The company tasked by Blackburn with Darwen Council with building the bus station in Ainsworth Street faced 178 "critical days" where work could not be done, according to a delay expert.

Thomas Barnes and Sons Ltd are making a claim for £1.7 million against the local authority, claiming they falsely terminated the contact and caused the company to go into insolvency.

The cost of the project spiralled from £4.7m to £8.4m and the date of completion was extended to May 2016 from December 2014.

After being dismissed from the works by now-leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council Cllr Phil Riley due to delays and construction issues, the company later went out of business.

The local authority faces claims it failed to provide instructions, failed to respond to questions, failed to provide payments and wrongfully terminated a contract.

Blackburn Council has said the claims have “no merit.”

The case is being heard at Manchester Country Court.

Lee Hudson, a delay expert, gave evidence on Thursday on his view of what took place during the development.

He said there were 224 days of delay caused by problems with the structure between August 2014 and March the following year.

He said 178 of these were “critical” to the project.

He said it was necessary to have a steel frame fully set up in the “whole building" to “finish floors and walls" and this was not the case.

Mr Hudson made it clear he calculated a delay by when a part of the project could be finished, rather than when it could be started.

Representing Blackburn Council, Lynne McCafferty QC suggested work could have been started sooner.

She asked him about a concrete topping which he said was delayed by remedial works to steel taking place in February 2015.

She said: “I would suggest there was nothing to stop the concrete topping work from starting before the remedial works were completed?”

Mr Hudson replied: “It is not something I would expect,” and said there would be “additional costs” if it had been started while remedial works were ongoing.

The case, before His Honour Judge Stephen Davies, continues.