York’s Conservative Group has slammed the total inefficiency of the current Labour administration and previous Lib Dem administration which mean that work to revitalise the front of York’s station is more than £28 million over budget! This month auditor Veritau has published its report into the debacle and has given the work its lowest rating level possible, that of ‘Critical’, it was also heavily critical of the amount of the project which was undertaken on an ‘at risk’ basis so the council taxpayer would be punished for essentially everything.
At the Audit & Governance meeting this week, auditor Veritau was even more stark when it said it was looking at the contract side of the work but if it had been looking at the project management side of it then the findings would likely have been ever more critical.
The current expected overspend of more than £28 million could actually rise even further. However we can get lost in big numbers at a council level, what needs to be remembered is the £28 million is not 2% or 5% it is a more than 100% overspend! The Audit & Governance meeting heard some of the ‘reasons’ for the overspend which included the council continually changing its mind on what it wanted, not making adequate provision for inflation and seemingly not being aware that a city with a long Roman and Viking history may have some complex items underground. It was also discussed that the decision of the Labour administration to undertake a complicated senior management reorganisation which dragged on for many months will not have helped.
The Labour Executive member for Finance told the meeting there was now a senior group of councillors who would meet monthly to overview projects, residents will be surprised and disappointed they are having to stump up £28 million extra just for this basic step. The Station project budget buster of course follows other council financial overruns such as the Guildhall and Community Stadium and the botched Hungate office proposal and Elderly People’s homes work.
About a year ago, the funding gap was revealed and the Labour administration moved funds to cover it from the Castle Gateway (revitalising the area around Picadilly) and from the dualling of the A1237 which now looks even further away than ever. The previous Lib Dem administration had an Executive Member for Transport who opposed the dualling of the A1237 and the current Labour administration seems equally unenthusiastic. Despite the 2015 led Conservative Council, the then MP Julian Sturdy and the government having lined up the dualling the preparations have unfortunately been squandered and this raiding of the budget is the latest blow.
Conservative Group Leader Cllr Chris Steward said
The numbers are utterly staggering, due to Lib Dem and Labour failures council taxpayers of York will be paying a fortune for the overspend. Compared to what it should have cost the overspend amounts to all of the council tax paid by around 25,000 York residents for an entire year. Labour blame the Lib Dems and the Lib Dems blame Labour, but none of them dispute one of them is responsible. Who will be accountable? So far there has been not one work of apology from any of them.
