"Botched" road marking cost £600k and some signs are still wrong
It was meant to sort out issues in Cheltenham
Last updated 11th Mar 2025
The almost £600,000 spent so far on a “botched” rollout of new residential parking restrictions in Cheltenham should have been spent on fixing “appalling” nearby roads.
That is the view of some residents who ask who will be held accountable at Gloucestershire County Council for squandering public money in times of austerity.
The implementation of the zone 15 parking permit scheme in the north east of the town was so bad Shire Hall chiefs had to issue a “sincere apology” in 2023.
Issues still remain and now there are concerns over the amount of taxpayers money spent on the changes.
A freedom of information request shows the total cost of planning, consulting and implementing the scheme totalled almost £595k, as of February 19 this year.
The breakdown which includes costs of consultants, third parties and direct costs to the authority show the Atkins project cost £136,947.78,
Some £124,796.74 was spent on design consultants and £12,151.04 on printing and posting of materials.
The review of the zone 15 scheme cost £99,903 while the project set up, inception and ongoing management has cost £2,440.
The community engagement and consultation cost £78,878 while site investigations, preliminary designs and review cost £18,585.
The actual cost to install the signage, paint the road markings along with other works cost £121,284.67.
Town resident Michael Bloxham, who submitted the FOI request, says some of the signs which have been installed are still wrong, such as the one in Pittville Circus.
Mr Bloxham believes the funds wasted on the controversial scheme would have been better spent on road and pavement repairs in the area.
He cited the Hewlett Road roundabout as an example of the “appalling” state of some local roads.
“The final bill will be heading towards a million pounds, on an ill-conceived and generally unwanted scheme,” he said.
“£500k spent on consultants and contractors up to the end of 2024, add on the current works to rectify errors made on the original implementation and the changes to the zone, and the council resources which they haven’t quantified.
“These public funds could have been spent on road and pavement repairs within zone 15, The Hewlett Road roundabout for example is in an appalling state or could have made a decent contribution towards keeping the recycling centre open.”
“Who at GCC will be held accountable for this squandering of public money in times of austerity?”
Cheltenham Borough Councillor Julian Tooke (LD, Pittville) tabled a question about the zone 15 fiasco at the County Council meeting on February 19.
He asked if council chiefs thought it would have been sensible to have done experimental traffic regulation order (ETRO) straight away instead of using a regular traffic regulation order to save the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds.
“In December, after a public outcry, Conservative-led GCC finally backed down on the new parking restrictions imposed on zone 15 in Cheltenham,” he said.
“I understand that the cost of this botched scheme (the traffic regulaiton order) was a minimum of £136,947 for the design and consultation work and £121,284 for the implementation work adding up to a minimum grand total of £258,211 of tax payer’s money.
“This sum of money is likely to be a significant underestimate because GCC has not recorded staff time against this project (except in the case of the project manager) meaning that they do not understand the possibly considerable incremental costs of GCC staff time.”
Council leader Stephen Davies (C, Hardwicke and Severn) said the zone 15 parking zone is a large area with many localised issues and competing priorities for parking and road space.
He said the council has undertaken a review to see how the zone can be improved to ensure that the parking zone meets the needs of the majority of residents and businesses in the area, with rules that are coherent and understandable to all motorists.
“This was our stated commitment in response to public feedback that highlighted areas that we were asked to review,” he said in response to Cllr Tooke’s question.
“As part of this review the council has undertaken extensive public engagement, as requested by the public, including face to face sessions. This has been generally well received.
“We are now in the process of implementing the outcome of the consultation, with changes on the ground in the zone. The changes are being made under an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO).
“Due to the six month representation stage required as part of the ETRO process the cost of an order can cost more than a standard Traffic Regulation Order, for this reason the council is reluctant to use ETRO’s as a matter of course, unless there is a clear business case to do so, as is now the case for the zone 15 parking review.”
Responding to the comments from Mr Bloxham, Cllr Davies said: “There has been a lot of discussion on how we got here, and we have reviewed the process but it is important to understand we listened during the consultation process and changed the plan.
“There is a cost to this but I am proud we are doing the right thing.”