A war of words broke out today as Birmingham's long-awaited £7 million coach station was driven back to the drawing board.
 The council claims the whole project is having to be redesigned from scratch because of a suprise Euro directive allowing giant Continental-style buses on to the city's roads from next April. But its partner, National Express Coaches, blamed the council for deliberate delays designed to screw more profits out of its valuable Great Charles Street site. Liberal Democrat leader John Hemming today called for a swift end to what he dubbed "Birmingham's latest transport farce". "This coach station saga has been dragging on for five years already and work was supposed to start this summer," he said. "What's being forgotten is the bigger picture, the damage being done to the city's name and the inconvenience of passengers having to use the present dingy coach station in Digbeth." The 2003 opening date for the replacement of Digbeth coach station has been postponed indefinitely. City development director David Pywell explained today that the project was close to going ahead when National Express dropped the bombshell about the Euro-directive which added an extra 1.5 meters to vehicle lengths. "The longer vehicles can't manoeuvre around the coach station as it was originally designed," he said. "The proposals are now having to be revised. "The council is committed to a new coach station and has put considerable time and effort into bringing the scheme forward. Unfortunately there is now a delay." The postponement comes as independent audit watchdogs query the council's £3.1 million sale of the site - now worth much more than when it was valued as part of the original deal four years ago. The council is also giving up £1 million out of its profits to prop the project up financially. But the city's version of events was disputed today by Denis Wormwell, chief executive of National Express Coaches, owners of the much-criticised Digbeth facility. "We have been aware of this directive for two years and while we were designing the new Birmingham coach station," he said. "It was taken into consideration in the design and we were happy with it. "This is just as much a frustration to National Express as to everybody else in Birmingham because we want things to move on as quickly as possible. We won't go along with anything that delays it." Mr Wormwell claimed the rethink about the coach station project was prompted not by longer coaches but the council's desire to make more money out of the site. What do you think? Write to the editor, Evening Mail, 28 Colmore Circus, Birmingham, B4 6AX or e-mail on eveningmail@mrn.co.uk ..SUPL: | 
