Revealed: How planned overhaul of Wolverhampton Civic Hall failed and spiralled in cost
An unrealistic budget and flawed contingency plan forced a major overhaul of Wolverhampton’s Civic Hall to ‘fail’, according to a shock new report.
Costs to revamp the iconic venue spiralled to £38.1 million, despite Wolverhampton council saying it was originally due to cost £14.4m.
In a Lessons Learned report from the local authority, it has now been revealed that decisions were ‘rushed’ after delays in the design process and that there was ‘inadequate’ project management.
Two other reports were made – one on failings surrounding the £150m Wolverhampton Interchange project, which will see a new train station in the city, and another on the market relocation set to transform the western part of the city centre.
The Civic Hall report said that the ‘importance of the project was underestimated from the outset in terms of the risk it posed to the Wolverhampton economy and reputational risk to the council’.
The Market Relocation report described a ‘lack of detail’ about the original budget for the move – from Market Square to the old Netto site – and that the budget initially approved was ‘insufficient’.
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Leader of the opposition at the council, Wendy Thompson, described the situation as ‘appalling neglect’ and said it was like the figures were ‘plucked out of the air’.
She added: “There’s no doubt that this shows staggering incompetence, on not one but three large projects. We are talking about a lot of money, which now can’t be spent on other pressures the council has.
“This is going to cost all residents for the incompetence demonstrated.”
She questioned why there was no risk management or safeguarding in place and said the council ‘should have learned’.
'Appalling neglect'
“They’ve been throwing money around in gay abandon,” she added. “This was appalling neglect. Wolverhampton as a city cannot afford to have this kind of incompetence. It’s utterly appalling. It’s incredible. I’m shocked.”
A council spokesman said: “As an open and transparent council we feel it is important to constantly review what we do.
“On these three complex projects it is critical that we better understand the issues raised and therefore we called on experts to identify areas where we can improve.
“The findings from the resulting audit reports are there for all to see and it is vital the lessons learnt from them are put into force on future projects.”
The reports are due to be discussed in full at the council’s Audit and Risk Committee meeting on Monday.
