TORFAEN council has come in for fresh criticism, concerning the £1 million overspend on the educational resource base - The Powerstation. Plaid Cymru AM for south east Wales Jocelyn Davies said the overspend on the Cwmbran project was "a damning indictment of Labour local government."

The comments came after the Free Press published details of project management errors that pushed the state-of-the-art learning centre £1 million over budget.

In his report the deputy chief executive of Torfaen admitted the Cwmbran-based project was pushed over budget by a combination of factors, including a lack of budgetary control, failure to agree a final design and the lack of a feasibility study.

Ms Davies said: "I find it amazing that Torfaen council had no controls in place for monitoring the spending on their capital programme. It seems that there was no accountability for decisions made to spend increasing sums of money on this project. The project just seemed to 'evolve' without any thought as to cost."

The report also stated that the Powerstation project is an example of this malaise but it is not the only one.

Ms Davies said this was "extremely worrying."

"It seems that this is not an isolated case. It appears that there are other examples of this incompetence in Torfaen.

"The council must now tell us all what these other cases are and how many more are in the pipeline."

A council spokesman said: "Councillors agree that the Power Station is a fantastic project for Cwmbran. We have debated the costs of the project at a recent scrutiny committee. Torfaen Council is now committed to opening the building and is looking to forward to ensuring that local people take advantage of the many benefits that it will bring to this area."