Perth and Kinross councillors have voted to approve potentially ploughing an additional £32.5 million into the controversial Cross Tay Link Road (CTLR).
At a meeting of Perth and Kinross Council's Finance and Resources Committee on Wednesday, September 7 an objector questioned whether this overspend was best value or morally right.
As well as being asked to approve additional funding for the CTLR councillors were asked to approve a further £700,000 on Perth City Hall.
PKC had previously budgeted £120 million for the CTLR and £26.5 million for the Perth City Hall project.
The paper - put before councillors on Wednesday - made uncomfortable reading for councillors and officers alike.
PKC's chief executive Thomas Glen said: "This is not a comfortable paper for any officer to be putting in front of you."
He told councillors there were four options:
- to look for the additional funding for the CTLR "as unpalatable as that is"
- to look to not make a decision on that funding just now and ask that decision to be made elsewhere by council. He estimated this would have a financial implication of about £500,000.
- delay this for a number of years. He said this would have "huge financial implications".
- cancel the project with a financial implication of £23 million.
Work on the CTLR and Perth City Hall is already well under way with millions having already been spent on both projects.
The council report stated a further £700,000 on Perth City Hall was required for the contingency budget due to "unanticipated additional
works surrounding archaeology and repairs to the building fabric".
In February 2022 councillors approved borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board which left them with £70 million uncommitted capacity.
On Wednesday, PKC's Finance and Resources Committee was asked to use up to £33.2 million from this £70m uncommitted capacity for two of PKC's biggest capital projects.
The paper put before councillors said a large chunk of the revised cost of the CTLR is due to construction inflation and supply chain difficulties "exacerbated by the impact of the conflict in Ukraine on global energy prices and the consequential impact on the supply and cost of construction materials". But £16.9 million of the revised additional cost was for a contingency budget for unknown potential risks.
Objector Professor Jill Belch called on councillors to stop the project and spend the money elsewhere. She suggested they sell back the land they had bought or build solar farms.
She added: "There are plenty of Perth and Kinross communities calling out for new homes and it's nonsense to suggest the CTLR is crucial for this."
Conservative group leader John Duff asked council leader Grant Laing if he could approach the Scottish Government for further funding.
Cllr Laing said: "I will write and cajole and get the begging bowl out wherever. I don't know if I'll have any success but I'm willing to do that."
Provost Xander McDade asked if the Finance and Resources Committee was the appropriate place to make the decision and if it should go before full council. PKC's head of Legal and Governance Services Lisa Simpson confirmed it was.
Provost McDade then seconded an amendment put forward by Bailie Alasdair Bailey to defer the (up to) £32.5m additional funding for the CTLR to full council to allow all 40 councillors to decide whether or not to continue, pause or cancel the project.
Putting forward his amendment the Labour councillor said: "Failing to back this amendment is tantamount to reneging on our declaration of a climate emergency in 2019."
The amendment was defeated by 12 votes to four. The four councillors supporting the amendment were Labour's Alasdair Bailey and Independent councillors Dave Cuthbert, Xander McDade and Colin Stewart. The same four councillors supported Cllr Colin Stewart's second part of his amendment when it went against the motion. It too was opposed by 12 votes to four.
The first part of Cllr Stewart's amendment called for quarterly updates to councillors on significant capital projects. This was agreed into the motion but the second part about more councillor involvement on project boards agreed by the leaders of each political group was rejected.
Moving the paper SNP councillor Stewart Donaldson said: "Both projects are going to bring huge economic benefits to the whole of Perth and Kinross.
"We remain focussed on the delivery on the rest of our approved capital budget."
Seconding SNP councillor John Rebbeck said: "I have heard many legitimate arguments for not doing it and indeed today from Dr Belch and I've heard many positive reasons to do it as well both environmentally and economically.
"But and I say this with a measure of discomfort - given where we are with the need for sustainable transport, 20-minute communities and as buses struggle due to a lack of drivers - the time for changing our minds on the CTLR is well past."
