New dawn for troubled Bath Spa?

Officials say the Spa will open to the public in Easter 2006

"Let's knock it down and start again," muttered the shopper darkly as she shuffled past the entrance of the Bath Spa project.

Her pessimism was perhaps understandable given the chequered history of the "landmark" city centre scheme.

The Spa, millions over budget, years over date, and marred by very public squabblings and fallings out, has left many in city feeling frustrated, infuriated, and perhaps ever-so-slightly embarrassed.

But Friday was heralded as a dawn of a new beginning.

Bath & North East Somerset Council's (B&NES) parting of company with contractor Mowlem, following a row over technical problems including cracked floors, was a fading memory to all but the lawyers.

A new project manager was on board, a new opening date had been set, and the hoardings were off the front of the building - to symbolise a new era of optimism and openness.

It could be seen as a brave move to open a project, which some may say has had its fair share of bad luck, on Friday the 13th.

Indeed, the day had not started all that well for B&NES, with a disgruntled citizen tearing up his council tax bill in front of the rolling cameras.

But from then on things seem to go more to plan, with the project's first "public" visitors since the departure of Mowlem treated to a tour of the multi-million pound site.

I have a new team and I don't believe there are any inherent factors now stopping (us) John Betty, project director

"It's fantastic," enthused Councillor Nicole O'Flaherty, standing in the building's lobby.

"It's an open building. People can come in and out and you can see from the pictures we are going to have an exhibition in this area."

Exhibition maybe. But the rest of the site was hardly an oil painting - more a masterpiece in the making, or so the council hopes.

A tour of the steam room, hot bath and rooftop pool, revealed that the inside of the building had not changed much since the media was last invited in, in February.

The pools stood empty and the floors, the cause of much of the recent strife, stripped of their tiles revealing a layer of screed and waterproof paint, with the odd chalked-up crack.

The building may not have changed much, but the council's stance had.

It had once been reluctant to give an opening date for a project that was supposed to open its doors in 2002.

Now, bullish officials told us work was expected to finish at Christmas in time for a grand opening at Easter - four years over date.

Councillors had refused to be drawn on how much it would cost to finish the scheme after the authority threw out an all-encompassing offer from Mowlem.

A resident ripped up his council tax bill in protest against the scheme

Now, project director John Betty said it would probably cost up to £2m more than the current £35.5m budget - close to three times the original cost of the project.

"Clearly we are going to seek to do everything to minimise that and the team are working very hard to make sure it is certainly no more than that, but hopefully it will be less," he said

Mr Betty put much of the renewed optimism down to a culture change.

New project manager Capita Symonds has come on board. The work will be carried out by its construction arm and a number of specialists sub-contractors.

"I have a new team and I don't believe there are any inherent factors now stopping (us)," he said

But there was one dark cloud threatening the council's new dawn.

While its was confident about project cost and opening date, the authority was still not clear on whether it would be landed with an expensive law suit from Mowlem.

"We have nothing on the table at the moment," Ms O'Falherty said.

"They have been making some sounds but we have heard nothing official."