Plymouth MP's broadside over Armada Way costs

Revamp cost now put at £37million

Plymouth MP Johnny Mercer has blasted the city council for ‘trebling’ the cost of revamping Armada Way.

The latest proposals for the city centre show more than 200 trees, a play village, cycle paths, water features and ‘pop up’ performance spaces.

But the cost is now being put at an eye-watering £37 million compared to an original estimate of £11 million.

Council leader Tudor Evans (Lab, Ham) says the price tag is still to be finalised and the city will get value for money. “We won’t dumb down the design or sell Plymouth short,” he told a recent meeting.

The Armada Way saga began last March when the then-Conservative administration chopped down more than 100 trees in the middle of the night as part of the regeneration project.

The move caused outrage, and only 19 trees were left standing when a High Court injunction was slapped on the council to halt work.

The actions led to the resignation of Conservative leader Richard Bingley and the regeneration project was scrapped. The outcome of a judicial review over the decision to remove the trees is expected soon.

The new scheme is expected to play a pivotal role in supporting new investment and the council says it is ‘thinking big’.

But Mr Mercer said the council should look at its priorities.

Speaking during a visit to Plymouth by prime minister Rishi Sunak, he said that while councils everywhere were saying government funding barely allowed them to deliver basic services, Plymouth’s core spending ability had risen by £10million this year.

“Councils are saying they can’t deliver public services, but the original scheme in Armada Way was £11million,” he said. “It’s now £37million.

“We believe in devolution and empowering local councils, but if they then choose to do that, there’s not a lot the Prime Minister can do.”

He said local councils were getting more money than they had ever had before, and their priorities and decisions about what to do with it were crucial.

He went on: “It’s not good enough to spend millions and millions of pounds trebling the cost of this public sector project and then ask the government for more money when everyone wants more money for the NHS, defence and so on.”