Council spend more money on Bristol Beacon refurb than all transport schemes combined

Bristol City Council spent, and wrote off, more money on the Bristol Beacon revamp than on all its transport schemes combined last year, including flood defences, traffic infrastructure, street lighting, road maintenance, car park buildings and the forthcoming Clean Air Zone.

Its annual accounts show the council has now written off £69m refurbishing the historic concert hall, including £30.3m in 2021/22 to add to the previous running total of £39m.

And that figure is expected to soar even further to £93m next year because the financial documents include an unpaid commitment of £23.3m to the main contractors, Willmott Dixon.

The amount ploughed into the project dwarfed every other “major area of investment” apart from the council’s own housing stock.

In response, Bristol City Council says about £47.4m of the amount being spent on the venue formerly known as the Colston Hall has come from grant funding and external donations, including the government, WECA, the Arts Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Answering questions from Conservative councillor Jonathan Hucker about the issue at a recent meeting of the audit committee, city council finance officers confirmed the £30.3m spent on the music venue in 2021/22 had been written off – “fully impaired” – taking that overall amount now to about £69m.

Speaking after the meeting, Hucker said: “The spend of £30.3m on the Bristol Beacon in the year is considerably more than the combined spend on transport schemes including flood defences, traffic infrastructure, street lighting and highways maintenance.

“I don’t think the council has got its priorities right. In fact it has got them seriously wrong.”

During Marvin Rees’ time as Bristol mayor, the council could spend £93m on the Bristol Beacon refurbishment project – photo: Willmott Dixon

A Bristol City Council spokesperson said: “Our capital investment programme commits nearly £2billion of spending over the next decade for the city.

“The vast majority of this money is dedicated to building new council housing, investing in developing new affordable housing schemes and refurbishing our current stock of council housing to improve energy efficiency and safety for almost 33,000 tenants.

“In addition to providing much-needed housing, this capital spending will be invested directly into the fabric of the city as we aim to improve current highways infrastructure and deliver the largest regeneration scheme in the South West at Temple Quarter.

“The net value of the investment in the Temple Quarter regeneration alone will see billions of pounds unlocked for the local economy that includes new jobs and homes.”

In June, auditors Grant Thornton criticised the council for having “underestimated the complexity and difficulty” of the Bristol Beacon project and that its “failure” to have effective arrangements in place caused the bill to spiral from £52m to £107m.

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read more: Bristol Beacon effectively ‘worthless’ despite £107m revamp, says councillor

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