Calls for more control over spending

Many projects coming in over budget

Independent councillors in Plymouth have raised concerns about projects going vastly over budget and council properties being sold off for less than their value.

Plymouth’s new crematorium, The Park, was estimated to cost £8 million a few years ago, but was completed this year, with several extra features, at just under £30 million.

And the costs of the Forda Valley Link Road, which opened last year, cost more than £15 million than originally budgeted.

Leader of the Independents Cllr Patrick Nicholson (Plympton St Mary) and Cllr Steve Ricketts (Ind, Drake) said many new schemes by the Labour administration, including improvements in the city centre, are costing millions more than budgeted.

The Armada Way regeneration, once costed at £12.7 million, had gone through a transformation under Labour and now had a £30 million price tag.

The council held many assets, but some had been left to rot by lack of action, the two councillors claim.

They asked other councillors to support their motion to establish a working group of cross-party members to review the financial performance of major projects and vacant assets.

Cllr Nicholson said the authority’s borrowing of £650 million would approach a billion pounds in the next few years.

And whilst he congratulated Labour on many “excellent” schemes, including those to create jobs, The Box museum and art gallery, and projects like the Park he said there needed to be more discussion across the council on the disposal of assets and larger projects.

“The level of detail shared with members in many respects is not good enough,” he said.

Cllr Ricketts said the civic centre, at one point sold to a company called Urban Splash for £1 for redevelopment, had become derelict and was now back in council ownership. The multi-million pound transformation of the building was supposed to be up and running by now, he said.

He called Armada Way, which made news across the country when the previous Conservative administration felled 100 trees in one night last year, a “national embarrassment”.

And he said the offer price at auction of £295,000 for the disused register office on Plymouth Hoe which was “prime real estate” a “travesty”.

The building attracted 240 bids from developers and sold for £827,000 in the end.

“We need more people getting their heads together to make better decisions,” he said.

Cllr Terri Beer (Ind, Plympton Erle) criticised the “cheque book culture” of Plymouth Council and Cllr Maddie Bridgeman (Ind, Moor View) was frustrated that Plymouth Airport had been left to decay despite 38,000 people signing a paper petition to keep it operating in 2012.

She said it had become “a political battering ram” between Labour and the Conservatives.

Cabinet member for finance Cllr Mark Lowry (Lab, Southway) said 306 live projects were on the capital programme and opposition councillors would have to “give up their day jobs” if they wanted to be part of the discussions on all of them.

He cited the war in Ukraine causing rising inflation and the pandemic for costs excalating, but acknowledged there had been problems within the council too.

He said extra controls had been put in place so whenever a request was made for capital funding it had to go through a rigorous signing off process before a business case could be worked up and discussed.

In addition there were new mechanisms to prevent designs becoming bigger and more expensive like the crematorium, he said

Councillors voted to refer Cllr Nicholson and Drake’s motion to the scrutiny board to discuss.