Warwickshire County Council has finally set a fresh target to complete the overdue and over-budget A46 'Bridge to Nowhere' – albeit five years later than initially planned.

The announcement was made during Thursday's meeting of the county's cabinet – the panel of Reform UK councillors in charge of major service areas.

It was in response to Cllr Richard Dickson asking the same three questions he had put to the Conservative administration that was in charge at Shire Hall a year ago – when the cost review would be completed, whether local taxpayers would have to foot the bill for cost overruns and when the project would be finished.

Portfolio holder for transport and planning Cllr Jennifer Warren said she could not talk about the financial side during the public session, although the matter was set to be discussed behind closed doors on Thursday. 

However, she did commit to the new end date of spring/summer 2027 with an update due to be heard at a meeting of all councillors in December.

How much the public will be told at that point remains to be seen given that commercial confidentiality has been cited in keeping figures under wraps but we do know that the current projected cost now runs to £57 million – £19 million more than the original estimate, all of which must be found by Warwickshire County Council. 

With no narrative to accompany those figures in the council's latest financial projections, Cllr Dickson, who registered to speak at the meeting as a member of the public, remained concerned. 

"Who knows now whether this project is going to cost £60 million, £65 million, £70 million, heaven forbid it should cost any more," he said.

"This is a bridge that, according to HS2 that is building next door, has 70,000 or more vehicles passing underneath it northbound with a similar number southbound every day. 

"This is an embarrassment to the council, it is a huge financial cost. I submit also that it is an embarrassment for Warwickshire as a whole, this bridge was meant to be completed more than three years ago."

Cllr Warren replied: "All improvement works are expected to be finished in spring or summer 2027.

"As for the costs, we can't detail any today as we are going into a (confidential) meeting after this but I am happy to share that with you. 

"We do hope that everything will be put to council in December. Everything is progressing very quickly now and we will make it all clear to you today. Sadly, I can't make any announcements on the figures."

Leader Cllr George Finch, who in September had promised an update at October's cabinet, said he had visited the site personally and would be setting up visits for all councillors ahead of any decision in December.

"Speaking to the workers there, it was really eye-opening for a new administration dealing with an old administration issue," he said. 

"It was good to see and very informative. I am working with officers to find two days in the diary between now and the full council (in December) for all members of this council to visit Stoneleigh Junction to see the issues and how we can work to solve them."

Those comments piqued the interest of Cllr Ben Edwards who asked whether Cllr Finch had driven around the junction.

The leader replied: "We were with the sitemen and the officers there, we drove round it and then went into the site and walked through and saw where…"

Cllr Edwards interjected at that point to ask whether they had used the slip roads, claiming that they are "misconfigured at the moment".

Cllr Finch turned to chief executive Monica Fogarty who was sat beside him. She told him that "it is not for now", a prompt that saw Cllr Finch shut down the query.

"I think we can discuss that," he told Cllr Edwards.

"Again, this is just off the back of a public speaker. I think the most appropriate time for this would be afterwards but thank you for those comments."