Wolverhampton Council loses £300k from closed Civic Hall
The project to revamp Wolverhampton’s iconic Civic Hall is costing the city council hundreds of thousands in lost income.
It has been revealed that the refurbishment project, which has already spiralled in cost by more than £23 million, lost Wolverhampton Council around £300,000 in income in the last year due to the venue being closed.
Originally the scheme was set to cost £14.4m before the council signed off plans to put aside an extra £23.7m, taking the total spend to above £38.1m.
As reported by the Express & Star, the cost of the refurbishment spiralled after structural investigations carried out after restoration work had begun revealed the building would be damaged and designs had to be re-drawn.
The £300,000 lost income figure was revealed in a council meeting last week where council bosses discussed the current budget overspend.
The meeting heard the council’s parking services department are forecast to overspend by £500,000, bringing the overall forecasted overspend to around £1.7m.
Councillor Wendy Thompson, leader of the Conservative group at Wolverhampton Council, said: “At a time when the council’s debt is set to hit £1 billion, and up to 500 staff could be made redundant, it’s astonishing to see the council heading towards yet another budget overspend.
"The Civic Halls project has been a complete disaster from the beginning, and the true cost of the project is slowly starting to become clear.
“It’s quite clear that Labour councillors don’t have a grip on the council’s finances and haven’t got the right vision for our city.”
The ruling Labour group has said it will tackle the forecasted overspend and eradicate it by the end of the financial year.
Councillor Louise Miles, the cabinet member for resources, said: “We’re not heading for an overspend, we have transparently reported how we will tackle a forecast overspend precisely to prevent it from happening.
"It is not unusual for pressures to emerge in-year, indeed last year at the same point we forecast a similar overspend, but we took action and by the end of the year we came in with an underspend.
“Our financial pressures have nothing to do with financial mismanagement and everything to do with a severe lack of resources from central government at a time when demand for services is increasing – particularly children’s services which protect our most vulnerable.
“We control our budgets very tightly and this is why we report regular budget forecasts to manage emerging risks.
"We will continue to tackle the forecast overspend, which has already decreased by £1 million.”
