THE long-awaited costs of a controversial 28,370-home blueprint for south Worcestershire can today be revealed - with taxpayers forking out a staggering £1.3 million pounds.

After 10 years of work, back in February councils in Worcester, Malvern and Wychavon finally adopted the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP).

But across all of that time the bill to taxpayers has never come to light, despite the dossier becoming one of the county's most talked-about issues.

This newspaper can reveal:

- All three councils have calculated that the costs since 2010, when the bulk of the work started, ended at £1.3 million

- The bill has been split equally between all three areas, with Worcester's taxpayers forking out around £430,000 and the same for those in Malvern and Wychavon

- The massive bill included £265,933 for outside consultants

- £120,349 was paid out in 'fees' for the inspector Roger Clews, who refused to accept an initial version of the SWDP which included room for 23,200 homes on the grounds it did not go far enough

The hefty sum includes other expenses like public consultations and venue hire but does not take account of so-called 'officer time', the wages handed to council staff for their hours working on it, so the true cost is likely to be higher still.

It does also not take into account the period from 2006 to 2010, when some work which had an impact on the plan did take place.

The £1.3 million sum has alarmed some critics, who say taxpayers have had to pay for something "twice over".

The final SWDP ended up containing only 2,200 fewer homes than what was in the abandoned West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy, which the old Coalition Government abolished in 2010 to start afresh.

Leading figures across the county have responded by insisting the SWDP will effectively pay for itself many times over via planning fees paid by developers to councils.

Warndon resident Martin Oakes, 41, one of the campaigners trying to stop Gtech winning permission to build a new HQ off Berkeley Way, said: "These councils seem to have spent many years and an awful lot of money in almost the same place they were 10 years ago, it's like paying twice over.

"Nobody wants it anyway."

Worcester MP Robin Walker said: "It's a lot of money but at the end of the day we're talking about a very significant plan.

"As long as the development goes ahead with the planning fees, business rates and jobs it should create it will pay for itself many times over."

The city council believes the SWDP will ultimately pay for itself, with a spokesman saying it "opens up opportunities for developers" to put homes in the right places.

Senior politicians have also pointed to examples like Middle Battenhall Farm, where developers abandoned an inquiry over trying to build 200 homes there because it is not in the SWDP.

Councillor Alan Amos, who chairs the planning committee, said: "The SWDP is alive and kicking, anyone who doubts that can look at what happened with Middle Battenhall Farm.

"It does work and it's got real bite, as we've seen."

IF WE DIDN'T TEAM UP THE BILL WOULD HAVE BEEN HIGHER, SAYS BOSS

ONE of the senior figures involved in the plan has defended the cost by saying without teaming up, it would have been much bigger.

Gary Williams, joint head of housing and planning for Wychavon and Malvern Hills district councils, said: "The SWDP is not a typical development plan.

"It's a major sub-regional document which is now guiding hundreds of millions of pounds worth of investment in housing, leisure and infrastructure across south Worcestershire up to 2030.

"Working together has enabled the councils to keep costs down by sharing resources – for example, by having only one counsel represent all south Worcestershire councils instead of three.

"We also had to pay for just one set of planning inspectorate and programme officer fees instead of footing three separate bills.

"It would not have been possible to prepare individual plans any cheaper.

"There would have been no guarantee of arriving at a consistent strategy for south Worcestershire to provide the area with the protection it now enjoys had we worked separately."

He also said temporary workers sometimes had to be recruited to process the thousands of responses to the plan during its many consultations.

"The consultations meant we also had to pay for the hire of suitable venues and equipment, as the councils' own venues were sometimes either too small or not available," he said.

Prime Minister David Cameron last year gave councils a 2017 deadline for adopting their own local plans, saying those that failed would face ministers forcing one upon them.