'Day of reckoning' as major transport projects delayed - Mayor

Members of the West Midlands Combined Authority board agreed to defer projects in the wake of £121m budget pressures experienced as a result of soaring costs, at a meeting on Friday.

As a result schemes such as building new railway stations at Moseley, Kings Heath and Pineapple Road and Phase One of the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill Metro extension have been put back by a year to 2025.

Others which had not yet started the construction phase, such as the new Aldridge Station have been deferred until future funding is available.

In the same meeting, the board approved the business case for Phase Two of the Brierley Hill Metro extension which will see it go to Merry Hill.

Mayor Richard Parker said the independent review he has undertaken to look at every transport project will assess issues such as governance and decision making and he assured all members they would have input.

When news of the delays to projects emerged last week, it caused frustration and anger amongst residents, business and council leaders who said the schemes were vital to their lives.

Dudley Council leader Patrick Harley said he had not been briefed personally about large cost hikes to projects in his area, such as the Dudley Interchange which has gone up by £8.7 million due to ‘design flaws’.

Other members also said more transparency and challenge was needed but welcomed the review called by Mr Parker.

The Mayor said: “We’ve got some difficult decisions around transport. Some of that is around the budget constraints and inflation increases and it is also a consequence that at a time when inflation was rising rapidly, decisions were made about over programming transport budgets.

“So that real budget envelope of around £1 billion for those schemes is in essence 20 per cent shorter.

“Today is a day of reckoning for all of us. The current projects we are delivering remain a priority but some will be deferred until that next round.

“Now is the time for all of us to take responsibility, step back, review our projects, look at the way we govern projects, how decisions are made and how we are held accountable for those programmes.”

Anne Shaw, executive director of Transport for West Midlands, said a lot of work was being done to challenge the increased costs.

She said: “We’re not removing any project from the programme, just changing some of the timescales while we deal with financial challenges on projects that are in construction.

“The Camp Hill stations is a really important project for Birmingham and the residents in that location.

“We want to make sure those stations are open – they have been waiting for an awful long time, not just since we’ve had the authority to construct and do that.

“We want to make sure the work continues on those stations and the decision today will ensure they complete. There are some other projects we need to make sure are taken forward as well.”