COUNCIL chiefs have hit out at National Grid and their maintenance contractors for a string of issues that has caused a delay to a much-needed expansion of a Bewdley car park.

Wyre Forest District Council has said work to create an additional 55 car parking spaces at the site of the former library and medical centre in Load Street should now be completed by the end of November - after bosses initially hoped it would be complete for the busy summer period.

But so far, the plans have been hit with a raft of delays by National Grid failing to disconnect a gas supply pipe and Snapes doubling the cost of carrying out work to lay the car park.

The council is now set to seek tenders for the construction work and is expecting to appoint a contractor by the end of August.

Councillor Ian Hardiman said National Grid had let the residents and local businesses in Bewdley down, while Councillor Rebecca Vale said was "dismayed" that there would be a delay.

Commencement of the works to demolish the former medical centre and library were initially delayed by the failure of National Grid to promptly and effectively disconnect the gas supply to the site.

The request for the disconnection was accepted by National Grid on October 13, 2016, but notice of disconnection was not received until December 19 - despite frequent chasing by council officers.

However, it was identified on the following day that National Grid had failed to disconnect the supply to one of the meters on site and it took a further two months, until February 16, for them to undertake the final element of the disconnection work and render the site safe for demolition to commence.

Demolition was then undertaken by Snape - the council's maintenance contractors - who were also due to carry out the works to lay out the additional 55 car parking spaces. However, in early May, the contractors notified the council that their estimate of the cost of laying out the car park had more than doubled from an estimate provided in June 2016 - adding more than £100,000 to the cost of the project. The council did not accept the increase in costs and the works will now proceed only following a competitive process.

Cllr Ian Hardiman, cabinet member for planning and economic regeneration, said: "The council has been badly served by National Grid, whose work was unacceptably slow and not comprehensive.

"This caused a delay to the start of demolition work, which has in turn affected our ability to lay out the new car parking spaces before the busy summer period, as we had originally planned.

"It is fortunate that the council had already expanded the number of car parking spaces at other sites in the town in order to minimise the impact.

"However, we feel that the performance of this utility company has been very poor and has let residents and local businesses down."

Cllr Rebecca Vale, cabinet member for operational services, added: "I am quite frankly dismayed that there will be a delay to the laying out of additional car parking spaces at Load Street.

"As a council, we are not prepared to accept the massive increase in estimated costs from our contractors. We are guardians of the public purse and as such it is the right thing to seek competitive tenders in order to get a fair deal for taxpayers.

"The delay caused by the National Grid in failing to disconnect the gas supply to the site in a timely manner has not helped the situation.

"Council officers are exploring the possibility of some temporary car parking arrangements on the site over the summer.

"This project has been upset by challenging circumstances which have been outside the control of the council."

A spokesman from National Grid said: "Cadent (formerly National Grid Gas Distribution) was contacted on October 5, by Wyre Forest District Council to disconnect the gas supply at their former library site in Bewdley.

“We carried out a survey on October 12, and provided a quote for the work. The Council accepted the quote and paid for the work on October 31. We agreed with the Council to carry out the disconnection on November 25. We made it clear to the Council in advance that they had to remove the two gas meters before we could cut off the gas supply to the site from the gas main in the road.

“However, when we arrived on November 25, the meters were still there. We therefore had to reschedule the disconnection for January, by which time the meters had been removed. The disconnection was completed on January 20.”

The expansion of the car park is the final phase of a set of developments in Bewdley town centre in which the council has played a central role by enabling multi-million pound investment in the town, including the provision of a new medical centre and library facilities, as well as delivering more car parking spaces for the town.

The council made available land at the Dog Lane car park to allow the Bewdley Medical Centre to be built, and it opened in July 2016. The library relocated to the new building and it opened shortly after.

To mitigate the loss of car parking spaces in Dog Lane car park, the council created 43 spaces during summer 2015, and expanded the car park at Gardners Meadow by 22 spaces in January 2016.