How Birkenhead’s public realm project ballooned in price
Costs roughly doubled for the Wirral Council-led endeavour, going from £12m to £24m over the course of a year and a half. Now, an internal audit report has outlined where it all went wrong.
The Birkenhead Town Centre Movement Project centred on Conway Street, Europa Boulevard, Grange Road, and Charing Cross. It called for the replacement of paving materials, introduction of fully segregated cycleways, planting of trees, and various pedestrian-driven safety interventions.
There were four areas highlighted as the cause for the increase in costs:
- Incomplete designs prior to contractor appointment
- Inadequate site investigations prior to contractor procurement
- Confusion over the responsibility of the project internally, with the regeneration and highways teams both working on it
- Insufficient project management resource, with Walker Sime brought in for two days a week, of which only one was spent on site, to oversee the project
Wirral Council Leader Cllr Paula Basnett described the cost rises as “completely unacceptable”.
“Residents must be confident that public money is being managed responsibly, transparently, and with full accountability,” she said. “Our communities deserve regeneration that is ambitious, but also well-executed and genuinely beneficial.”
Basnett went on to promise that the release of the audit report would be “a clear turning point for this council”.
“While the challenges are significant, knowing the scale of the problems is the first step to putting them right and that work has already begun,” she continued.
“This is about restoring trust, improving delivery, and making sure that every pound we spend delivers real value for the people of Wirral.”
The internal audit, commissioned by Basnett in July, walks the reader through the scheme’s past step-by-step.
Mott Macdonald was appointed in May 2022 to develop the designs for the project. GRAHAM was brought on board as the main contractor in March 2024. The project was funded through the Future High Streets Fund, a time-sensitive grant that mandated a contract be awarded prior to the end of March 2024.
Pressures to meet grant funding deadlines led to GRAHAM being hired before the designs were complete, which led to a four-week delay in starting on site. Insufficient site investigations contributed to the spiralling costs, according to the audit.
There were already problems prior to GRAHAM being appointed. Wirral Council officers had predicted a £4m overspend on the project in January 2024 and had begun working on a budget of around £16m.
That remained the assumed cost of the project until February, when GRAHAM told the council that the cost of the scheme would be £17m – a figure the council felt it could lower with some re-engineering.
It was not until February 2025 that the budget started increasing beyond expectations, with Walker Sime’s financial report forecasting the cost to be £18.5m. Still, there was optimism that the project could be delivered on budget and on time.
“Officers involved with the monitoring of the project have stressed that as late as March 2025 it remained the expectation of officers and project manager consultants that, with planned mitigations, the cost of the project could be managed within budget,” the audit reads.
All this changed in April 2025, when GRAHAM informed the council that the cost could now reach £21m. When asked about the increase in costs, the project manager was not able to provide the council with any detailed information.
“It is understood the consultant commented that the escalation in costs was so unexpected that they needed to fully scrutinise the information from the contractor before they could present the detail,” the audit report states.
On 19 May, the cost was confirmed as £23m. The next month, Walker Sime’s forecast had risen to £24m.
That cost could increase again, with the audit noting that as of 13 August there have been 223 compensation events with the contractor. Of these, 52 have been settled and 64 are currently being assessed. Clarification is being sought for the remaining 107.
Work has already been undertaken to get a better handle on the project, with highways taking over the delivery of the scheme and changing the project manager’s job from two days to a full-time role that is predominantly on site.
Going forward, the audit recommends a series of changes for similar projects, including:
- The council should ensure sufficient capacity on the team for the project, with a clear division of responsibilities. The report notes that there are now several years of regeneration projects in the pipeline, so now might be a good time to consider creating a dedicated, in-house project delivery team
- Each project should have a uniform and transparent project management approach
- Designs should be adequately developed and formally approved prior to a contract being awarded
- Site investigations should be executed properly prior to the contract award
Reflecting on the audit report, Wirral Council acting chief executive Jason Gooding said: “We can see that the cost of the Birkenhead Town Centre Movement Scheme was over budget before it had even begun, and from an initial £12m will now be potentially over £24m to complete, and significantly late as well.”
He added: “My priority is to restore confidence in the council’s ability to deliver meaningful regeneration that benefits the people of Wirral. That means ensuring robust governance, realistic planning, and full accountability at every stage of delivery. We are already taking decisive steps to get a firm grip on the wider regeneration programme and to place it on a sustainable and credible footing.”
The audit report will be discussed by councillors at a meeting on 2 September.
It is disgraceful that Marcus Shaw has had to fall on his sword because of this overspend position -he was in post for circa a year. This report clearly highlights that the responsibilities for this overspend position clearly lie with a range of officers in the Council and that poor decisions were made before Shaw took up his position. The political leadership, newly elected, wanted him out.
By Anonymous
What a total non-surorise . Councils generally speaking are clueless and extremely incompetent in this country . They couldn’t organise a drink-up in a brewey . And as for transparency and honesty in a lot of these organisations ….
By Anonymous
Just like Wirral Borough Council another ridiculous waste of money they haven’t got ! Should be ashamed all of them
By Anonymous
Shock, Horror. Local authority project goes way past completion and way over budget. Never has there ever been an occasion within the annals of infrastructure/spacial improvement when what was projected ever actually came in within even the time and financial contingencies. Birkenhead be proud by maintaining the tradition.
By Bewildered Mancunian
It sounds like ‘ lessons will be learned’ doesn’t it ?
By Michael Murray
The work carried out is absolutely shocking. Also the council members involved in the works should be sacked. Obviously no one involved with this works was fit for purpose, absolute disgrace.
By Steve Fixter
Shameful waste by a shameful council. We need a reform council with it’s DOGE universal to curb waste for which we , the poor CT payers have to pay.
By Concerned Wallaseyan
Who are those in the decision making ? The Council members should be held to personal account for their total incompetence. Wirral Councillors responsible are a complete disgrace . If people put themselves forward for election should be knowledgeable / competent enough to take up positions dealing with Residents hard earned money. Again the individuals who made these decisions should be personally held responsible for gross misconduct relating to public funds . Wake up Wirral residents ! Birkenhead deserves far better. Do we not have councillors with some basic understanding of what the town needs.?
By Anonymous
Motts get off quite lightly in this article.
By Matt E
Read it – a lot of words – who gets sacked?
By Anonymous
NEC form of contract = all risks with client / council = Contractors moneygrab
By Anonymous
The original cost of £12m is only twice that gifted to Greater Manchester to draft just the business cases for its next multi-billion pound splurge.
Maybe if other places had proper funding to design place and function, these chicken-feed overspends wouldn’t happen.
By John
I was part of the bid team for one of the contractors who bid for this scheme. It was one of the worst bids I had been involved with. The bid documents from Wirral MBC had been written by a team who had littered a civils scheme with BREEAM wording and requirements, The budget couldnt be met at all by any of the bidders! The programme was even worse – we did one realistic programme and another to meet the councils deadline – that involved working 24/7 for 6months and didn’t take into account the 3month lead in time for the stone materials!
This scheme was also meant to be let with the Hamilton Square and ferry terminal are aworks but after the bids were submitted Wirral changed their minds! Any savings for one contractor doing both was then lost! It was never going to be underbudget or done on time! Also, the number of enquiries to clarify details the bidders put in to Wirral during the tender process was huge (think over 100!!)
By Anonymous
An absolute text book way of how to procure an infrastructure project wrongly, at every turn. WBC are not fit to run a bath.
By Birkonian
This type of shambles writes the script for Reform.
By Anonymous
Councils nationally have suffered for many years in having to meet annual spending deadlines, which has often led to many schemes being put out to tender long before a firm design and scope is in place, just in order to “secure” the funding or otherwise have it withdrawn. With the forms of contract now being recommended for procurement of such capital schemes by the government, which place the quantification responsibility and risk on the contractors, they too feel obliged to accept part – designed tender information, or lose the opportunity of the work which they need to survive. It is not surprising how costs then escalate massively as the design gaps are subsequently identified and then completed after the contract is awarded. This is no way to accurately procure or construct any contract, large or small. What cannot be measured today, cannot be built tomorrow! The failed HS2 rail project is a great example of this sort of failure, and there are many others to be seen around the country. Whilst there also seems to be a lack of experience these days in many areas, there should be sufficient capability to recognize when projects have not been researched and developed sufficiently for implementation, and therefore should not be commenced. Pressure on councils from central government to “achieve” annual spending levels should cease and a robust method of finalizing project design, procurement and implementation should be reintroduced of the type that we had in place some 40 years ago. Remembering that “failing to plan, is planning to fail” and in this area we seem to excel these days!
By Paul Mannering
Well said Paul. It’s incredible how anything gets done, hats off to other cities who are pushing the boat out. Everything is one big risk.
By Anonymous