Monmouthshire council spends £870k on car park amid £8.4m cuts

The new pay and display car park off

A massively overbudget car park costing £870,000 has been built by a council currently making £8.4m in cuts.

It means each of the 37 spaces at the pay and display site on Monmouth's Wyebridge Street has cost the taxpayer more than £23,500.

The original estimated cost is unclear but it was expected last year that it would be just over £500,000.

Monmouthshire council blamed ground conditions and inflation for the extra expense.

It has not revealed how much the car park was originally expected to cost, but last May a council official said in emails to Monmouth MP David Davies that the authority was ready to spend £520,000.

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Mr Davies accepted the car park was important for the town so it could attract more shoppers, but said he was "surprised" by the cost and length of time it had taken.

He said: "I must question the cost, which seems extraordinarily high for what should be a fairly straightforward construction project.

"While I appreciate there needs to be excavation work, ground levelling and drainage pipework et cetera, even a cost of £500,000 seems over the odds.

"But to then soar to £870,000 in just over six months is astonishing."

The council insisted the overspend was within the Highways' overall budget.

A spokesman said: "There is always a risk of unforeseen costs when engineering works are undertaken in the centre of historic towns with the unpredictable potential for previous installations lying beneath the surface.

"The difficult ground conditions and additional drainage requirements, which included relocating an uncharted sewer and revising the drainage scheme accordingly, along with unprecedented inflationary cost experienced throughout the construction industry, have significantly increased the scheme's cost and delayed completion."

The authority said the car park was almost finished and would open soon.