IT'S been a long and very bumpy road for the Circuit of Wales.

Plans for a £425 million race track in Ebbw Vale caused excitement when they were first announced in November 2011, with the idea of bringing a major sporting venue to an area of Wales blighted by high unemployment and deprivation widely hailed as a much-needed shot in the arm for the area.

Despite objection from environmental campaigners concerned about the loss of greenfields, the Welsh Government was quick to get behind the project, which involves a race track, technology park, hotels and other facilities, and was at the time predicted to create up to 6,000 jobs during construction and 1,500 once complete while bringing 750,000 visitors into the area every year, pumping £45 million into the local economy.

In 2012 the Welsh Government handed the developers the Heads of the Valleys Development Company a £2 million grant towards the scheme. Of this, £300,000 was used to buy Buckinghamshire-based chassis firm FTR Moto - a decision which would come back to haunt the company years later.

With building work set to get underway in 2013, an agreement was signed with MotoGP to host the motorcycling grand prix at the circuit for five years from 2015.

But, now half way through 2017, a single inch of asphalt is yet to be laid, with the motorcycle grand prix instead being held in Silverstone, reportedly losing the Heads of the Valleys £1.2 million.

Last year the Welsh Government turned down to applications for the development over the amount of public investment which would be required.

Economy and infrastructure secretary Ken Skates has since said the Welsh Government will only agree to back a scheme which is at least 50 per cent funded by private investment, and earlier this year a third application, which reportedly meets these requirements, was submitted.

In April the Wales Audit Office released a damning report slamming the Welsh Government for its decision to hand over the £2 million grant in 2012, saying it had failed to monitor how the cash was used. In November 2016 FTR Moto went bust with debts of £500,000 and the report said the purchase of the firm was "inconsistent with the grant scheme’s purpose".

In total the scheme has cost the taxpayer more than £9.3 million after, in May 2016, the Welsh Government was forced to pay out more than £7.3 million to Santander after it recalled a loan the Heads of the Valleys was unable to repay.

And today Mr Skates announced the project had again been thrown out over concerns around the amount of further public money which would be needed, announcing plans for a new automotive technology park on the same site.

So, effectively, after six years of work, it seems the Circuit of Wales is dead.