A range of building projects in Wokingham worth over £100 million have been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Wokingham Borough Council was forced to delay these projects, which were scheduled for 2020/21, after developer contributions dried up. 

The Conservative-run council had been planning to spend £105 million on the projects over the year, including £3.7 million on building a dementia care home, £12.7 million on the redevelopment of Carnival Pool and £9.8 million on the acquisition of land for road building schemes.

Various projects to create additional places at schools such as Arborfield and Barkham have also been delayed by the pandemic.

The move was reviewed by the council’s Extraordinary, Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee on August 26 after concerns were raised by The Liberal Democrats.

Cllr John Kaiser, executive member for finance, said: “Covid-19 caused house builders to stop and developers to ask for the deferral of CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) and s106 payments, due to the inability of them to build and sell homes.

“This meant we would have had an unfunded programme.”

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He said the council then agreed to “rephase parts of the capital programme” and ensure the projects which “required priority were delivered”.

“Failure to take such action would have been reckless in the extreme and notice was given, but not the details,” he said.

Councillor Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat) claimed the decision was made without proper scrutiny, as the public and councillors were not provided with enough information or thoroughly consulted before the decision was made at a meeting of the council’s Executive on July 30.

He said: “What is the effect of delaying a dementia care home? We don’t know and more importantly the Executive members didn’t know when they met on July 30.

“When the Executive makes a decision, details of the options that are taken into account and the reasons for the decision are recorded.

“Sadly, not all the options and consequences of the decision were looked at by the Executive.”

He added: “When an Executive decision is made without all of the facts available this often leads to a bad decision, which has some stage has to be reversed, usually at some extra cost to the council and therefore the council tax payer.”

In response, Cllr Kaiser said: “This was flagged up and discussed at the emergency briefing meetings that all parties took part in twice a week during the height of the Covid-19 crisis.

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“It was noted that this action was under consideration, so it should not have come as a surprise to members of the other parties.”

The Liberal Democrats also claimed the public and councillors were not provided with enough information about the decision to provide Dinton Pastures Activity Centre with an extra £600,000 on July 30.

Cllr Parry Batth, executive member for the environment, said the centre generates over £300,000 a year for the council but it is “currently run from a substandard building that’s reached the end of its life”.

The council is building a replacement, which was expected to cost £1.8 million, but Cllr Batth said the project has exceeded it’s original budget due to unexpected costs incurred during the installation of a new climbing wall and a pedestrian bridge.

The council’s Extraordinary, Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee ultimatley backed the decision to defer the building projects and the extra £600,000 investment in Dinton Pastures following the discussion on August 26.