£5.4m over-budget Gedling Access Road ‘becoming our HS2’
SPIRALLING COSTS ARE ‘A DISASTER FOR STRUGGLING COUNTY COUNCIL’
CONCERNS have been raised that the cost of constructing the new Gedling Access Road (GAR) is “going out of control”.
While it is still on track to be completed in the autumn, the project is now forecast to cost around £5.4m more than the initial £40m budget.
The hefty figure was debated during a Nottinghamshire County Council Finance Committee meeting at County Hall on Monday.
During the meeting, councillor Tom Hollis, who represents Sutton West for the Ashfield Independents, said he feared the project was “becoming our HS2” amid “spiralling costs”.
First to raise his concerns, however, was councillor Lee Waters, who represents the Hucknall South ward for the Ashfield Independents.
He told the committee: “This overspend is frankly a disaster for the county council already struggling from funding shortfalls due to Covid.
“The report states this is due to workforce issues, unavailability of labour, additional utility costs and Covid-19-related issues.
“The road was forecast to cost £40m but costs have rocketed 12.75 percent and council tax payers of this authority will have to pick up the bill because of this incompetence.
“Can we have a guarantee that no cuts have been made to the highways capital programme funding for this year or any other year. In Ashfield and particularly Hucknall we already suffer from poor allocation of funding compared to other areas like Newark and West Bridgford, and what impact will this have on these funds?”
Councillor Waters asked the committee to explain some of the additional costs in more depth.
These costs are outlined in a com
mittee agenda, which states that work is ongoing to identify sources for the funding shortfall.
The committee was informed there had been “a global problem in the construction industry in terms of costs which is very well known”.
Responding to his concerns Nigel Stevenson, the service director for finance, procurement and improvement at the county council, said: “Some will be obviously related to Covid.
“Some of the workforce will have been pinged and not available and we will have still been paying for those construction costs while the actual progress is less.”
He said the rising costs of materials had also been an issue.
“A report will come back to finance committee and will also have to set out how that funding gap – when we understand what that gap is – is going to be closed as a consequence,” he added.
The Gedling Access Road is being built to take pressure off the roads in the borough and particularly Gedling village.
It will also allow for more traffic capacity to cater for a number of housing developments, including Keepmoat Homes’ Chase Farm site off Arnold Lane as well as more recent plans for 40 properties off Mapperley Plains.
Councillor Hollis said he feared rate payer money may have to be used to bridge the gap.
He added: “I certainly feel that with better planning this overspend could have been avoided.
“Included in the original £40m was the very contingency costs that Mr Stephenson has just mentioned.
“So we have gone above and beyond those contingency costs already and seemingly that money has got to be found within our budgets.
“I don’t suspect the transport committee is going to be receiving any more money from this council so that’s going to be coming from our existing work programme and capital programme and £5.4m is a hell of a lot of money.
“I’m concerned the Gedling Access Road is becoming our HS2, with spiralling costs going out of control. I do appreciate the Gedling Access Road will bring some benefits, but my question would be who is really benefiting from this, Keepmoat Homes or the residents of this county?”
A report is due to come back to the finance committee on the issues raised, including the impact on the highways budget, in the near future.