Community leaders in Barrhead have hit out after plans for a new sports pitch were put on hold due to rising costs.

East Renfrewshire Council intended to use Scottish Government funding for a replacement multi-use games area at Dunterlie Resource Centre but it emerged the work would now cost around £450,000 – more than £200,000 higher than the original estimate.

Instead, council officials have decided to share the £250,000 initially set aside for Dunterlie between two other schemes – shopfront improvements in Neilston and business start-up space for Young Enterprise Scotland – to avoid losing the opportunity to use the money.

The multi-use games area project had been awarded the biggest share of the £635,000 allocation to East Renfrewshire Council for 2021/22 from the government’s place-based investment programme.

However, any contracts had to be signed by the end of March this year – and the tender for the Dunterlie scheme revealed the price had increased to £450,200.

“This meant that, should the project proceed, the council would have had to find £200,000 from its own resources to cover the shortfall between the total cost and the funding awarded,” a council report explained.

“Given the circumstances regarding substantial cost increases related to this project, a decision was made by the director of environment not to proceed with this project at this time, at least until market conditions have stabilised or improved.”

In talks with the Scottish Government, the council was told that no new activity could be funded with the 2021/22 grant but the funds could be allocated to existing projects.

To avoid losing the whole £250,000, council officials identified two schemes which could be “expanded quickly.”

They have used £240,000, awarding £180,000 to the Neilston shopfront improvement scheme, which will allow a further 13 stores to benefit, and £60,000 for work on Young Enterprise Scotland’s premises at Rouken Glen Park training centre.

However, Rosemarie McInally, chair of Barrhead Community Council, said she is concerned that such a large sum of money that was earmarked for the town will now be spent elsewhere.

She added: “It is a lot of money to lose.

“There are plenty of things that could be done in Barrhead. It should be kept in the community.”

Seven projects were selected for funding from the investment programme in 2021.

East Renfrewshire will receive £551,100 in 2022/23 and £384,100 in each of the three remaining years of the five-year programme.

Initially, £100,000 was set aside to improve shopfronts in Neilston.

The Young Enterprise Scotland scheme was already a substitute project, approved in March to replace plans for new stage lighting at Clarkston Halls as that contract couldn’t be signed before the deadline.