A £2.5million overspend on the Northern Quarter’s Spine Road has been slammed for “starving” other council services of resources.

Gloucestershire County Council’s (GCC) Cabinet approved plugging the funding gap for the controversial £100million Cinderford regeneration pro-

ject from unallocated highways, maintenance and integrated transport budgets.

But the Forest of Dean Green Party claims the transfer of the cash is “outrageous”, amounting to the equivalent of a £73 increase in Council Tax for every household in the district.

The party says it wrote to the council “demanding to be told the truth” about the overspend, with Green spokeswoman Nicola Packer describing the figure as “shocking”.

“If the Forest of Dean District Council, which gave planning permission to the scheme in 2014 despite much public opposition, had to pay for this itself, this year’s Council Tax rise would have more than doubled, at almost five per cent,” she claimed.

Work started in July 2016 on the first phase of the £8.9million ‘spine’ access road, but ground conditions meant diggers had to go down three metres deeper than expected, creating an extra 30,000 tonnes of rubble and doubling the expected completion time.

The regeneration project on the edge of a lake near Steam Mills is set to include a new £15million campus for Gloucestershire College.

But Forest Green councillor Sid Phelps (Lydbrook and Ruardean) claimed the £2.5million funding transfer was “an outrageous misuse of Council Tax payers’ money.”

He added: “The Cinderford Regeneration Board was warned time and again before work began that developing this site was a high risk strategy, but they pressed stubbornly ahead regardless.

“The first phase of the spine road has shot up nearly 70 per cent in cost. This money was intended for improving existing roads, footways and cycleways and on supporting integrated transport, which are all sorely needed

“We have always said that this is the right development, but in the wrong place. This overspend makes you wonder what other services are going to be starved of resources before this sorry saga ends.”

Fellow Green councillor Chris McFarling (Newland and St Briavels) said: “My personal viewpoint, and I am not speaking on behalf of the Cabinet or the council, is that £2.5million is a lot of public money which could have been better spent in other areas.

“I do hope the project delivers what it set out to do in terms of jobs, education, industry and environment, but I will continue to question the scheme if I think it is not using our declining public funds wisely.

“This is GCC money spent in our district. Imagine what £2.5million could have done for Forest of Dean Council budgets today in youth services, for example.”

In response, Cllr Graham Morgan, chairman of the Cinderford Regeneration Board, said: “It is clearly disappointing that the contract has overspent, however this is not something the board has control over. 

“The county council has worked hard to deliver the essential first phase of the spine road. This has enabled the college to start on site in order to open the state of the art facility in September 2018. 

“Having seen the progress on the site, I’m proud of what is being delivered for the people of Cinderford and the Forest of Dean.”

GCC’s Cabinet cleared the reallocation of capital funds last Wednesday (November 15). Minutes of the meeting note that the cabinet approved: “A transfer of £2.521 million of existing Communities and Infrastructure unallocated capital funding (made up of £1.727million of Highways, £478,000 of Structural Maintenance and £316,000 of Integrated Transport) to fund the additional works costs on phase one of Cinderford Northern Quarter Spine Road following on from the July 2015 Cabinet decision to proceed with the project.”

It also notes “the adjudicator’s decision” in a dispute between GCC and spine road contractors Buckingham Group Contracting, requiring an extra payment of £637,887 in addition to £949,570 already paid.