loan repayments.”

The second lifting bridge has broken down three times in the past two weeks and during that time has been out of use by vehicles for more than 32 hours due to problems with the hydraulics and software.

With Poole Bridge now closed and undergoing repairs until April 25, the council has evolved a contingency plan to bring it quickly back into use if there are further problems with the Twin Sails Bridge.