The findings of a probe into why a flagship Powys County Council (PCC) project, y Gaer in Brecon, was delivered late and £5 million over budget, will be discussed next month.

At a meeting of the Governance and Audit committee on Monday, September 13, councillors were told that October 8  had been set as a date to discuss the report on y Gaer.

In June 2020 it was revealed that the council’s internal auditors, SWAP would look into the issues surrounding the project.

But due to the coronavirus pandemic, the council focused on business-critical services, and work on the investigation has been delayed.

The report should have been discussed in July and had also been penciled into a forward plan for the September meeting,

A draft copy of the report had been with the council’s Housing and Community Development service.

Director of environment and economy, Nigel Brinn said “We’re very keen to get the paper to you as soon as possible.

“Our plan is to issue it to members next Monday in advance of it going out to the public.

“It’s a really important piece of work one of the biggest pieces of audit work undertaken given the duration and volume of work to go through.”

Committee chairman, Cllr John Morris said: “Put the morning of October 8 in your diaries – tentatively.

“This is quite a detailed report, we need more than a week to get to grips with it.”

Cllr Morris told committee members that they would meet confidentially before a public meeting to go through the “issues and areas” that they would discuss.

“Then it will go out to the public domain, and we’ll look at it in a single item meeting on October 8,” said Cllr Morris.

The SWAP report is supposed to concentrate on the process of governance and financial control to find out if they were effective at the time and whether any lessons can be learned for future projects.

Calls for an investigation to find out the causes of the problems were originally made back in 2019 by Cllr Karen Laurie-Parry.

She wanted an independent review set up as “no-one appeared concerned” about the spiraling cost.

In December 2019, Brecon’s new cultural hub and library, y Gaer, finally opened.

It is the redevelopment of the Grade II* listed Shire Hall and construction of a new modern library at the former Brecknock Museum & Art Gallery which saw the project costs rise, from £9million to £14million.

The Welsh Government and National Heritage Lottery Fund have provided almost £4 million in grant funding for the project.