THE costs of the controversial Boscombe Spa Village project, including the surf reef, have spiralled by a third to more than £11 million.

Just seven months after councillors assigned an extra £974,000 to the project, they are now being asked to give a further £1.81m.

It means that the entire scheme, which was originally supposed to cost £8.291m, will now cost £11.07m.

Cabinet members look set to agree to dip into the council’s capital pot and increase the budget by £1.81m, with the hope that it will be reimbursed from the sale of the surf pods.

But Conservative councillor Basil Ratcliffe has demanded that officers are held to account over the fiasco and said: “Someone should be fired over this.” The report going before cabinet next Wednesday shows that nearly every aspect of the scheme has increased in cost since the last update in June 2008. Back then, councillors were assured the overspend was purely confined to the surf reef.

“All elements, excluding the surf reef, are being delivered at or below the original budget projections,” stated head of leisure Roger Brown.

But now it is a completely different story. Among the elements that have increased in price are:

  • The surf reef has gone up by a further £346,000 to £3.03m. The original budget was just £1.359m.
  • Refurbishing the Overstrand building and associated roadworks has increased by £678,000 to £3.22m.
  • Project management will now cost £120,000 instead of £56,000.
  • Site investigations have increased from £10,000 to £20,000.
  • Communications will cost £25,000 instead of £20,000. The June budget forecast made no allowances at all for fitting out the surf pods or marketing them, even though these have always been part of the scheme.

These costs, along with fees, legal costs and a contribution towards a lifeguard tower, have now been included and total £757,000.

The Daily Echo was told that these costs were not included in earlier budgets because Mr Brown did not want to estimate figures that could later prove to be inaccurate.

Cllr Ratcliffe said: “Who was responsible for drawing up these figures in the first place and then subsequently amending them? Even then, they couldn’t get them right.

“I think someone should be sacked when mistakes like these happen. We are not talking about £5,000 or £10,000, these are big sums of money that could have been spent on something else. We don’t pay officers pennies, we pay them good salaries and we expect them to have the necessary knowledge to assess things correctly.”

Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood admitted the increases were “frustrating” but insisted: “In the long term, this will be a huge bonus for the town.”

He added: “It would be a gamble for us to throw it all away now. We would lose the money already spent and lose the chance of having this fantastic tourist attraction.”