Wirral councillors have pushed back a decision on how they’ll plug a gap left by a £24m scheme millions over budget.

One said they were trying to avoid the “nuclear option” of having to borrow £8m.

The local authority is having to find £8m due to an overspend in a regeneration scheme that covers much of Birkenhead town centre. The scheme has faced criticism after it was revealed by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) earlier this year the scheme was £12m over budget and massively behind schedule.

£4m was already moved by officers from plans for a new Birkenhead Market project in March 2024 to cover increasing costs. Councillors in March this year also approved an extra £750,000 for the scheme.

A number of different options were presented to councillors to reduce borrowing costs at a senior committee meeting on 10 September. If the council borrows the full £8m, it would cost around £760,000 a year to pay back over the next 20 years, which means less money for day-to-day council services.

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The options put forward would cut this down to £5.3m, costing council services around £480,000 a year to pay back. However, councillors across all parties raised concerns about a proposal to cut back £1.25m of road safety funding.

This funding is due to go towards schemes aimed at tackling areas of the borough where people are more at risk of collisions, such as a cross-roads in Spital. While these schemes could still be delivered in the future, officers said pulling the current funding in place could risk when they’d be delivered.

Labour councillor Liz Grey, who chairs the committee that oversees road safety, said she was worried about the cuts, while Conservative councillors Ian Lewis and Lesley Rennie warned such a situation would be “completely unacceptable” and split the borough in two.

The town centre scheme is being partly funded by the Pathfinder programme, a large pot of government grant money meant to help regenerate Birkenhead, which has to be spent by 2028. Finance director Matthew Bennett said options were being weighed up to look at this in the future, but they couldn’t be brought forward at this time.

Cllr Kathy Hodson asked for more on what the council was doing to look at these options and whether certain schemes in the programme could be pushed back or reviewed. This was to avoid what she described as the “nuclear option” of borrowing millions.

Responding to questions, Mr Bennett said there was no date set for when the council has to pay for any overspend. Final costs of the scheme will only be known when it’s finished, though the best estimate at the moment is £24m.

He warned elected members that there were limited options and that the money would have to come from somewhere, and that the council had to deliver more than just one thing when it came to regeneration. However, some other council projects may come under budget.

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Mr Bennett said, “One way or another, it’s all got to balance,” adding, “There aren’t really any good choices in this, I haven’t got a magic wand or a magic money tree has got £8m hanging off it.”

Wirral Council’s leader Cllr Paula Basnett put forward that the council delay the decision till November, which could give the local authority more time to find other funds, including looking at using Pathfinder money. This was agreed unanimously.

Later on in the meeting, councillors approved a number of asset sales as well as kick-starting the procurement process for the next manager of Birkenhead’s shopping centres and other buildings.

Image: Graqnge REoad photographed earlier this year. Credit: Ed Barnes

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