AN EXTRA £1.7million has been required to cover the cost of building six new nurseries in East Renfrewshire.

The Covid-19 pandemic, and its impact on the construction industry, as well as sewerage issues, have caused the rise.

Almost £27.4m had already been approved to provide the new nurseries, which are being built to help East Renfrewshire Council meet the Scottish Government’s increased early years entitlement of 1,140 hours childcare for all eligible children.

The six nurseries will be located at Glenwood, next to Glenwood Family Centre, Crookfur, at the Parklands pavilion, Overlee, at the Overlee Park pavilion and at Busby, Eaglesham and Cross Arthurlie primary schools.

Heron Brothers Ltd, the building contractor for all the nurseries except Cross Arthurlie, had been expected to finish work in July this year but had to shut down the sites in March due to the pandemic.

Work resumed in June but reduced staff and supplier issues extended the construction period.

The council’s cabinet agreed a compensation payment should be paid to Heron Brothers, sharing the financial impact. Terms have also been negotiated with the contractor for Cross Arthurlie. The total sum to be paid by the council is £803,000.

Environment director Andy Cahill told the cabinet: “I would advise, that if the council wasn’t to agree, we could face a potentially costly legal dispute.”
More money was also required to pay for sewerage works. The council’s engineering consultant had expected Scottish Water to allow a relaxation of rules around surface water drainage so “no allowance was made for this cost.”

“Unfortunately, it transpires that Scottish Water has toughened its stance in this regard during the design and construction period,” a council report reveals.

A request to Scottish Water to connect to the combined sewer for five new-build nurseries was initially refused.

Following negotiations, the council has been allowed to connect to the combined sewer at Crookfur, Eaglesham and Busby on the condition that “an equivalent amount of surface water is removed from the combined sewer within the same catchment.”

This work has cost £196,000.

At Overlee and Glenwood, the buildings have been connected to water courses, removing the need to use the combined sewer. This cost £380,000.

In total £526,000 was needed to pay for the sewerage works, with an extra £50,000 included as a contingency. Other additional costs, including post-contract changes, re-designs and on IT infrastructure, took the total additional costs to £910,000.

Savings from other council budgets reduced the outstanding amount to £1.34m, which will be found from other delays and deferrals caused by Covid-19.

Council leader Tony Buchanan said: “I think building six nurseries at  one time in normal circumstances was always going to be challenging but to do it on the back of the pandemic and everything that has happened has been extremely difficult.”