Midsomer Norton Town Councillor Shaun Hughes has publicly acknowledged that the Town Hall refurbishment is around £1.4 million over budget and approximately three years behind schedule.
Writing in the Midsomer Norton and Radstock Journal, Cllr Hughes contrasted the troubled Town Hall project with the redevelopment of the Island.
He wrote that the Town Hall was “currently around £1.4 million over budget and approximately three years behind schedule”.
Midsomer Norton Town Council is responsible for the Town Hall project, its finances and its delivery. Cllr Hughes sits on both the Full Town Council and the Town Council’s Finance and Operations Committee.
Despite those roles, Cllr Hughes suggested the project had suffered from insufficiently robust financial control, business planning and delivery oversight.
The Town Hall refurbishment began in 2022 and was originally due to be completed in June 2023. More than three years after that original completion date, the project remains unfinished.
The last time the Town Council publicly acknowledged the cost of the Town Hall refurbishment was in September 2024, when the estimated cost stood at £1.56 million.
The latest estimate contained in Town Council papers puts the overall cost of the project at approximately £2.38 million, around two-and-a-half times the original budget.
Cllr Hughes’ latest comments amount to the clearest acknowledgement to date from within the Town Council of the scale of the project’s financial overrun and delays.
I would suggest an inappropriate procurement route has been chosen.
Historic buildings merit a traditional approach not design and build and a design team composed of independant chartered professionals:
“A budget tells us what we can’t afford, but it doesn’t keep us from buying it?”
I’m sure it’s for the greater good