The Environment Agency has agreed to stump up a further £4.4 million to pay for a 20 week delay in completing the West Kirby flood defence wall.
A report to Wirral Council’s environment, transport and climate change committee next week reveals that the scheme’s total cost has ballooned to £15.5 million – two and a half times the original budget of £6.2 million.
The council’s contribution to the scheme remains unchanged at £3.8 million.
The report states: “During the construction works various matters…have resulted in the contract manager re-assessing the sums properly due to VolkerStevin Ltd under the terms of their contract with the council.”
The increased costs are being blamed on the following issues:
- £2 million – unforeseen ground conditions
- £500k – temporary RNLI station relocation and demolition work to modify existing site
- £1 million – increase in cost of materials due to global economic factors
- £1.1 million – delay to detailed design work
The council ruled out using its own reserves or additional borrowing to meet the costs because of its current budget pressures, and instead turned to the Environment Agency to help out.
The report explains: “A detailed business case update and supporting application was prepared by council officers and submitted to the Environment Agency.
“The Environment Agency has approved this application, which provides a further £4,263,000 of Grant Aid funding and £137,000 Local Levy funding into the overall project budget.
“This additional funding will be sufficient to meet the contract sum variation and include for delivering the remainder of the project with a modest contingency amount retained.
“The increase in contract value of £4,642,000 is met by the additional grant of £4,400,000 and £242,000 as part of contingency budget allocated to the scheme.”
It adds: “Environment Agency approval demonstrates that despite significant cost increases the project has been properly managed and the scheme still represents good value for money.”
The council recently revealed the work on South Parade is expected to be largely complete by the end of April, with some parts of the front reopen by Easter.
