South Ayrshire Council chiefs will be forced to cough up £200,000 to remove a phone mast from the doomed High Flats in Ayr.
Officials at County Buildings have spent almost a year negotiating the removal of the equipment – owned by telecoms giant EE.
Ayrshire Live can reveal the bill is now set to tip the scales at nearly TREBLE the original estimate of £75,000.
The phone firm has a contract for its mast to sit atop one of the three tower blocks until 2025.
But with work now underway to flatten the buildings, talks over a financial settlement to move the mast are intensifying.
EE plans to move its equipment to nearby Craigie Way once the Riverside blocks have hit the ground.
But it's understood they are to receive a substantial six-figure sum as compensation for the switch.
In January, South Ayrshire bosses said they were "finalising the agreements for an early termination of the existing agreement".
This week, they admitted discussions with EE were still "ongoing".
A senior council source revealed: "This has proved far more difficult than it should have done but, quite rightly, EE have pointed to the fact that their contract is in place until 2025.
"If we want to move that mast, we've going to have to pay the price. And ultimately for those flats to come down, the mast has to go with them."
Bulldozers moved in at the site last week with work beginning to strip cladding and demolish the first of three iconic towers.
The buildings have dominated the skyline of Ayr for more than 50 years but will now make way for new social housing.
It follows a safety review of tower blocks in light of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.
Conservative election hopefuls had pledged to save the buildings if they were voted into office in May – but their promise quickly turned to dust when extensive asbestos was discovered within the towers.
Council chiefs say two of the three blocks will be fully demolished within six weeks.
They will then turn their attention to the final block, on which the EE mast sits, subject to final agreement on its removal.
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