Council could sell car park which has needed millions of pounds of repairs

“Unforeseen” problems encountered during repairs to a multi-storey car park have seen the costs triple, and the council needs to find another £1.4m to pay the bill.

Bristol City Council set aside £2m to repair and refurbish West End Car Park and another multi-storey car park near the city centre in 2019.

A cabinet report from October that year shows consultants estimated it would cost £1.06m to repair the car park on Jacob’s Wells Road to the council’s satisfaction.

Now a new report seeking an extra £1.4m of taxpayers’ cash for the project shows that the total cost of repairs to the car park will have reached at least £3.2m by the time it reopens in April, triple the original estimate.

The report, due to be rubber-stamped by the ruling Labour administration next week, blames the cost blowout on a number of factors, including that the consultants “underestimated the scale of deterioration”.

Contractors also discovered the car park opposite QEH School was not built properly and needed “propping and support” which incurred “substantial” extra costs that were “not expected or budgeted”, the cabinet report says.

And a tenant had to be moved from their unit on the ground floor of the building due to “unforeseen repairs” to their roof which cost an extra £250,000.

Rhubarb play cafe on the ground floor of the West End car park still promises it is ‘coming soon’ – photo: Martin Booth

“This project has been very challenging and £1.36m of additional capital (which includes a £300,000 contingency) is required to fully complete the West End works and reopen the car park to the general public,” the report says.

“Allocation of the additional funding would enable the project to complete this financial year and allow the car park to reopen from April 2022, generating a net revenue income of circa £1m a year.”

Council officers have recommended taking the extra £1.36m needed from a pot set aside for traffic and roads maintenance.

They noted the project needed to be better managed, as the rising costs “appear to highlight issues with the project management and accountability process”.

West End Car Park has been closed since October 2019 when the repairs began. Every month it is closed costs the council £100,000 in lost parking revenue, according to the report.

The report says most of the work has been completed at a cost of around £2.5m, and another £700,000 of works are still needed, bringing the total cost to £3.2m.

“There is a very strong level of confidence that the latest estimates are sufficient to complete all of the works,” the report says.

It notes that money to pay for “any additional costs” will be drawn from the council’s budget for roads. The seven-storey car park dates from 1966 and has spaces for 750 vehicles.

Repairs to the West End car park were intended to extend its useful lives by about ten years, but the council is considering selling the building, according to the report.

“As an alternative to completing the work consideration was given to suspending the project and disposing of the site on the open market,” officers wrote in their report.

“This is still potentially attractive given the prime location of the site and the requirement for the council to generate receipts within the capital programme.

“We will continue to keep this option under review over the next few years and progress it if market conditions are suitable.”

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read more: Jacob’s Wells Baths set to become a swimming pool again

Listen to the latest Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast: