Higginson fury

9:33am Friday 4th July 2008

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TENS of thousands of pounds more in council cash looks set to be pumped into a Marlow park despite complaints about its design.

The extra cash is needed for the grounds of Higginson Park, members of Wycombe District Council's cabinet are expected to be told in September.

Following discussions with conservation charity The Marlow Society, ideas being considered include £6,000 for a new path and £34,500 to widen an existing path.

The Bucks Free Press can reveal that building work has gone way over budget.

The final fee demanded by contractors for the toilets and café was £598,803 - from an initial estimate of £499,400 - after they finished eight months behind schedule.

And the playground - which opened in 2006 - went £49,586 over its £150,000 budget, approved by the council's cabinet.

The council also paid £114,681 in consultancy and planning and building control fees, and £27,786 on initial designs - which, the society argues, were not used.

This puts the final cost at £940,856 - 25 per cent higher than the £750,000 cost of the whole scheme put forward by the council.

Marlow Society vice-chairman Bob Savidge said: "Every bit of this should have been addressed in the original plan.

"The whole thing is a disgrace. It has just become a joke."

Work on the toilet and café block was delayed because of wet weather and because workers had to move tree roots and a mains water line, said council spokeswoman Becky Wotherspoon.

Cllr Tony Green, who took over running of the project when made a cabinet member for younger and older people in May, said: "I want to look more deeply at what has happened because, clearly, things haven't gone as well as they should have."