Almost £600,000 has been spent looking into a multi-million redevelopment of Stirling Council’s offices – only for the council to shelve the idea because it can’t afford it.
Opposition SNP group leader Scott Farmer has described the situation as “a waste of taxpayers’ money that’s quite frankly an utter disgrace”.
Officers confirmed at a meeting last Thursday that the investigative process into plans for a £31million revamp of Old Viewforth had cost a total of £590,000.
However, they said, given the substantial capital costs of the proposed project amid the financial constraints local authorities were working within, they could not recommend commissioning any further design work or progressing a detailed business case.
There will now be a focus on managing the existing footprint at the council’s Viewforth headquarters, including rewiring and insulation, reroofing Teith House and Endrick House, along with the Customer First and Raploch Campus office spaces.
Stirling Council leader, Labour councillor Margaret Brisley, described the situation as “unfortunate”.
She added: “We know what we would like to do and that would be to have offices that meet all the requirements and would be a good working environment for our staff as well.
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“It is quite simple, we can’t afford to do it now. We are making the best of improving the accommodation we’ve got.
“It would be nice to be on one site but unfortunately we can’t afford to do that, so it’s a longer term, slower progress that we’ll make.”
Opposition group leader, SNP councillor Scott Farmer, said the situation “beggars belief”.
He added: “To say it was unfortunate is an understatement.
“It has been unaffordable from day one and highlighted time and again on this side of the chamber and here we are £590,000 later we are back at stage one. This highlights the ineptitude of this Labour administration, blindly backed by the Tories.”
Support of £470,000 had been provided from Invest to Save Fund monies for the initial outline business case on the major project, agreed at a meeting of the council in May 2023, while another £120,000 came from the same fund and agreed by the council in February of this year.
Earlier this year three options for office accommodation were put before a special council meeting with councillors voting to continue consideration of two of these.
Councillors also agreed to consider the sale of land assets in and around Old Viewforth to help fund the development.
The first option, costing £37m, would have seen the refurbishment of the existing office accommodation at Old Viewforth and Teith House in Springkerse, releasing other operational buildings. However, the second option – seen as the favoured choice – would have refurbished Old Viewforth and extended it, with Teith House and other operational buildings being closed. It came with £31.4m price tag.
At the council meeting last week, councillors separately gave the go ahead for the marketing of earmarked lots around Old Viewforth, but shelved the major office revamp proposals.
Officials said while estimated costs remained at a similar level to those reported earlier in the year, officers couldn’t recommend going ahead on the major capital works given current budget constraints and instead were recommending concentration on areas such as insulation, windows, roofing and workplace improvements to Old Viewforth and other buildings, requiring less substantial investment.
SNP councillor Susan McGill said: “So am I right in thinking we’ve spent £590,000 to reach a decision that we are not going to progress?”
Officers said the work had given assurance over what could and could not be done with Old Viewforth for the long term and it’s potential had been established. They confirmed that refurbishment work would still be “pretty substantial costs in their own right” including an estimated reroofing of Teith House at around £600,000, Viewforth rewiring at £350,000-500,000 and window replacements of around £15,000 per window.