CONTROVERSIAL plans to expand Seacourt Park and Ride have been branded ‘out of control’ after the project’s cost was doubled to £4.1m by council bosses.

As concerns about traffic, flooding and the site’s location in the Green Belt mounted, Labour-run Oxford City Council admitted taxpayers could have to foot an extra £2m for the scheme.

It was up from a previous figure of £2.1m, with officials seeking the cash boost in next year’s budget.

But the move sparked calls for an urgent review by opposition councillors, days after campaigners claimed the project would set an ‘appalling example’.

City council Liberal Democrat leader Andrew Gant warned the proposals were ‘ill conceived’.

He added: “The scheme appears to be running out of control like too many other capital projects.

“It is a very questionable use of council funds to ignore what many have identified as a significant flooding risk here, as well as riding roughshod over Green Belt policy.”

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Concerns have been raised about the expansion on to the floodplain 

And Craig Simmons, leader of the council’s Green Party group, said: “Spending £4m of taxpayers money on expanding a car park - twice the original budget - is obscene when the money could have been spent building affordable homes or providing much needed accommodation for rough sleepers.

"I am sure people will realise the irony that the pressure for this expansion comes from the Westgate - a council-owned site which should itself have been used to provide affordable homes."

The proposals to expand Seacourt Park and Ride by 650 spaces were lodged by the city council in October.

Bosses claim the site is running at capacity and needs to be ready in time for some 2,000 extra journeys expected when the Westgate Shopping Centre reopens next year.

But the project has drawn criticism from local groups after a report warned the site’s location in the flood plain could lead to parked cars being ‘swept away’ during extreme weather.

Oxford Preservation Trust said it had ‘considerable concerns’ and the Oxford Flood Alliance suggested there was not enough evidence to guarantee it would not worsen flooding in the area.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England also claimed the approval of works there, on protected Green Belt land, could ‘make it much more difficult’ to fight off similar proposals elsewhere in the city.

City council development boss David Edwards previously claimed the authority had to ‘balance a number of things’ in its plans, but draft budget papers have laid bare the growing cost of the project.

A report to senior councillors says it will now need an extra £2m to deliver the scheme because of ‘Green Belt, flood plain, highway and drainage issues’.

But officials insisted the cash raised from the new parking spaces would ensure ‘payback within a reasonable period’.

Council finance chief Ed Turner wrote: “We are proposing additional investment in some areas where there is a financial return, for instance with the expansion of Seacourt Park and Ride, a strong moral as well as financial case, or where it will benefit communities.”

It is the latest major cost increase to a string of capital projects at the local authority.

Last year audits revealed the projected cost for construction of Rose Hill’s new community centre rose from £3.49m to £4.76m in a matter of months, with the cost of refurbishing the city’s tower blocks also jumping from £16.6m to £20m in the space of a year.