Cheshire West and Chester Council has spent at least £2.5m on consultants working on the £300m Northgate Development city centre regeneration scheme, it has been revealed.

Chester property expert Tim Kenney told the full council in Winsford most of that money would be ‘wasted’ because the delayed project would never be built.

He had received an FOI response which showed £1.65m alone had been spent with development managers Rivington Land and £34,000 had gone to letting agents who secured the deal to attract House of Fraser who have since pulled out.

Tim Kenney, a partner in Chester-based Kenney Moore property consultants.

These figures, together with details gathered by property website Place North West, show a total of £2,564,022 has been spent with external firms but this does not include architects' fees or council officer time going back over many years.

Mr Kenney told councillors: “From our own Freedom of Information requests you might be interested in knowing that so far you have spent £205,000 with your planning consultants, £280,000 with your project managers, a third of a million pounds with your quantity surveyors.

“You've spent £34,000 on agents letting fees on the House of Fraser deal which is no longer proceeding and get this, you have spent £1.65m on Rivington Land, your development managers. Most of this money will be wasted because you’ve invested it on a scheme that you aren’t now going to build.”

Retail expert Mr Kenney, a partner in Chester-based Kenney Moore property consultants and founder of the CH1 Chester BID company, was behind a recent open letter backed by many private sector businesses which called for the council to pause and review Northgate, especially phase two containing the bulk of the new retail.

Repeating the arguments previously raised, he told the meeting: “The current Northgate scheme is the latest iteration of many retail-led schemes on this site and simply, it will not work. Not only that, but its existence is killing the city. It won’t work because the traditional anchor-led retail scheme is a moribund model.

“Retail occupier demand has fallen off a cliff, retail rent and capital values have stagnated, shopping patterns and trends have changed permanently. The way that we live and spend our money has changed, permanently.

“There is far too much accessible and better pure retail offers around Chester. So you have the wrong scheme for Northgate. I would venture to suggest it’s being led by the wrong people and currently being delivered in an opaque and rather unaccountable manner.

“We do not need to compete with the current offers in Cambridge, Oxford, Exeter and York. We need to be our own great city.”

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Mr Kenney said there was already more than 200,000 sq ft of available retail space that could not be let because investors were holding back in case Northgate was ever built. But he suggests the council does pursue the essence of phase one based around a new civic square, market hall and cinema.

Imploring members to ‘stop, think and act’, he added: “We would ask you please to stop playing politics with this project. We ask again, please stop all work on the major retail elements, please stop all work on the hotel relocation but do deliver us the market, the multi-screen cinema and the public civic square.”

Mr Kenney and other like-minded city businesses hope to meet Labour council leader Samantha Dixon, Tory opposition leader Lynn Riley and new chief executive Andrew Lewis, saying their collective experience is ‘vast’ but ‘currently completely under-utilised’.

David Lewis of Rivington Land, Cllr Brian Clarke, cabinet member for economic and infrastructure and shadow cabinet member Cllr Stuart Parker and Clare Huber, Cheshire West and Chester Council senior construction manager in front of Chester Library that will become a restaurant hub and entrance way into the new market square.

Councillor Brian Clarke, cabinet member economic development and Infrastructure, said in a recent statement: “Chester Northgate is a £300 million project and the fees are proportionate to the overall cost.

“Throughout the planning process we have been consulting with local businesses, including Chester Bid members this week to keep them informed as the project progresses and hear their suggestions and any concerns.”