Multimillion-pound renovation work on one of Aberdeen’s most historic buildings is likely to run over time and budget, a new council report reveals.
The city council’s finance committee will meet again today to discuss ongoing delays to Provost Skene’s House.
The home, first built in 1545, has been under development and was expected to open alongside the Marischal Square scheme early next year as a new £1.5million “hall of heroes” celebrating the city’s most famous sons and daughters.
But it emerged that a new business case was being prepared for the attraction following a condition survey and it was unlikely to open until January 2019.
Under the management of risk section in the report the likelihood of “budgetary increases” and “programme increases” were listed as “high”.
The report adds that mitigation measures have been put in place including putting the appointment of a project manager in Faithful and Gould meaning there is now a “medium” likelihood.
But Aberdeen Central MSP Kevin Stewart said the latest delay was not good enough.
“This unacceptable delay is the latest failure in the management of this refurbishment.
“In April this year the Health and Safety Executive found piled up rubbish was blocking safe access for workers after I raised concerns about the state of the site.
“The City Council needs to have a long and hard look at how they have dealt with the Provost Skene’s House refurbishment and let the people of Aberdeen know why a project concerning our history and heritage has been so poorly managed.
“Delaying the reopening until 2019 is unacceptable and folk deserve to know what is going on.”
But council co-leader Douglas Lumsden said that the authority took the future of the historic building “seriously” adding that councillors would be given options in private.
He added: “For me, it seems that the project was not scoped out properly from the start.
“We will have options in front of us for exactly what we want to do with the house, we need to decide how much we want to spend and the extent of the works we want.
“This is one of our treasures and we want to look after it properly.”
