THE cost of a link road has exceeded £15m because of compensation paid out to residents.

The Eastern Transport Corridor road is one of nine capital projects identified as a red triangle by Darlington Borough Council as a result of how much it has gone overbudget.

Compensation requests from residents living near the road, which links the town centre to the A66, bypassing Haughton, have meant the cost has risen to £15,081,709.

The 1.8-mile project was first mooted in 2000 when the scheme was expected to cost £5.7m.

Delays meant the project soared to £12.5m when it was given Government funding in 2006.

A series of gaffes led to further delays and saw costs escalate by another £2m, although it received £1.2m of Department for Transport funding because of exceptional issues and costs encountered during the work.

It opened in August 2008, but since then compensation claims by residents living near the road have further increased the projects cost.

A report to the council’s cabinet meeting said the overall cost of the project would not be finalised until all the claims were agreed. It said some claims were “still trickling in”.

The report added that the road had helped to reduce traffic flow through Haughton Village, which was one of the aims of the project.

The road was identified as a red triangle capital project because its costs had risen above budget by more than £50,000 during the past quarter.

Others are more than five per cent above approved budget at an extra cost of between £5,000 and £50,000.

Similarly, there are nine green star projects, where costs had fallen by the same amount.

Costs on a further 54 lay between the two indicators.

Costs overall during the past quarter had risen by £207,582 on a total budget of £76.3m.

Other schemes running significantly over budget included North Road Primary School, which was now £300,000 more than budget because of issues with contaminated land, design changes, omissions or client requests, and Harrowgate Hill Primary School, which was £110,000 over budget because of tender prices.

Other schemes over budget included three sets of roadworks and replacement of the council’s computing facilities at the town hall.

A council spokeswoman said: “As with any large organisation, we run a huge number of projects and as part of our capital project management processes it is important that we regularly review and monitor performance.

“The majority of projects are on or ahead of target.

“There are 72 projects, with an overall value of £76.6m, which are running to time and cost.

“This investment is delivering a wide range of improvements to the council’s assets and council services including refurbishment of council homes, improvements to schools, better traffic flow and opportunities for sustainable travel.”