A £1.2million project to renovate one of Aberdeen’s most iconic buildings is facing major delays and spiralling costs.
The Press and Journal can reveal that the city council is embroiled in a dispute with its contractors over work on the Old Town House.
Crews at the site have found timber in the clock tower roof has been “severely affected by rot”, leaving it in a “potentially dangerous condition”.
Council chiefs admitted last night that there was a “problem” at the 150-year-old listed building, while opposition politicians said it was “extremely worrying” that work had stopped on a key section.
A secret report – written by council officials last month and seen by the Press and Journal – shows the contractor initially told officers in March that the bill for replacing the timber would be 1,500% higher than the price originally agreed.
To achieve “best value”, the council instead decided in May to remove that section of the work from the contract and launch a new tender process to replace the wooden frame.
However, the report states that the construction firm believes this would represent a “breach of contract” by the council.
It is understood that legal wrangling over the issue is continuing.
A spokesman for the local authority said discussions were ongoing but that it was not prepared to provide a “running commentary” on the progress of those talks.
Kevin Stewart, SNP MSP for Aberdeen Central, said: “It’s extremely worrying that it seems that a contractor has stopped work midway through because of disputes about the cost of the work.
“I would have thought that all of that would have been dealt with before the work went to tender.
“It’s worrying that this situation has happened and that work has had to cease on one of Aberdeen’s most historic buildings.
“I find it extremely concerning that Aberdeen City Council did not ensure that it was getting best value for this contract at the very beginning of the process.”
Labour’s Willie Young, finance convener at the local authority, hit back at Mr Stewart, his predecessor in the post.
“The reason that we’ve having to do the work in the first place is because when Kevin Stewart was in administration he refused to do any work to the Old Town House, which meant it decayed even further,” he said.
“They didn’t do the maintenance because we had £127million of budget cuts.
“There has been a problem in that the contractors on the roof have found it is worse than we thought and we’re having to rectify the situation.
“The most important thing here is that this is an iconic building that needs to have proper care and attention.”
The confidential briefing note said the dispute had “caused a delay to the anticipated completion date for the leadwork to the spire and is the subject of ongoing discussions”.
The council has told the building firm it must continue with remaining sections of the refurbishment work and that it does not believe it is required to provide compensation for loss of profit.
However, a separate dispute has broken out over the hire of £2,280-a-week scaffolding at the Town House.
Local authority chiefs had wanted to keep the structure up in order to carry out cleaning at the building, however the contractor has said the scaffolding is preventing workers from completing the rest of the work.
The upgrade is being carried out more than a year after lead fell from the roof of the A-listed building at the corner of Castle Street and Broad Street.
A council spokesman said: “We are committed to the refurbishment of the 150-year-old Old Town House and clock tower and also to ensuring value for money.
“Discussions with the contractor are ongoing, but we are not going to provide a running commentary on those private and commercially sensitive talks.”
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