Fresh delays hit £10m project for Shrewsbury's Music Hall

The £10 million project to transform Shrewsbury's Music Hall into a museum and art gallery has been hit by further delays, council bosses have admitted.

The scheme is now not expected to be finished until 'late summer 2013', a further extension to the already long-delayed scheme that had originally been earmarked to be finished by the end of 2011.

The delay has been blamed on more work than expected being carried out at Vaughan's Mansion inside the Music Hall building.

While Shropshire Council said today that the scheme remains within its £10.5m budget, Councillor Jon Tandy has warned the project is a 'white elephant' that may have similar hidden costs to the Quantum Leap statue that ended up costing £1 million.

And a local construction expert has also questioned whether the scheme could still be on budget. A spokesman for the Shropshire Council said: "The delay is due to the complexities of Vaughan's Mansion and the solutions for restoring and conserving the structure."

Councillor Mike Owen, cabinet member with responsibilities for tourism and culture, said: "The new Shrewsbury Museum is scheduled to open in late summer 2013. The project remains within the original budget of £10.5 million."

Councillor Tandy said: "This is just another white elephant. I believe the costs are spiralling, just like Quantum Leap."

And landlord Dennis Naylor, a former project manager for Wrekin Construction, said he thought the near two-year delay to the project would cost further money.