A “shocked and appalled” council leader has launched a review into a £1.6m overspend on a walled garden.

Cllr Mary Lanigan, independent leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council, told  Cabinet members that an audit into management of the Kirkleatham Walled Garden had been launched after the project went “massively over budget”.

Building work on the Plantation Road development began last year.

When completed it will include the garden, a 350-seat events pavilion, a restaurant, shop, training facilities and a 300-space car park.

But on Tuesday Cabinet members were asked to approve an extra £1.6m for the project after the original £8.2m budget jumped to £9.8m following unexpected complications.

Cllr Lanigan said: “I know Cabinet were quite shocked when this overspend came though, however, we are where we are.

“It is necessary to move this forward, we have no choice with that so I’m asking Cabinet to approve this report.”

She added that redirecting the money to the walled garden would mean other projects would suffer.

“The money is coming from the combined authority and I can’t reiterate more this is Redcar and Cleveland money,” she said.

“That £1.6m was earmarked for somewhere else in the borough.

“This administration is going to have to look at that now because we’re now £1.6m down on investment somewhere else.

“We’re going to have to juggle some figures here in order to pay this overspend that we’ve got.”

Cllr Dennis Teasdale, Conservative councillor for Guisborough and chairman of the Growth, Enterprise and Environment Scrutiny and Improvement Committee, asked if a review had been ordered to explain where the “extreme additional costs” had come from.

The Northern Echo:

Cllr Mary Lanigan, independent leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council

“We have done an audit on what has happened here,” said Cllr Lanigan.

“I don’t know whether someone has taken their eye off the ball with this, but that report will be coming to full council so that you can have a look to see what has happened here and to make sure this doesn’t happen again in any projects that are happening within Redcar and Cleveland.

She added: “This has been quite a blow to future developments and areas within Redcar and Cleveland where that £1.6m was going to go into, but we will work around that.

 “It is a good project Kirkleatham, it’s a beautiful place and we do need to move forward, there’s no point in going back and saying ‘this is disgraceful’ – let’s get on with it and we’ll see what we can do with the rest of the budget.” 

The Cabinet approved the extra £1.6m funding for the Kirkleatham Walled Garden.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Lanigan confirmed that projects in Guisborough and Saltburn could suffer as a result of funding being redirected to the Kirkleatham project.

“We were informed four weeks ago that the Kirkleatham Walled Garden project would come in with a £1.6m overspend. I am shocked and appalled,” she said.

“As a result, we are now in the process of an audit to find out exactly where that overspend has come from.

“Projects like this have to be managed carefully. We are not expecting any further over spend after this.

“That £1.6m is a big chunk of taxpayers’ money. It’s coming from the Tees Valley Combined Authority Investment Fund, but that is our money. It has been drawn from the people of our borough.

“We are now in a position now where we are forced to look at where to take the money from. It was meant to be going into Guisborough and Saltburn. Now we’re going to have to take another look.”

Construction work on Kirkleatham Walled Garden will be completed in December this year.

Redcar and Cleveland Council said it would work with the operator on the development of the facilities and gardens, and the training of staff and trainees in the short term with the walled garden expected to open in Spring 2020.