Coventry's 'lost' river 'could be worth £1.5bn if restored'

[dutchman]

Riverside regeneration plans in Coventry set for extra £300k council funding as costs soar



Coventry council is set to give an extra £300,000 to a riverside regeneration scheme in the centre after costs soared over two years. Senior councillors will be asked to give the nod to a £318,000 boost that could see the project finally go ahead this summer.

Plans for a new public space on Palmer Lane by the hidden River Sherbourne were put forward by the council and Historic Coventry Trust in 2021.

Designs got the green light and the council agreed to give the scheme almost £1 million from reserves - matched by a similar amount from outside bodies.

But final designs and legal land agreements are only finished two years on and the cost of the project is almost half a million pounds more than it was. There is now a funding gap of £473,000 which will be filled by both the council and the historic trust, which will give an extra £155,000.

The council's report blames the rise in costs on high inflation and a spike in labour and material costs.

"The Palmer Lane project has continued to detailed design level throughout the year of 2021 and 2022 to a point where final designs are in place and legal land agreements are concluded," it states.

"Following early contractor engagement with a framework construction company the project will need further funding in order to deliver the overall Palmer Lane scheme This increase in cost is a consequence of high inflation over the last 12 months and increases in labour and material costs that we have seen during 2022/2023."

Asked why the scheme was delayed, Cabinet Member for Regeneration Cllr Jim O'Boyle said there were several reasons, including time taken to get funding in place.

"There was obviously lockdown which knocked everything back quite substantially," he added. "There has been a long, protracted legal discussion with various landowners in the area to procure land needed in order to access the site itself. That has taken much longer than any of us would have liked."

He said the rising costs of construction and inflation were out of the council's control - and stressed that if the money isn't agreed, the scheme and funding for it will be lost.

"We promised to do it and we are going to do it," he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Palmer Lane is the only place the River Sherbourne can be seen in Coventry city centre. The idea of opening more of the river up to public view was agreed by the council back in 2018.

In 2021, the council agreed to pump £950,000 from corporate capital receipts into the project which included turning the area into a new "visitor experience" for the city, with landscaping, lighting and sustainability improvements.

The decision to give the extra £318,000 to the scheme, also from the council's corporate reserves, will go to members of the Cabinet next week. If it's approved, the council will get a contractor in place and aim to start work on the site in summer 2023.

[rebbonk]

Complete waste of money.