Extensive and over-budget renovations on the procurator fiscal office in Elgin town centre are expected to continue into July – two months later than originally planned.

The South Street building has been surrounded in fencing since August last year.

The eco-friendly renovation, which was originally budgeted to cost £2.2 million, was due to be completed this month.

However, as costs have spiralled to £3.5 million, the expected completion date has been pushed back to later in the summer.

Concerns have been raised by South Street businesses about the impact of extensive construction works at the Elgin procurator fiscal office, Gordon and Macphail and potentially the Junners building are having on footfall.

The Press and Journal can reveal it is hoped the Crown Office project will be completed on July 5. Barriers will be removed from the pavement at about the same time.

Escalating costs at the procurator fiscal office in Elgin

The extensive retrofitting of the procurator fiscal office in Elgin was announced last year as part of the Crown Office’s attempts to reach net zero targets.

All windows have been replaced, a new heating system has been installed and all external walls have been insulated.

However, just months after the work started, costs soared by more than 50% from £2.2 million to £3.5 million.

Inverness and Nairn MSP Fergus Ewing condemned the cost as “astronomical”, criticising the policy as “misguided”.

He told the Sunday Mail: “Plainly such level of costs are totally unaffordable and really quite absurd.

“It is simply pie in the sky to impose these madcap so called ‘green’ wheezes on householders in Scotland.”

In response, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service stressed it was “committed to ensuring value for public money in all contracts”.

However, it also added it was committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2040.

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