A Perth school project’s spiralling costs and delays have come under fire.
Councillor Willie Wilson accused the council of being “secretive” over the cost of the Perth High sports hall on Oakbank Road, which is now scheduled to be completed in January.
“This scheme has not been without its controversy,” said Mr Wilson.
“First of all, the cost of the sports hall rocketed from £2 million to £3.9m.
“When I asked for an explanation of the increase in cost and moved that a further report be provided on this matter, that request was refused by the SNP administration.
“I think that’s a sad indication of our times that an elected member cannot ask for detailed reasons why a building costs nearly twice as much as was originally planned.”
Mr Wilson said the issue of how long the project had taken was also a concern to him.
“It has taken nearly as long to build the sports hall at a cost of nearly £4m as it did to build a completely new primary school at a cost approaching £9m,” he said.
“Members of the public must be wondering why it takes so long to build a structure at less than half the cost.
“There has been further delay in the completion date and we are now told that it will be January before the building is occupied.”
Mr Wilson said an unfortunate impact of the work had been the parking of contractors’ vehicles.
“Inevitably, there is a lack of parking within the school grounds and this has led to parking in surrounding residential streets and on Oakbank Road itself,” he said.
“While I understand that the tradesmen working on the scheme have to park somewhere, it is unfortunate that road safety in Oakbank Road has been compromised because of this.”
A council spokesperson set out their position saying: “The initial construction programme provided by the contractor was for a build period of 54 working weeks commencing November 3 2014.”
“This programme is currently five weeks behind schedule due to days lost because of bad weather early in the project and significant ground level changes adding complexity to the build process.
“The value of a project does not directly relate to the construction time required.
“The cost of the building reflects the scale of the facilities provided.
“This facility will significantly enhance the opportunities that young people and members of the community have to engage in indoor sports.”