Senior Darlington councillor told to 'get a grip' over major projects for the town

At this week’s full meeting of Darlington Council, Richard Alty, director of place, admitted that the £6m previously quoted as needed to fund a multi-storey car park on the town’s Beaumont Street had been a "best guess".

That figure was recently amended to £7m, with a further £500,000 requested to cover the costs of contingency measures to manage short term parking while construction of the new car park is underway.

Mr Alty told the meeting that reasons for the increased costs included the fact that the car park would be larger than originally thought and there are now plans to include a secure unit for wheelchairs as part of the shopmobility scheme.

He added: “We included a best guess of what the costs might be, making it clear that at that stage no detailed site investigation had been done.”

Coun Martin Swainston was highly critical of the council’s strategy.

He said: “I don’t think anybody outside or inside this chamber believes that this multi-storey car park is not needed.

“The original £6m was a guess and that really is no way to run the finances of the town hall.

“I understand that the work had to be done quickly but this is a significant project for the town and I think anybody with project strategy experience would be amazed that a guess was acceptable.

“I think we really do need to get our stuff sorted in relation to the major projects; it is the same mistakes we are making to a lesser extent to what happened with the eastern transport corridor and pedestrian heart; Councillor Lyonette, you need to get a grip of your portfolio.”

Coun David Lyonette, the council’s cabinet member for transport, responded: “We are pretty confident that the revenue from the car park will cover the debt payments throughout the period of time.”

The council approved the release of £1.5m for the car park and construction could start in spring 2014.

About 650 parking spaces would be provided by the multi-storey car park.