Liverpool Council's huge redesign of the city centre was dealt a huge blow yesterday when it was revealed the contractor carrying out the redevelopment of the Lime Street and St George's area has collapsed into administration.
First proposed in 2016, the council's flagship City Centre Connectivity Scheme was originally priced in at £47m and would see huge changes come in for the city centre with the aim of making it easier to get around - particularly for walkers and cyclists.
The project included significant overhauls of The Strand and the Lime Street/St George's road route - two of the most iconic and busy routes in the city.
Read more: Move for emergency review of 'appalling' Lime Street project after contractor's collapse
The project has been highly controversial, has caused years of delays and disruption and has led to political resignations.
The latest blow to the scheme came yesterday when it was confirmed that the main contractor on the Lime Street element of the project, NMCN, had gone into administration.
It's not yet clear how this news will affect the scheme - which is seeing traffic reduced to one lane in each direction as Lime Street passes through the St George's Hall area.
But it is more negative news for a city centre project that has attracted continued criticism.
And the whole thing also happens to be significantly over budget - with costs continuing to grow.
Liberal Democrat Councillor Richard Kemp, a major critic of the city centre scheme, asked a question to the council about the increasing costs of the work and how this is being funded by a cash-strapped council.
In a response, the council confirmed the scheme is currently £13.1 million over budget and these costs will be met by unsupported borrowing.
The statement said: "The additional funding requirement will be met from unsupported borrowing. This will reduce the amount of borrowing available for other Council priority projects, as well as incurring ongoing revenue costs in relation to the repayment of debt."
The council confirmed that this level of borrowing will mean that a total interest of £4.503, 750 will also have to be paid - meaning a total additional cost to the council of £17,694,750.
The council said the additional costs have been built into the forecasts for 2021/22 but this will ultimately come as another big challenge for a local authority that has lost nearly £450m since 2010 and must find another £30m in savings in its next budget.
Cllr Kemp said: "£708,000 a year will have to be withdrawn from front line services such as adult and children’s care and a huge number of things that need doing in the city and spent instead on paying for incompetence.
"By the time the money is paid back in full we will have paid a total of £4.5 million will have been paid into the hands of the bankers."
He joined a number of voices calling for this week's news regarding NMCN to be used as an opportunity to review the Lime Street element of the scheme.
He said: "There could be a delay of many months as the council seeks a new contractor who will have to check what the situation is, price the work and them commission the work. We should take advantage of this by getting the design right now to avoid further disruption down the line”.
“It is clear that there is still much wrong with the transport engineering section of the council. This is the third contractor in a year to go broke causing chaos as the Council scrambles to sort out half completed schemes. We must look closely about our procurement systems and how we undertake due diligence in a highly competitive sector."
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here.
