City centre upgrade is hit by more cost rises

PRICE SOARS TO OVER £16M AS BORROWING IS NEEDED

- WILLIAM TELFORD

THE cost of Plymouth city centre’s much-delayed Old Town Street and New George Street revamp has ballooned to more than £16 million.

The original cost of the scheme was put at £7m, but Plymouth City Council has now had to pay the construction firm involved another £6m and borrow nearly £3m to ensure the works are completed. Just last week, the authority said further delays mean hoardings will remain over Christmas, when it had been hoped the first phase would be ready. Now the council has had to throw more cash at the project which has been dragging on for two years, after being hit by a number of unforeseen problems.

The council has confirmed that, in order to finish the entire scheme, more funding is needed. A delegated decision is being signed this week to award a further £6,077,134 contract to construction firm Morgan Sindall, which stepped in when Dorsetbased Mildren Construction walked off site in July 2022.

The work has been partly funded with external grant funding from Transforming Cities Fund, Local Economic Partnership, and Historic England’s Heritage Action Zone sources. In order to complete the scheme, an additional sum of £2,764,767 needs to be added to the capital budget.