THE "flagship project" to transform Bournemouth’s Pier Approach is expected to have gone almost £500k over budget - after council engineers encountered “unforeseen” problems.

This update about the £4million scheme, which saw the building of water play features and a tourist information kiosk along with landscaping changes, was included in the authority’s October budget monitoring report.

There was, however, no verbal mention of it made by members during their monthly cabinet meeting.

The council paper said: “The anticipated final cost for Pier Approach phase 1 scheme is expected to exceed the planned budget by £490k, due to unforeseen underground infrastructure issues.

“Resources have been identified to fund this; it is proposed that £244k is redirected from other projects which have completed under budget and an additional £246k capital receipts is added to the programme.”

In light of the projected overspend, the Daily Echo asked the authority to provide some further explanation of what “unforeseen underground infrastructure issues” meant.

Bill Cotton, the council’s executive director for environment and economy, said the site is “very complicated” as it has more than 100 years of earlier development.

“As with most major developments involving old infrastructure we encountered a number of issues below the ground that could not be identified in the pre-work surveys and investigations,” Mr Cotton said.

“Whilst we were prepared for some of this and budgeted accordingly, in reality the challenges below ground were more extensive than expected.

“This resulted in the need to undertake a redesign of the site foundation works which included diverting a rising water main and other existing live services, as well as dealing with unexpected ground contamination."

Mr Cotton added that all known records and plans from the council and utility providers were checked prior to commencing the work, with ground penetrating radar surveys and trial boreholes used in order to build up an accurate picture of the ground conditions.

The Pier Approach site was one of the first to undergo work as part of the council Seafront Strategy - an ambitious 20-year plan aimed at improving the town's seafront.

Council leader John Beesley had heralded the development, completed in the spring, as “another step towards creating a world-class resort”.

Bournemouth council's latest monthly budget monitoring forecast predicts the authority will be more than £1.2million over budget by the end of the financial year.

Cllr Beesley though has repeatedly stated that he is confident the authority will achieve a balanced budget before the close of the financial year on March 31, as it has done in each since the Conservatives gained control of the council in 2007.