'Procedures not followed' - Council admits mistakes over Worthing multi-storey car park refurbishment

The Buckingham Road multi-storey was shut in 2021 for structural works, which were initially expected to be completed by the summer of 2022.

In October 2024 – more than two years on – it finally reopened and was ‘easier and safer to use’, Worthing Borough Council said, at the time.

This refurbishment project has since been reviewed to see where lessons can be learned.

A social media post by the borough council reads: “As a council for the community, we’re committed to making sure everything we do is for the benefit of our community and provides the best value for our residents.

“We’ve reviewed our project to refurbish Buckingham Road multi-storey car park. The car park needed major structural repairs because of its age but we took the opportunity to also make it safer and more user-friendly while we were renovating it.

“To be open and transparent about the lessons we’ve learned, councillors on our joint audit and governance committee have considered a report on the project this week. You can read the report at https://democracy.adur-worthing.gov.uk/documents/s14378/Buckingham%20Park%20Refurbishment%20Review.pdf

“The key lessons are that our decision-making procedures on the refurbishment expenditure on the project were not followed, and when the project went over budget this was therefore not reported to the cabinet member.”

The council said the report also notes that a rent-free period was granted at 100 per cent of the total rent, and ‘granted as a goodwill gesture’ for the duration of the refurbishment works.

This came after the council received ‘complaints about noise nuisance’, although it ‘was not anticipated that the works would be so delayed’.

The council added: “Therefore the value of the rent-free period did not follow our decision making processes.

“The refurbishment works to the car park were needed, and one of the reasons why the project went over budget was that it had begun towards the end of the Covid pandemic.

"Construction costs increased dramatically after this time, while costs soared further after the government’s mini budget of 2022 sent inflation rocketing.”

The council said it has now ‘taken steps’ to try to make sure that ‘potential overspends like those’ that occurred on this project ‘do not go unreported again’.

"We’ve put new stricter steps in the process so that risks are identified sooner,” a spokesperson added.

"We’ve set up new groups to review ongoing projects regularly to make sure they’re on track and on budget. Our teams are also getting extra training on project management and our democratic decision-making processes so they can not only spot problems more quickly but get everyone who needs to know involved ASAP.

“As an added step, our joint audit and governance committee have now referred the project to our joint overview and scrutiny committee (JOSC) – the committee responsible for holding to account the councils’ joint strategic committee and cabinet members.”

Councillors who sit on the JOSC will meet to decide whether they should review how the Buckingham Road project was managed to ‘identify if further changes should be made to how we work’.

The council explained: “We reopened Buckingham Road car park in October 2024 after the refurbishment work was completed. It now has new CCTV cameras, more and larger disabled bays, larger parent-and-child bays and dementia-friendly bays. It is being well-used again by visitors.

“Major projects like Buckingham Road are complex and it’s common for issues to crop up, but we’re determined to learn from the mistakes we’ve made, and to be open and transparent.”