Barrhead’s local authority has been left powerless to push plans forward after the European Parliament altered international finance rules.

The changes have already put the stoppers on major national projects such as the Aberdeen bypass, but now the new £27 million high school project has also been temporarily shelved.

The school is now two years overdue after a court case over a land dispute resulted in the school being delayed by months and more than £5 million was added to the price tag. No timescale has been given for the length of the delay.

A spokeswoman for East Renfrewshire Council (ERC) said: “There have been changes to European accounting rules that will affect a variety of public sector finance projects, including Barrhead High.

“This may result in a delay to the school. It is completely outwith the council’s control.

“We can’t say at this stage what any delay would be.” It is just over two months since councillors gave the green light for construction workers to break ground on the new build, which will result in the demolition of a 12 month old skatepark and the Johnny Kelly Pavilion.

The delay follows an Office for National Statistics (ONS) review after a tightening of EU rules around publicly-funded building programmes.

All the projects under the review are currently being funded under the non-profit distribution (NPD) scheme, which uses private finance but caps the profit that firms can make.

Two other projects — Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary and the Edinburgh Royal Hospital for Sick Children — also need to be reclassified.

Scottish Labour’s shadow finance secretary Jackie Baillie called the decision a “hammer blow” to the Scottish Government’s entire investment strategy.

“The fact that this flagship project doesn’t meet EU requirements has huge implications for how we finance the building of roads, schools and hospitals,” she said.

The school has had a troubled conception over a long running saga in which ERC was forced to take itself to court after a row over the original site broke out.

The school was originally expected to cost around £22 million but now that figure has rocketed to more than £27 million due in large part to a fruitless legal battle that saw the council take its case in favour of constructing the school on common good land to the Court of Session.

The outcome did not end as the authority had hoped with the court ruling the land, which was gifted to the people of Barrhead by James Cowan of Rosshall in 1910, could not be used in accordance with its plans.

The council was thereafter forced to abandon the original site and it turned to a new location in the south west area of the park where a skatepark and pavilion currently sit, even though the authority had previously insisted there was no plan B.

It had been hoped that construction would be completed by December, 2016.