Council plan to sort revamp overspend (From Free Press Series)

Council plan to sort revamp overspend

A £350,000 overspend in the cost of the controversial Chepstow regeneration scheme has been covered by a transfer of money from Monmouthshire's schools budget, it has been revealed.

County councillor Graham Down, cabinet member for Finance and Budgetary Control said the council had used money previously planned for the long-term educational strategic review, that could not be spent because of dithering on the part of the Assembly.

The £1.7 million scheme was due for completion in November so as not to affect Christmas trade in the town.

But a one-way-system introduced in the high street as part of the plan was abandoned after one week in operation, after the centre of town ground to a halt, leaving frustrated motorists stuck in traffic jams for hours.

Since then Councillor Down admitted officers had briefed him on a "six-figure overspend" but were unable to tell him what the exact figure was - they also revealed work would probably go on for four months longer than the scheme's targeted completion date of November.

This week the cabinet heard the cost was £350,000 and would be met by moving money across from the education department.

He said the overspend had occurred because of delays in reverting to two-way traffic and in removing scaffolding around Lloyds Bank.

Councillor Down said: "Schools minister Jane Davidson, who has the ultimate decision, took so long to approve our proposals for the closure of certain schools in Abergavenny, part of our strategic review of primary education, that the money became impossible for us to spend during this financial year.

"We therefore decided, once we'd identified what we believe to be the final price of the regeneration, to re-allocate that cash towards the Chepstow scheme and spend the money on the strategic review from April 2005.

"It won't have too bad an effect on the schedule of the educational review because we have until 2010 to complete it and by then I'm sure we can have everything necessary in place."