Labours £6.5m 'catalogue of errors' on relief road project

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 27th Sep 2006

Cllr Andrew Sangar, Lib Dem Shadow Cabinet member for Finance.

Labour controlled Sheffield City Council have heard that the city's Relief Road scheme is delayed and £6.5m in the red. Today the Labour cabinet agreed to fund the shortfall by cutting funding for other council schemes. The Relief Road scheme is over budget by a massive 11%, this equates to the extra £6.5m.

Increasing costs have come about because of a 'catalogue of operational errors' on the Labour council's part. The scheme will now not be finished until July 2007, instead of the planned finish date of March 2007.

These errors include false assumptions regarding VAT costs, poor surveying prior to the scheme and a poor estimate of the relocation cost for the RSPCA. As a result of Labours blunders the Department for Transport has officially downgraded their assessment of whether the scheme represents good value for money.

Councillor Andrew Sangar, Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet member for Finance, said: -

"During the Inner Relief Road scheme there has been a shocking catalogue of operational errors on the council's part. In total local people will have had to pay an extra £6.5m for the scheme which is now over budget and delayed due to Labour incompetence"

"Labour have found the extra money by cutting funding for other council services. Cuts include less money for other road improvement schemes that could have delivered things like pedestrian crossings and improvements to solve local traffic problems around Sheffield"

"Yet again Labour have revealed their lack of ability to manage large projects and have let the people of Sheffield down"