Councillors in Glenrothes have voiced their frustration at the spiralling cost of efforts to create a family garden and play park at a homeless shelter in the town.
The £283,000 project was due to be completed earlier this year but was delayed because of the pandemic.
Now the YMCA, the organisation behind it, is seeking a further £50,000 to complete the works.
The charity blamed a rise in equipment costs and VAT charges since the project was first put out to tender in 2018.
Plans to create a healthy living garden and play area, including a green gym, at the organisation’s Alexander Road premises were approved after funding was secured from the Big Lottery, Fife Environmental Trust, Cycling Scotland and Fife Council.
The site would also include a communal garden for vegetable growing and is intended to benefit residents of Warout, the YMCA-run Accommodation for Single Homeless (WASH) scheme, and their families.
The charity asked Fife Council for a further handout of £26,750 to help meet the shortfall.
The request was agreed by the Glenrothes area committee this week, on the condition that the remaining funding could be secured and a deal on public access to the finished park can be struck.
However, some members voiced concerns at the hold-up.
Ross Vettraino said the cash shortfall was “disappointing” while fellow SNP councillor, Craig Walker, branded the project a “botch up from the start”.
Mr Walker questioned how VAT costs in the original tender had not been accounted for in the overall cost of the delivering the project.
“It seem there has been a catalogue of errors going through this project and now we are asking the tax payer to foot the bill,” he said.
Mary Goodwin-Wilks, Glenrothes YMCA, director said “difficult lessons” had been learned.
She said the charity had approached seven other possible funders, including Big Lottery, Crisis and Scotland Green Network, and had turned to the council as a last resort.
“It’s the first time that the charity has undertaken a project of this kind and this scale which has, at times, proved challenging,” she said.
“Nobody is funding concrete earth works, everyone is, quite rightly, funding the support of vulnerable people and the homeless during this pandemic.”
