Park & Ride Delay And Overspend Revealed

Plans to expand Newbridge Park & Ride in Bath are now at least a year behind schedule and over budget, the Council has confirmed.

The project is a quarter of a million pounds over budget, figures uncovered by Conservative councillors have revealed.

Work on expanding the overcrowded Park & Ride was due to be completed by this summer. However, due to a blunder by Liberal Democrat-run B&NES Council, the authority is now having to re-submit a planning application for the project, adding extra time and cost.

The increase in parking spaces at the Park & Ride are also set to be half that originally planned, after Liberal Democrat councillors scaled back the original proposals.

Opposition Conservative Group Leader Cllr Tim Warren said: “The expansion of Newbridge Park & Ride is now a year behind scheduled and a quarter of a million pounds over budget.  This is purely down the Council’s incompetence in not realising sooner that it had to submit a new planning application for the scaled-down plans.

“Newbridge is usually full by mid-morning, resulting in cars parked where they shouldn’t be, overflowing onto nearby roads and leading to more congestion in the city centre.  It should have been one of the first Park & Rides to be expanded, not the last.

“The big worry is we’re back to the days of B&NES projects being over-time and over-budget.”