The cost so far of stalled Armada Way project which saw 100 trees cut down in Plymouth

A stalled regeneration project in Armada Way in Plymouth city centre has cost taxpayers more than £200,000.

Figures released by Plymouth City Council under the Freedom of Information Act show the authority has had to pay £211,723 for two abandoned attempts to remove the trees and a scrapped clean-up operation.

The council says that when the fallen trees are eventually removed from the city centre, there will be a fresh bill for that too.

The regeneration scheme saw more than 100 trees cut down in the city centre on Armada Way during the night in March.

• Watch as trees cut down under cover of darkness

It sparked public outrage and work to cut down the remaining trees was paused after a last-minute injunction was issued. It also led to the resignation of the then-leader of the council, Conservative politician Richard Bingley.

Current council leader, Labour's Tudor Evans, has paused the original £12.7million regeneration scheme, sending it back to designers for a fresh look.

The authority is now trying to end a judicial review about the Armada Way scheme in the hope of preventing more legal fees.

The breakdown of spending so far on Armada Way

The council spent £3,850 removing six trees in the autumn of 2022. This was done to make room for a compound and site office to be installed for the duration of the project.

The council paid £44,004 for an "aborted visit" in November 2022. The authority had planned to remove a small number of trees by hand each night during a month-long period. The authority says a protest halted the work due to safety reasons but action groups have denied there was an organised protest, saying just a few individuals turned up to oppose the work.

The bulk of the spending - £96,332 - was then spent on the operation to remove 129 trees on 14 March this year. The cost of the abandoned March attempt was more than twice as much because large tree-felling machines were used in a bid to take down all the trees in one night.

In April, the council had to pay £67,536 for a failed attempt to remove the chopped down trees and their stumps. The operation was cancelled at the last minute when nesting birds were found in the remains of the trees. The council said the charge was due to the late "standing down" of the operation because subcontractors could charge for the work even though it didn’t take place.

Plymouth City Council has said it will now make an application directly to the High Court asking it to consider stopping the judicial review, brought by protesters to test if the council acted within its powers when ordering the tree destruction, and prevent any further spending on legal fees.

Cllr Evans said: "It is clear that under the previous administration, there were issues preventing the scheme from moving forward. The costs significantly increased with the issue of the injunction in March.

"Our focus is now ensuring that any further tax-payers money is not wasted on legal action. We must sort out Armada Way for the benefit of the whole city. Unfortunately, this is now in the hands of the court."