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.”
