The Banwell bypass will open 28 weeks late, in December 2027, and needs £9.5m more, borrowed by the council. Councillors vote on 10 November.
The Banwell bypass will open 28 weeks late and cost £9.5m more than budgeted, according to a report to North Somerset councillors.
Completion is now forecast for 23 December 2027, against 8 June 2027 before. The report blames delays to utility diversions. It asks Full Council on 10 November to raise the budget from £105.176m to £114.676m and to borrow the difference (Council report, 10 November).
The council announced the delay on Monday, saying the bypass “will now open in Winter 2027” instead of spring. Its announcement did not mention the extra cost (North Somerset Council, 2 November).
What has gone wrong
The council’s announcement says the hold-up is in water main diversions managed by Bristol Water. The pipes have to be moved out of the construction area before some of the ground work, including piling, can begin.
Galliford Try, the contractor, has already reshuffled its programme to work around earlier delays. The report says that can no longer stop completion slipping: “mitigation opportunities have been exhausted”.
It also warns of knock-on effects on site:
- remaining earthworks and embankment filling cannot go ahead
- subcontractors have only piecemeal work, but standing them down risks losing them
- more work is being pushed into the winter months, with greater weather risk
Where the extra £9.5m goes
The report’s cost table shows two lines doing most of the damage:
| Cost line | Budget | Forecast | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Utility costs | £4.151m | £6.835m | +£2.684m |
| Compensation events, indicative (delay claims) | £0 | £5.320m | +£5.320m |
| Whole project | £105.176m | £114.675m | +£9.499m |
Compensation events are the contract’s mechanism for paying the contractor when delays outside its control add cost. Other lines moved up and down by smaller amounts.
The council would borrow up to £9.5m to keep the work going while it “challenges costs and investigates potential recovery”. The report is clear that recovery is not certain. If the money cannot be recovered, borrowing would cost the council £0.3m to £0.9m a year, from the 2028/29 financial year.
A second risk: the Homes England grant
Homes England is paying £88.43m of the approved budget and the council £16.746m. The grant must be claimed by the end of March 2027.
Because work is slipping past that date, the report estimates £1.2m to £2.75m of grant may not be claimable. That would be on top of the £9.5m. In the worst case, the extra money needed could reach £12.249m before any savings. The project team is asking Homes England to extend the deadline.
The council has also set aside £50,000 for outside legal advice. The report says legal costs could reach £300,000 to £400,000 and cannot be recovered.
Why the report gives few details about the dispute
In 2023 the council signed an agreement with the utility provider so it would withdraw its objection to the compulsory purchase order for the road. The report says that agreement requires the council to “refrain from initiating publicity” about any dispute. Some of the detail has been put in a confidential appendix for that reason.
The bypass itself
The bypass runs north of Banwell village. It is meant to remove the congestion where the main road between the A38 and Weston-super-Mare squeezes through the village. The scheme also includes walking, cycling and horse-riding routes connecting with the Strawberry Line, and new ponds, woodland and wetland.
Councillor Mike Bell, Leader of the Council, called it “a project with a 100-year history, set to finally tackle notorious traffic congestion in the narrows of Banwell village”. He said: “Despite delay we continue to make good progress on site and the century-long wait will soon be over.”
The report says the Housing Infrastructure Fund bid behind it, won in 2020, was tied to unlocking 7,557 homes. The council still recommends finishing the scheme.
The council’s project timeline page still showed the old dates on 3 November: the bypass open in spring 2027 and the scheme finished in summer 2027.
What it means for you
- Banwell’s narrows stay busy for another year. Plan on the village route until at least late 2027, and expect more winter traffic management around Banwell, Sandford, Churchill and Winscombe. Our roadworks page tracks the closures.
- Council tax payers carry the risk. Any of the £9.5m the council cannot recover becomes a cost to its budget from 2028/29, at a time when it is already closing a large budget gap.
- The vote is public. Full Council meets at 6pm on Tuesday 10 November at the Town Hall in Weston-super-Mare, and the meeting is streamed on YouTube. Questions about the scheme go to banwell.bypass@n-somerset.gov.uk.
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