THE capability of council officers to estimate costs on capital projects is to be scrutinised.

The move follows a shocking £224,000 under-estimate on plans to raise and widen the promenade at Avon Beach in Christchurch.

Proposals to strengthen the sea defences and smarten up the prom were supposed come in at just over £300,000 when council staff originally drew up the scheme last year.

But in a report to the resources committee, Head of Property and Engineering, Lindsay Cass, said it was now estimated as £540,000.

Mr Cass admitted: "The original estimate was not a good one."

But he said: "Officers estimate the cost of works but it is not until the project is put out to tender that the council receives a market price for delivering it."

Councillors agreed to remove certain element of the scheme, including coloured tarmac, benches, uplighters and bat boxes for nearby trees that don't have any bats. Together with an increase in funding from the Dorset Coastal Forum, this has reduced the shortfall to £144,900.

Councillors deferred a decision on whether to use money from reserves to fund the gap until full council on Tuesday.

But they also agreed to send the whole issue of estimating costs to the scrutiny committee for investigation.

Cllr Claire Bath said: "This is a much needed project that will protect our coastline. We don't want to see the damage from another St Valentine's Day storm.

"But I am enormously concerned about just how wrong we got this estimate.

"We need to learn from this and ensure it doesn't happen again. This has happened on other projects."

Chairman, Cllr Peter Hall, said council tax payers were justifiably concerned about costs and value for money."

Cllr Colin Bungey was concerned about environmental damage, including tree loss. "I think we are going over the top with this.

"If the owner of the beach huts removed them from the promenade over the winter, we wouldn't have to do this to such a high standard."

The huts belong to Noisy Lobster owner, Peter Hayward.

Cllr Lesley Dedman said: "The whole of our estimating operation should be looked at by scrutiny. We seem to be way out on a number of projects."

Work could start on the scheme in January.