FURIOUS Labour councillors have called for an “immediate review” into the handling of the Bromsgrove Leisure Centre development project after the £13 million price tag shot up by a further £700,000.

Council officers had already received an acceptable quote from contractors for the project at £13million, but now the bill has increased by nearly £700,000, due to unforeseen costs.

John Godwin, head of leisure and cultural services at Bromsgrove District Council explained some of the reasons for the price rise, mentioning an electricity substation on School Drive, which had been earmarked to provide power for the new centre, but has since taken on an additional complex of new apartments and an extension to North Bromsgrove High School, so is now unsuitable.

He added that inflation in the building industry was also an issue, saying: “The industry is rapidly increasing, especially in leisure centres. A lot of 60s and 70s concrete buildings are being replaced. There’s a lot of work out there, and people are being assertive about price. It’s a supply and demand situation.”

Officers are planning to ask councillors for an additional £700,000, with £620,000 earmarked for the works themselves, and £80,000 to add to the contingency fund for the project.

The money will have to be approved by councillors before being obtained, either from the council’s balances which are currently sitting at £4.7million, or from a loan based on the projected income the leisure centre will be able to bring in, which is estimated at £32,000 a year.

Councillor Peter Whittaker, cabinet member for leisure and cultural services, said: “The extra costs initially put forward by our contractor were three times as much as this. But our officers carried out cost review exercises and negotiated successfully to ensure the extra charges were realistic and would still meet our high specifications to create a leisure centre to be proud of.

“When embarking on a project of this magnitude, such changes to design and costs can be expected and our team will continue to work with the contractors to make sure we deliver what we said we would – if not better.”

If councillors were to refuse the increase in funding the council would face a bill of £1.509million that would have to come out of balances to cover the cost of the design process so far, and the demolition of Blackmore House, as well as several other costs.

Labour councillor Chris Bloore added: "It’s simply extraordinary news that Bromsgrove District Council needs to raise an additional £700,000 to complete the planned Dolphin centre redevelopment. Many of us thought we’d seen the worst of this council's economic incompetence but it just gets worse. When only a few years ago we had millions in the bank, the Conservative council’s incompetence when managing the public's money is now plunging us further into debt by borrowing even more money for a downgraded leisure centre without a sports hall.

"Throughout this process we’ve been told that there isn’t the funds to build a sports hall. Now we are being told there is money available to cover the backs of their incompetence.

"Last November we called for the leisure centre project to be reviewed because of the clear groundswell of public opinion concerned about the removal of the sports hall. With this further worrying news we are calling for an immediate review of the project which has been incompetently managed from the very start."

The new leisure centre is currently scheduled to be completed in late Autumn of 2017, and will feature a swimming pool, dance studios, group cycling studio and a steam room and sauna.