October 6, 2010 1.32 pm This story is over 161 months old

Bailgate restoration overspend ‘worth it’

Bailgate Blunder: The Bailgate restoration has been deemed a success, despite a large overspend.

The restoration work made to Bailgate this was deemed as a success, but a report has shown issues with the budget of the works.

A report by Lincolnshire County Council analysing its own work, highlighted that the Bailgate Restored project went over its £1m budget by 17%.

The Council said it was down to various different factors during the six months the project took to completion.

Factors included financial inflation in some areas of the restoration, as well as problems regarding the previous underground utilities not being laid low enough.

It cost the council £196,000 just to find the correct indigenous stone for paving, located from the Far East.

Another big expense pushing the team over budget was the restoration of the Roman Well, costing £180,000.

The St Paul in the Bail site also proved costly with out-turn costs of £214k, as well as planning being received late.

Their report put it down to lack of “good continuous cost control”, key materials not determined prior to work, and “inadequate” archaeology funding.

However, Les Outram, who complied the report, added that Bailgate’s new look was a great achievement, despite the £1.17m spending.

He said: “The view of the vast majority of stakeholders and the general public is that the project has been a real success in terms of both outputs and project management.

“It is considered that many of the successes of the project could be applied to most other projects, not just construction.”

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Full report [PDF] | Photo: Deborah Lee | Related Report: Lincolnshire Echo