Plans for the Commonwealth Games were dealt a blow this week as transport bosses admitted that a key upgrade may not be completed in time.

Perry Barr station is set for a revamp ahead of the event, with the athletes village being built just a stone's throw away on the old Birmingham City University site.

The project, which is set to cost anywhere from £15 to £20 million, will see the station transformed into a modern-day transport hub equipped to deal with the pressures of the Commonwealth Games.

However, a progress report revealed at the transport delivery committee has shown that bosses have serious concerns over the completion of the Perry Barr station project in time.

Perry Barr railway station.
Perry Barr railway station.

Using a traffic-light system, whereby green indicates everything is going well and red indicates serious problems, the Perry Barr station upgrades were given an amber/red status.

It was the only project given anything less than an amber status by the report.

Alison Peckmore, the project delivery manager for West Midlands Combined Authority, presented the report to the transport committee.

"The various teams behind the project are coming together at the moment to ensure that we deliver the right project at that location," she said.

"They're just bringing together all the various details, but very much with a mind that the Commonwealth Games is just down the road.

"I think in the very early stages one of the points that's made is that they may be looking to phase it, so that we deliver the absolute interchange for the Commonwealth Games.

"And if it is that the nice-to-have's are after, that is maybe an option. But at this point of time we are very much for delivery for the Commonwealth Games.

However Councillor Timoth Juxtable (Hall Green South) took exception to the idea of a 'phased' approach, questioning why there was only one completion date on the document if the whole thing would not be completed before the games.

"Having read the executive summary I'm even more concerned than beforehand," he said.

"Because if we have split it into pre and post Commonwealth Games then the baseline and forecast completion dates are completely inaccurate, because they are for the Commonwealth Games.

"So if there's going to be a post-Commonwealth Games schedule, the completion date must be after the Commonwealth Games. So the executive summary forecast dates just don't make sense.

"If we're saying the baseline completion date is for phase 1 then that's a different issue, but at no point do we actually say that. The entire scheme is both phase 1 and phase 2."

The current estimated completion date is May 1, 2022, with the games scheduled to begin under two months later, on July 27.

And Cllr Huxtable also contended that putting the completion date so close to the start of the games would be cutting it fine.

"My final point is if there is any slippage at all to the completion date, we are going to miss the Commonwealth Games," he added.

"It is a very very tight time-scale. It's one of the few projects listed with a hard deadline for the Commonwealth Games, and it's the only one with an amber/red status.

"So all those concern me greatly."