Ceredigion residents will not be on the hook for a £4m overspend on Aberaeron’s sea defences, a council has report has said, despite the Welsh Government refusing to help pay for the extra.

The sea defence scheme was completed in September last year after work to start the project was delayed until December 2023, five months after BAM Nuttall Ltd were handed the contract to construct it.

Ceredigion council approved a £31.59m cost for the scheme, with £26.85m coming from the Welsh Government to help fund the project.

The project ended up costing just over £4m more than budgeted due to “unforeseen ground conditions, third-party constraints and design development” during construction.

The final cost of the project – built with more than 120,000 tonnes of rock - ended up at just short of £35.6m.

In a scrutiny committee report to be put before Ceredigion County Council Cabinet members on Tuesday, the council has said that while the council will have to cover the overspend, “no revenue funding would be used and there would be no impact on Ceredigion’s residents.”

The Thriving Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 16 June - discussing a council report that said the sea defences scheme were a “success” and the breakwater positioning “effective and correct” despite concerns of design flaws – heard council finance officers “provide re-assurance that should Welsh Government not provide additional support, funding was in place.”

“This included utilising suitable grants such as the UK Shared Prosperity Funding,” the meeting heard.

“No revenue funding would be used, and there would be no impact on Ceredigion’s residents.

“Officers explained that although lobbying and discussions with Welsh Government Ministers on financing the over-spend had proved promising, Civil Servants managed the budget, and the funding had not materialised unfortunately.”

The report also added that the cost of continual remedial works to fix shingle issues due to the positioning of the breakwater would come out of existing budgets.

As the Cambrian News revealed, the council has had to dredge the area twice since it was built as shingle continually built up around the breakwater at a cost of £15,000 each time it’s needed.

The report said that “harbour dredging at Aberaeron, New Quay and Aberystwyth was already done on a needs basis and was funded from the Harbours Budget.”

“The removal of shingle from Aberaeron associated with the coastal defence scheme would be funded from the Coastal Defence budget,” the report said.

The report added that Ceredigion will apply the “lessons learned” from the Aberaeron scheme to apply them to future coastal defence schemes in Ceredigion, including large-scale plans for a sea defence scheme in Aberystwyth.

The ‘lessons’ included “having a different form of contract in place” as “during the Aberaeron scheme, certain decisions had to be made by certain dates”, which pressurised design and build phases of the project.

The council would also look to fully-funded grant schemes, as Ceredigion contributed 15 per cent to the Aberaeron scheme, the report said.