Senior Conservatives on North Yorkshire Council are expected to approve increasing the cost of the A59 road realignment at Kex Gill from £68.8 million to £82.5 million today (May 13).

The Stray Ferret revealed on May 2 that the council had spent another £2 million on the project last month and now wanted to inject a further £11.7 million of taxpayers’ money.

A report to councillors before today’s meeting blamed four factors, including the delayed start date and changing the design of the road stabilisation scheme from piling to earthworks, for enabling contractors and consultants to claim more money under the terms of the contract.

The report warned there were ‘no alternative options’ to spending more as to do so would put ‘project continuity’ at risk. It added the cost could soar further if more ‘compensation events’, such as weather delays, led to further claims by contractors.

Kex Gill is the only substantive item on the agenda for today’s meeting of the council executive, which consists of leader Carl Les and his nine most senior Tory councillors.

However, although members of the public can read the report by Richard Binks, the council’s head of major projects and infrastructure, prepared for the meeting (click here to see it), an appendix has been kept secret because the local authority says the financial sensitivity of the matter outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

Political questions

The council announced the cost increase in an email at 5.14pm on a Friday before a bank holiday weekend.

The Stray Ferret asked Councillor Bryn Griffiths, the Liberal Democrat leader, about the timing of the news as well as the cost increase.

Cllr Griffiths said the timing “smacks of an attempt to bury bad news” and claimed the Lib Dems had raised concerns about “cost overruns” in 2021 when the council agreed the scheme with the Department for Transport, which is contributing £56.1 million.

He said:

When we asked Cllr Dadd to respond to Cllr Griffiths’ claims, he asked Cllr Griffiths to “direct me to the question from the Lib Dems and response I gave”.

Cllr Griffiths replied that he had “raised these issues in the council chamber” and had “reminded of this on more than one occasion”.

Cllr Dadd subsequently repeated his request for the details of the dates and the meetings when Cllr Griffiths had done so. He said: “I do not recall he having done so but of course I could be wrong as lots has happened over the past four years.”

Cllr Griffiths has not replied to our subsequent requests for the information. 

What is the Kex Gill scheme?

The A59 is the main route between Harrogate and Skipton.

The scheme at Kex Gill is the largest capital highway project ever undertaken by the former county council and now North Yorkshire Council.

It involves realigning four kilometres of the landslip-prone route, which has suffered 15 landslides in the last two decades at a cost of £6 million, according to the council.

The Department for Transport awarded £56.1 million, and the council initially contributed £12.7 million. The council’s sum is now set to increase to £26.4 million.

Construction work, which began in February 2023, comprises a 27.8 hectare working site, 12 new structures including two underpasses, walls and culverts, 4 km of new bridleways, 7 km of dry stone walls, 9 km of new drainage, the diversion of Hall Beck, planting 12,000 trees and shrubs, 12 km of utility diversions and reverting the existing A59 back to moorland. The report says work is ‘now just over halfway complete’,

Work to build the new road was supposed to take 113 weeks from January 2023 to March 2025. But the finish dates has been put back to June 2026, which is the cause of one of the compensation event claims. Once the new road is built, contractors will then complete a second phase of work decommissioning the existing A59 and turning it back to moorland, which is not now due to finish until March 2027.