An investigation is currently underway
Barriers up outside the entrance to the Pyramids Shopping Centre(Image: Copyright Unknown)
A cash-strapped council looks set to borrow £8m more pounds to help cover £12m extra costs related to a major town centre regeneration scheme. An urgent investigation is currently underway into why things have gone so wrong in Birkenhead.
Originally approved with a budget of £11.9m, costs for regeneration works in Birkenhead town centre are now expected to be £24m at least. Leading councillors in the borough fear this could tip Wirral Council into bankruptcy after it has already had to be bailed out by the government this year.
The scheme covering Grange Road, Europa Boulevard, and Conway Street is currently months behind schedule, which has prompted an urgent investigation into the problems facing the project. Elected members told the ECHO this raised questions for the council’s leaders up until two months ago, who claim they had no idea how bad things were.
Wirral’s new council leader Cllr Paula Basnett has previously said the overspend is unacceptable, adding: “As a council we will take stock and get a proper grip of what is going on and establish where we can go from here. Strong leadership demands that difficult decisions are faced up to.”
A week after the ECHO exclusively revealed the massive overspend, a report published before a Policy and Resources committee meeting next week on July 23 lays bare the extent of the problem and how the council plans to plug the gap.
The capital budget monitoring report blames the main reasons for the delay “relate to design, both in terms of late design information being provided together with design issues such as the depth of construction and unknown statutory utility services equipment.” Defects have also been raised by the site supervisor which are being worked through.
The council said works were moving forward but due to the problems, the scheme is now expected to be finished by June 2026. This could be brought forward by removing St John Street and Catherine Street from the programme.
According to the report, measures are being looked at, adding: “The council have been alerted to the requirement to increase funding to meet the legal and contractual obligations with further meetings to follow to agree a revised overall project budget.”
This is “due to an increasing risk of project time and cost overrun given there is over 50% of the project left to complete.” While costs are expected to be £24m, the report warned that due to the type of contract and continued delays “these costs will continue to increase throughout the life of the contract.”
The scheme is £12m over budget but £4.75m of extra funds has already been re-allocated. £750,000 of this came from a councillor decision in March 2025 while £4m had been removed from the budget for a new Birkenhead Market in March 2024.
The ECHO has previously raised questions about the £4m transfer as council reports months after this date still said the project budget remained at £11.9m.
Given some of the extra costs have already been covered, officers said £8m of borrowing “is a fair reflection of the further pressure.” The local authority said it may be able to bring costs down and all efforts were under way to reduce borrowing and look at alternative sources of funding.
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