Cost of new Dorset community centre project soars by £500,000

The choice of who should develop the centre had been controversial with some criticism of Shaftesbury Town Council for the delays since it took the project on.

Dorset Council’s Cabinet heard on Thursday that the cost of the project had now risen by around half a million pounds to £1.44m with a call for a revised planning application to be submitted to reflect proposed changes to the building and its car parking.

Planning portfolio holder Cllr Shane Bartlett said a Cabinet decision a year ago had given the green light to the project but there had been delays and changes since then.

Much of the cost of the building was to have been met from a community fund administered by Dorset Council, made up of contributions from developers.

“In reviewing the information officers and myself have come to the position that the matter should be referred back to Cabinet for wider consideration as several key conditions, including those associated with budget and project delivery remain partially completed, therefore failing to meet the full milestones that were set,” said Cllr Bartlett.

He said further work was required to refine the design and secure important grant funding, recommending that some of the money set aside could be released early to help pay for technical design work with new milestones also set to allow the project to reach the delivery stage.

“If those milestones are not met it will come back to Cabinet. These sort of projects do hit glitches, they are never as straightforward as you imagine they will be, but I am confident the town council will deliver on the project,” he said.