Bristol City Council has come under fire as it’s been disclosed that the planned 400m Harbour Walkway footpath is now set to cost a staggering £10 million, a fourfold increase on its original budget. Intended to link the new university campus behind Temple Meads with the Valentine footbridge ferry stop, the project is also significantly delayed from its launch schedule.
The path was initially projected at £2.5 million, but has now ballooned to an estimated £9.7 million or £24,000 per metre, which has caused outrage among the community.
The shocking figure was presented to members of the transport policy committee during their meeting on Thursday, February 6.
Adam Crowther, Bristol’s head of city transport, explained the rationale behind the costly initiative: “The aim was to improve connectivity around Temple Meads, which has long been a barrier to movement. We have the eastern entrance, which is a very big benefit to access to the station, but it doesn’t provide a through-route past the station.”
Council officials have claimed that they will heed lessons from this experience, but many criticise this assurance as too little, too late, considering the extensive delay and financial escalation already suffered by the Harbour Walkway endeavour.
“The Harbour Walkway enables movement along the harbour, providing a through-route for pedestrians and cyclists wishing to access the city centre. The benefits are significant and will increase as developments in the area continue to progress.”
Commenter Baldie1967 says: “Yes don’t waste taxpayers money on this which developers should pay for if needed!”
Berklicker writes: “They still haven’t finished Temple Circus.”
Ricla73 feels: “Same old story. Always takes years longer and costs millions more than expected. More of our money squandered due to inefficiency.”
Archie14 believes: “No lessons will ever be learnt until they are made accountable and sacked! It’s always easy to spend other people’s money.”
Patonchip7 says: “Hang on if it’s PLANNED Surely it can be stopped or am I missing something? As this is OUR money being spent it’s not too late to abandon it and get realistic QUOTES!”
Stevesus thinks: “Let’s face it BCC cannot manage finances.”
Evening says: “Scandalous waste of money as usual, simply no accountability in councils.”
BS8GR8 comments: “Yet another example of how bad Labour ran BCC were under Lord Rees more mess for the new administration to clean up and sadly the cost thanks to a very poor contract will end up being paid by the current council.”
Paul258 adds: “Embarrassing waste of money with no comeback.”
Junius1 writes: “Utterly bizarre. It’s not clear how much BCC was paid for the walkway when land was sold to the University for its campus, or what the cost to the council was to repair a tiny parcel of land which apparently collapsed by the walkway but was, in fact, good for nothing. It looks as though the minimum of interest was shown by Marvin’s regime, which was in power over much of this period, in monitoring what was going on with these contracts.”
Jonty2 asks: “How difficult is it to put round piles into the bed and construct floating pontoons that slide up and down the piles as the water rises and falls the small amount it needs to. Marinas and walkways all over the world use this method. Trouble is the Council has overly inexperienced senior officers who wouldn’t know one end of a boat from the other.”
Fisherman19 believes: “It is another lesson for our council that they can get away with anything as far as Bristol tax payers are concerned.”
Bs3bob feels: “I’m guessing there is zero accountability from our highly paid council officials?”
Ohsoserious questions: “How on earth can it cost £10M? How would it cost £2.5M? the council don’t half know how to waste our money. Think of the services that could have been paid for with that money.”
Basshead adds: “It’s just rank incompetence. I’ve seen it firsthand on a much smaller project. The Council mismanaged making a bin enclosure. The works have been left half-finished for about six months, and what they have done is completely unfit for purpose.”
Do you feel that the council can get away with this level of incompetence without any consequences? Join in the conversation HERE or in the comments below.