THE whole saga surrounding the doomed Circuit of Wales was a complete disgrace and now the Welsh Labour Government has confirmed there is “little chance” of recovering a £7.35m loan guarantee called in when the Ebbw Vale racetrack project fell apart in 2017.

I raised serious concerns at the time about how I feared the proposals were nothing short of a pipe dream and put taxpayers’ money at risk.

The eye-watering sum was part of £9.3m of public money provided to develop the project in its early stages and formed a guarantee for a loan from Santander bank to the Heads of the Valleys Development Company (HOVDC). The value of the loan, its interest and fees, totalling £14.9m, was written off by the Welsh Government in July 2020.

However, HOVDC entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement in 2018 – an insolvency process used by companies that cannot afford their debts to pay creditors over a fixed time period – and the Welsh Government has admitted in a Freedom of Information (FOI) request that the money is unlikely to be repaid.

The Circuit of Wales was billed as a transformational regenerative project, but it very quickly transpired that the lavish claims surrounding it were demonstrably untrue.

Thankfully the ill-fated racetrack never saw the light of day. Almost a decade later and this shocking FOI reveals the whereabouts of the millions of pounds frittered away by the Labour-run Welsh Government into the project’s initial stages is still unknown.

It is an absolute scandal and instead of just writing off the loan, legal action should be taken to recover Welsh taxpayers’ money. The real problem is that the Welsh Government doesn’t want to remind everyone of just how incompetent it was during this period.

Professional boxing made a triumphant return to Abergavenny Market Hall on Thursday night after an absence of over 50 years. The five-fight show was promoted and headlined by Kieran Gething, who has previously enjoyed a reign as Welsh Area super-lightweight champion and relished a return to action on home soil.

Kieran brought boxing to the community when he opened Abergavenny Boxing Club and a new gym in March 2022, which is going from strength-to-strength. Kieran has now got his eyes set on organising future bouts at other venues in the town and I wish him all the best. It is fantastic to see such enthusiasm for boxing in Abergavenny and congratulations to everyone involved for a super evening of entertainment.