AN EVESHAM town councillor has called for the proposed Hampton Bridge to be scrapped, despite £4.1million already spent on the project.
The cost of building the walking and cycling bridge has quadrupled since Worcestershire County Council’s original £4.26m estimate in 2021.
The project is aimed at providing sustainable travel options from Pershore Road, Abbey Road and Hampton, allowing people to access the town centre, avoiding traffic.
The bridge has become a contentious issue and last week the authority announced a £71.9million deficit for the 2026/27 budget.
As a result, it has dumped £30m plans of capital spending as a way of saving £9m.
The bridge cost increased to £16.5million during 2025 and the latest projection estimated it at £17.6million.
Liberal Democrat Coun Matthew Jones said: “We have a county council hundreds of millions of pounds in debt and with a runaway budget.
“This is not the time to build a bridge now that is almost four times the original cost and won’t sort the problems out with our traffic.
“The council needs to look at how it got itself into this mess and explain how this project got so out of control.”
He questioned how the original costs were estimated so low when the authority already had bridges costing more.
The Reform administration suggested £6million of Government transport grant funding was used to pay for the bridge, along with an £8million loan and £3.7million of Section 106 developer contributions.
Work to date has included concept and detailed design, securing planning permission, land acquisition and early works.
County council Lib Dem leader Dan Boatright-Greene added: “First, we had the over-budget Kepax bridge, often called the bridge to nowhere.
“Now we have the Hampton Bridge – blink and an extra £1million is added to the costs.”
He described it as ‘a bridge too far’ and said there came a time to ‘cut and run’.
“While no one wants to hand back money to the developers, the costs are out of control and we cannot afford this project.
“If scrapped, we can spend £6million of grant money on sorting out the potholes and poorly maintained pavements.
“And we save £8million on the interest of the loan.
“Writing off what has already been spent is far better than spending more on a project that is out of control.”
The authority disputes this and said stopping the project now would have significant financial consequences for the council.
Coun Karl Perks, cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “Costs already committed would result in an estimated £7.8m charge to the revenue budget, substantially eroding the savings achieved through the council’s wider financial recovery programme.
“This would reduce the net savings position to around £1.2m, significantly weakening the council’s overall financial position and placing further pressure on an already challenging financial outlook.”
He added that the majority of the S106 funding was specifically allocated to the bridge and must be spent by late 2027.
Furthermore, there is a policy requirement in the adopted South Worcestershire Development Plan for the provision of a bridge from Hampton to Evesham town centre.
