A dozen council projects across Aberdeen have cost the city almost £100 million more than originally planned, according to the council’s former depute leader.
Aberdeen Central MSP Kevin Stewart has urged the current Conservative and Labour-led administration to “hand over the reins” to the SNP due to the overspend on 12 major developments throughout the Granite City.
Included in the dozen projects that have gone over budget are the Aberdeen Art Gallery, which ballooned from £30 million to more than £34 million and the Third Don Crossing whose cost went from £15.7 million to more than £22 million.
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Th cost of the Treasure Hub doubled from £3.6 million to more than £6 million.
Mr Stewart said: “It is beyond belief that overspending has reached such a catastrophic level, as this council continues to fail to deliver projects on time and on budget.
“A number of these projects are not even finished yet, meaning the costs could continue to spiral out of control.
“Overspending is the hallmark of these Tory and suspended Labour councillors, so it’s high time this cabal hand over the reins to the SNP before these costs swell even further.
“The fact is the shambolic Tory-Labour council has overspent nearly £100 million on these projects, some of which are utterly resented by people in the city.”
Douglas Lumsden, co-leader of Aberdeen City Council said: “It really is a bit rich of Kevin Stewart MSP to criticise Aberdeen City Council on overspend council projects, when at each and every budget presented by SNP Councillor Stephen Flynn over the last five years, the SNP mirrored to a penny the same projections that the administration used to reflect the budget position.
“The reason the SNP mirrored our position was because hard-working professional officers are tasked with drawing up the estimated costs of each project, not councillors.
“It is disappointing that Kevin Stewart MSP has criticised our officers in this way given the SNP chose to back officer’s figures in their budgets.
“In respect to the projects themselves, residents remember that when in power, the SNP were responsible for the accounts commission hearings and £127 million of revenue budget cuts which had a devastating effect on the vulnerable, the poor and the infirm.
“Thankfully, Audit Scotland now say that the city’s finances are well managed.”
