THE council’s plans for renovating Twickenham Riverside have come under fire this week, with claims that their proposals will cost £2 million.

The Twickenham Riverside Terrace Group wrote to the Times to outline what they believe is an ‘extravagant expenditure’.

They claim the council has authorised expenditure of over £200,000 for advisers, officers and public relations costs for the next nine months’ work on the long term proposals, including the Twickenham Challenge.

Ron Chappell of the group said: "This is understood to be the inhouse costs for the project to the market testing stage.

“In order to appoint a developer for the long term development of the site it appears that further expenditure of the order of £280,000 per year is likely to be incurred for the next five years. No details are available for these long term proposals, and they are likely to be dependent on future negotiation with the developer.

"Add to this the council’s £500,000 short term scheme for five years which will provide a few seats, plants, security screen, and a children's playground, giving access to only one quarter of the site, resulting in a probable total expenditure of the order of £2 million."

He added: "This extravagant expenditure follows the pattern of history for this site where a lot of money is spent with no perceived result. This contrasts with the TRTG own viable illustrated proposals for a cost of £650,000 for the whole site which could be implemented immediately.

"The question must be answered by this council is, why is this costly time consuming procedure continuing which is so wasteful of the council tax payers’ money with no tangible public benefit.

Yet council leader Tony Arbour said the Tories were doing what people wanted. He said: "The real answer to this is that it was a major election pledge and the electorate supported our view on this. That is our justification for laying out the baths site.

"The only cost I can confirm is the cost to lay out the playground.

"The interesting thing is the Twickenham Terrace group applied to have Twickenham baths listed which the government office for London has turned down.

“There is irony in the fact the group wanted to demolish the first storey of the baths in any event. On one hand they wanted to have it listed, on the other to demolish it, I think there is an inconsistency in this. We have costed the TTG’s plan and I believe their figures are wrong, they haven’t included enough funding for flooding."