Cost of path at Chichester park deemed ‘ridiculous’ by councillor

Now district councillors have been asked to approve the use of £155,000 of Community Infrastructure Levy funds to get the project up and running.

Once complete, the path will run from Wellington Road to Oaklands Way with a spur connecting the path north of Chichester Festival Theatre to Broyle Road.Owned by the council, the park would then be linked to the active travel network, some parts of which are still to be built.

The original budget was £191,000. This, along with £28,000 from the business rates pool and the extra £155,000, takes the new total to £374,000.

The extra money was included in the council’s draft Infrastructure Business Plan – but that has yet to be approved.

As the council wants to invite tenders to deliver the project by next Spring, it was recommended during a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday (September 1), that the money be released now.

The recommendation will be put to the full council for approval later this month.

Mark Chilton (Lib Dem, The Witterings) supported the need for a path through the park but felt the cost was ‘absolutely extraordinary’ and ‘ridiculous’.

But Jonathan Brown, cabinet member for environmental strategy, said the previous budget had been an ‘estimate’ before the full cost of the project had been calculated.

And officers explained that things such as the crossing planned for outside Northgate Car Park and the quality of materials needed for a path facing such a variety of uses had increased the costs.

Mr Brown added that there was a ‘reasonable hope’ that the project would be finished ‘under the cost’.

He added: “The project will deliver a path suitable for all users in all weathers, linking the north of Chichester – including the University – to Oaklands Way, well away from roads and parking cars.”

Questions were asked about the need for lighting in the park, but that does not form part of this project.

There was also some frustration about the amount of time being taken to deliver other parts of the active travel network. Because the park is owned by the council, it is able to push things forward – but other projects fall outside the authority’s control.

Mr Brown said: “There’s no point having a really safe route for 90 per cent of the way that then leads you to a really dangerous bit.

“For large numbers of people to make the most of this, you need to be able to get where you need to go in safety. So the more of these safe routes that we construct and connect with each other, the more usable the network becomes – and the more attractive it becomes for more people who can then rely on it. And it sort of snowballs from there.”