Aberdeen City Council paid more than £1.2million to the consultants who drafted new designs for Union Terrace Gardens, new documents reveal.
In September, LDA Design – the firm behind London’s Olympic Park – was drafted in to drive forward the £20million revamp of the Victorian park.
A public contract for the work has since emerged showing the work was valued at £1,247,465, and that a total of 11 tenders were considered.
Public consultation on the designs has now closed after a week-long “engagement exercise” which gained more than 1,400 responses.
Among the plans put forward by the firm – which was also behind the likes of the Gorky Park revamp in Moscow – include a new entrance plaza, lift access from Union Terrace, a “halo” lighting feature and community gardens alongside the rail track.
But costs have already risen by around £3million since LDA were appointed with the original price set at £17million.
Money has been set aside in the city centre masterplan budget to cover the work.
But SNP group leader Stephen Flynn said there were questions to be answered over the expenditure given there was no guarantee that the designs would go ahead.
He said: “I think the public will be rightly surprised to find that already so much money have been spent without any certainty that the proposals will even go ahead.
“The administration has a clear record of failing to deliver projects on time and budget so I can well understand that people want certainty on this.”
Liberal Democrat group leader Ian Yuill added: “I think the main thing is that the council gets value for money on any contract signed.
“Clearly the administration has form on projects going over budget so I for one will be scrutinising carefully to see what happens on the ground.”
But finance convener Willie Young said such prices were “standard” and that the cost issue had not been previously raised.
He said: “This went through the finance committee unanimously and nobody said anything about the cost.
“There has been division in this city and council over Union Terrace Gardens for nine years now – it’s important that we make some progress.
“LDA are an internationally renowned firm. If you go for quality at the start you get quality at the end, basically.”