Plans for a new sports pitch in Barrhead have been delayed due to rising costs, with two replacement projects progressing instead.
East Renfrewshire Council intended to use Scottish Government funding for a replacement multi-use games area at Dunterlie Resource Centre, but it emerged the work would now cost more than £450,000 — over £200,000 higher than the original estimate.
Council officials decided instead to share the £250,000, initially set aside for Dunterlie, between two other schemes - shopfront improvements in Neilston and business start-up space for Young Enterprise Scotland - to avoid losing the opportunity to use the money.
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The multi-use games area project had been awarded the biggest share of the £635,000 allocation to East Renfrewshire Council for 2021/22 from the government’s place based investment programme.
However, any contracts had to be signed by the end of March this year and the tender for the Dunterlie scheme revealed the price had increased to £450,200.
“This meant that should the project proceed the council would have had to find an additional £200,000 from its own resources to cover the shortfall between the total cost and the grant funding awarded,” a council report explained.
“Given the circumstances regarding substantial cost increases related to this project a decision was made by the director of environment not to proceed with this project at this time at least until market conditions have stabilised or improved.”
The document added council officials will “explore more financially viable options that could be considered for future years funding”.
In talks with the Scottish Government, the council was advised that no new activity could be funded with the 2021/22 grant, but the funds could be allocated to existing projects. To avoid losing the whole £250,000, council officials identified two schemes which could be “expanded quickly”.
They have used £240,000, awarding £180,000 to the Neilston shop front improvement scheme, which will allow a further 13 shops to benefit, and £60,000 for work on Young Enterprise Scotland’s premises at Rouken Glen Park training centre.
There had originally been £100,000 for Neilston shops to “improve the appearance of the ground floor frontages of commercial premises both occupied and vacant within the village”.
The Young Enterprise Scotland scheme was already a substitute project, approved in March this year to replace plans to replace stage lighting at Clarkston Halls as the contract wasn’t able to be signed before the deadline.
The extra funding will be used to create additional new business start-up and event space, including further classrooms being installed. It is hoped the work will expand the organisation's “employability offer to young people”.
Seven projects were initially selected for funding from the investment programme in November 2021. The aim of the fund is to support policies such as town centre revitalisation, community-led regeneration and 20-minute neighbourhoods, where residents can meet their day-to-day needs within 20 minutes of their home.
East Renfrewshire will receive £551,100 in 2022/23 and £384,100 in each of the three remaining years of the five-year programme.
