Council sabotaged my Bath Spa solution, says Griffiths

Construction minister Nigel Griffiths tried to get Bath & North East Somerset Council (BANES), Mowlem and Sir Nicholas Grimshaw to agree a solution to the much-delayed Bath Spa project a year ago.

In a debate in Westminster Hall last week, Griffiths said: "I invited the chief executive of BANES, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw and Sir John Gains [then Mowlem’s chief executive] to meet me in the Department of Trade & Industry, away from any publicity, to discuss my solution to their seemingly intractable problem.

"It was a simple proposal; that the client – the council – should instruct that the work be completed, and that the other two parties should agree to abide by any arbitration or court finding."

Although the meeting was supposed to be confidential, "the chief executive of the council told his leader, councillor Paul Crossley, about it, and he [Crossley] told a local newspaper. In effect, that sabotaged my attempts to resolve the issue, even before we were able to sit around the table", Griffiths said.

The minister described BANES as "delusional" and asked Liberal Democrat MP for Bath Don Foster to apologise to his constituents and endorse Mowlem’s proposal to complete the project at a cost of £26m. However, the debate was adjourned before Foster could respond.