Lack of timely design plans is one reason for delays to the Promenade reconstruction scheme, according to the contractors.

The issue was raised at January’s strategy board meeting, the minutes of which have just been published.

The completion date for the £25m scheme has now been put back to August 2021, the original date of October this year slipping first to April and then June 2021.

At the strategy board meeting on January 10, project manager for the Department of Infrastructure, Keith Podmore, noted that contractor Auldyn Construction has ’raised the lack of timely design plans as a reason for delays to the works’.

Concerns were also raised at the meeting about an apparent delay in the supply of materials.

DoI chief executive Nick Black highlighted the ’high number of outstanding compensation events’ - ie events leading to extra costs or time extensions which are not usually the fault of the contractor.

Clive Callister, Auldyn’s managing director, said the level of compensation events had been ’much higher than expected’.

He said extra resources had been brought in to work with the site team to speed up the process of dealing with them.

Mr Callister estimated it would take six to eight weeks to clear the backlog.

Highways services director Jeff Robinson suggested that after high levels of activity on site before Christmas, works ’appeared not to have picked up since’.

Mr Callister said Auldyn had been experiencing high levels of staff absence.

The delay of the project end date to August next year is in large part the result of a decision not to work on the land side outside hotels and businesses during the summer months, from May 1 to September 1.

There’s one exception to this with work on the ’cultural area’ outside the Villa-Gaiety and the Sefton Hotel planned to take place between August next year and January 2021.

And the board meeting minutes note that Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer said it was ’essential’ for the cultural quarter to be completed on time ’for the purpose of public visibility’.

The meeting heard that 34 retail and restaurant businesses had taken up the offer of £2,000 marketing assistance.

It was suggested that Treasury approval be sought for reallocating money earmarked for the £6,000 grant scheme to the marketing assistance scheme.

One issue that has caused delays to the scheme has been cracking of concrete in the tram corridor.

In January concrete laying began at the Sea Terminal end of the promenades.

The strategy board meeting was told that in a joint approach with the contractor, a new method for laying the cement had been identified.

Newly-laid concrete would be monitored for any further cracking over the course of the year.

Public transport director Ian Longworth reminded the meeting that any changes to the programme of works would impact on horse tram operations.