Some say the Scottish Parliament is a handsome building and others quite the opposite. The building is 5 years old, yet £94,000 has been spent on repairing leaky roofs, £8,000 has gone on rewiring lights in the MSPs' accommodation block and £20,000 spent on treating wooden slats. It opened in 2004, 10 times over budget and three years behind schedule. About 900 construction faults were identified.
Parliament officials confirm that new bollards and concrete benches are to be installed at a cost of £1.5 million to make the building less vulnerable to terrorist attack. It follows the installation of a chicane near the vehicle entrance to parliament and turnstiles outside Queensberry House and the Canongate entrances earlier this year, at a cost of £524,000.
Holyrood officials have signed an eight year contract worth £13 million, to keep its windows and doors watertight. The contract also includes maintenance of lighting and electrical goods. The previous maintenance contract, which covered the first five years of the building cost £5.5 million.
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said the Holyrood building had been a black hole for taxpayers' money.
"There is no way a brand new building should need this level of maintenance and a more cost-effective option should be explored. This looks like a classic example of the public sector paying over the odds for contract work."
I can't understand why either. Such was the desperation of Donald Dewar and his luvvie friends to have this particular architect and design that all other aspects of the project were thrown out the window and now the taxpayer is left with a maintenance bill which could possible build a couple of decent sized schools or more. Astonishing.
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