Pedestrianisation schemes rocket by £500,000

Bristol City Council want to pedestrianise Victoria Street in Clifton

The costs of two pedestrianisation schemes have risen by a combined £500,000 due to an underestimation by Bristol City Council, it has emerged.

Quotes for the work at Overton Road, next to Gloucester Road, and Princess Victoria Street in Clifton have vastly exceeded budget expectations.

City Hall bosses have approved the increase, which they hope will be paid for by the West of England Combined Authority (Weca).

It is the latest major project led by the local authority to run far over-budget, the most notable being the Bristol Beacon which spiralled from an initial £48m to £132m.

Bristol City Council had initially earmarked more than £200,000 to close Overton Road

In July a decision was taken by officers to increase the £754,000 budget between the two new pedestrian zones by £124,000, based on construction estimates.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, that figure has now risen to £500,000 more after the projects went out to tender.

Talks have been taking place between the council and Weca over the additional funding to plug the gap.

Bristol City Council successfully bid for the initial money following a cabinet decision in January 2023.

'Executive decision'

The city council has asked Weca for the £500,000 extra now required from the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) pot of money.

The decision to increase the budget, rather than reducing the scale of the projects or dropping either of them altogether, was made by a top officer earlier this month.

A notice on the council's website said the amount had gone up since July "because tenders have returned and are considerably more than we had estimated".

It said: "This means we need to overwrite the previous decision and add a value of £499,524 to the initial decision via an officer executive decision."