He called for the county to hold off until after its capital budget review in September and to take into consideration up-to-date cost forecasts from the building industry at that point.
Councillor Duncan Enright (Lab, Witney North & East), the county’s cabinet member for travel & development strategy, said he had been “assured this is a fully-funded project”, adding: “The argument against further delay is that we are on the clock for this project.”
Addressing Councillor Hicks, Councillor Miller said the overall budget “includes a quantified risk and contingency fund and an allowance for inflation” but added: “However, as you rightly note, this scheme, as with our other capital schemes, faces considerable inflationary risk.
“As a cabinet, in anticipating the conversation we will have in September about the prioritisation of our capital budget, we have been very clear that all schemes need at very minimum to live within their current financial envelope.
“When we discussed the grant determination agreement at our last meeting, we made very clear that this figure of £29.897 million was the maximum amount we could countenance from the council’s resources.
“We are not prepared to put more money into it, and consequently, to deliver the scheme, it will be required for us to live within our means.
“In the face of the inflationary pressures you are describing, it will require value engineering by the project team that is already undertaking that work and potentially other measures to make sure we can live within our means.”