Winsford town centre revamp scaled down by inflation

The revamp will also include work on Winsford Cross shopping centre, which the council bought in 2018

The £21.7m redevelopment of Winsford town centre has had to be redesigned due to soaring costs.

Cheshire West and Chester Council is also being asked to stump up another £500,000 or risk losing the whole scheme.

It rubber-stamped the extensive scheme last year in a project including partially demolishing Winsford Cross.

Councillor Carol Gahan, cabinet member for finance, is recommended to sign off the additional funds next week.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said preliminary work was already under way, but the plans have to be redrawn with the council blaming inflation and market conditions.

It means three fixed units earmarked for food and beverage businesses are being replaced with a space for events and "pop-up activities".

While the council is fronting most of the money for the whole project, it all hinges on receiving almost £10m from the government's Future High Street Fund.

'Inflation impact'

The increasing costs mean the council now has to provide another £500,000 in capital funding, or risk missing a project milestone which could put the government money in doubt.

A council report said the increase would be met from additional income generated by rent already secured from tenants.

The report said: "Inflation has had a significant impact on the costs of materials and labour and therefore the recommended revisions will reduce the costs and risks of delivering the scheme to the council in order to ensure the core of the project can proceed and be delivered."

Construction company Kier was recently appointed to take on the work following a tendering process.

The report said: "Since their selection, Kier have been working with the design team to develop the detailed design and investigate and resolve any issues on the proposed building works.

"Once the detailed design was complete, Kier commenced the commercial testing of the development and have issued their tender price. The tender price received was significantly over budget and the contingency allowances included in the budget do not cover such a significant uplift in costs."

The report added: "While other units such as retail and coffee shop have been successfully let, it has not been possible to attract any tenants for the fixed food and beverage units given the current very challenging market conditions."