Missed deadlines and financial penalties have left confidence in Highland Council’s management of big projects at “breaking point,” according to the opposition SNP group.
It has cited two examples of costly delays – the River Ness floodworks and the new Ben Wyvis primary school in Conon Bridge.
But yesterday, council leader Margaret Davidson hit back at the claims, pointing out that many projects were initiated under the watch of the previous coalition administration which included the SNP.
The floodworks are expected to be more than £3million over budget, with a total cost of almost £38million.
Council chiefs apologised last autumn for a catalogue of failures exposed in an internal audit into the construction of the £9.3million school which was £862,000 over budget and the subject of complaints from parents about poor workmanship.
The SNP’s Richard Laird, who is chairman of the audit and scrutiny committee, said: “Despite repeated requests, the council’s leadership still hasn’t got on top of this problem, which is frustrating thousands of people and costing millions of pounds.”
He was speaking yesterday after it emerged that renovation works had overrun, delaying pupils’ return from the summer break to Duncan Forbes Primary in Inverness.
Councillor Davidson said: “We’ve been the administration of the council for just over a year. Many of these projects have been planned and partially executed for some time before that, so councillor Laird should look closer to home.
“We did a very thorough audit which I initiated on the Ben Wyvis school project. The upshot was that we put in place a policy on how we do project management.”
Mrs Davidson acknowledged there were “issues about communication, particularly on education projects.”
But she said there were many more education projects happening now than compared with the start of the decade.