The Warwickshire County Council official charged wit overseeing the ill-fated ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ has confirmed that the scheme could now cost £80 million. That budget, set in a confidential meeting in December 2025, is more than double the £38 million estimated when detailed plans for a bridge straddling the A46 at Stoneleigh Junction near Kenilworth came forward, says Rayo.
The project has been blighted by problems associated with a lack of available backfill material to support the wingwalls, resulting in a redesign and a five-year delay to the reconfigured junction opening. To make matters worse, the cash-strapped county council is on the hook for every penny overspent.
Having failed in a bid to make contractors Colas responsible for the overruns, the council made an extra £16 million available in January 2025, a figure that was meant to have been kept confidential but was accidentally let slip by then-deputy leader Peter Butlin in a public meeting.
The situation escalated after Reform UK assumed control of the council in May 2025 with even more money to get the project finished approved in another secret session for all councillors in December 2025.
The figures were not published due to “commercial sensitivity” – the thinking being that if Colas knows how much the council has set aside, that could affect negotiations.
Work started again in early 2026 with portfolio holder for transport and planning Councillor Stephen Shaw insisting the project remained on track for the new finish date of summer 2027.
When asked about costs he reiterated that the details remained “commercially sensitive” but that the overall budget was up to £80 million, although he said Reform UK was “more than confident we will be within that”.
Citing high inflation costs, downtime and delays, traffic management and redesigns, he said: “It is commercially sensitive, we are still working out the last few numbers, dealing with Colas. All I can say at the moment is that it will cost below the £80 million.”
In an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Cllr Shaw said Reform “had to pick up the pieces” on a project that it inherited and that the ballooned budget still represented “the best value for money for the people of Warwickshire”.
“If we had given it to National Highways it would have been anywhere between £120 million and £140 million,” he said.
“We care about taxpayers’ money, we have been handed a bad deal and we have done everything possible to sort it out.”
(Picture: Warwickshire County Council)
