By Drew Sandelands

Copyright glasgowlive

Over £2m of extra City Deal funding can’t be used to help meet the soaring cost of revamping Aurs Road, council officials have said.

The transformation of Aurs Road — between Barrhead and Newton Mearns — has been hit by delays, causing the estimated bill for the project to rise.

East Renfrewshire councillors agreed to spend up to an additional £6.9m on the scheme, which is now expected to be finished by spring next year, at a meeting earlier this month.

The largest contributor to the project is the Glasgow City Region City Deal, which is funded by both the UK and Scottish governments, who are providing a combined £12.7m of the committed £23.6m budget.

With final costs now expected to be at least almost £28m, Cllr Gordon Wallace, Conservative, asked whether other City Deal funding could be reallocated to the Aurs Road work.

In September last year, East Renfrewshire Council’s cabinet agreed to use around £2.4m — which had been made available after the Glasgow Airport Access project was put on hold to allow a Metro scheme to be developed — on expanding the Crossmill Business Park in Barrhead.

Cllr Wallace said: “What is the scope for us to not go ahead with that £2.4m? I believe it’s not to be allocated until the end of next year.”

He wanted to know whether the money could be used to “part fund this additional cost” at Aurs Road. “We have ways of funding this but it will ultimately impact our revenue account because it still has to be paid for,” he said.

Cllr Wallace added the budget strategy group would have to consider “other cut backs on a whole host of costs that we are going to have to face”.

However, the council’s chief executive Steven Quinn, said: “I have actually gone to City Deal and asked if we can do that.

“Unfortunately the rules of the way the packages are financed don’t allow us to do that. That has been exhausted and unfortunately we cannot use that funding to support the Aurs Road completion.”

A council official added: “It’s not a decision within the Glasgow City Region, it is at Treasury level that we are not allowed to use the funds that are agreed for that project for another reason.”

The “highly complex” project at Aurs Road will transform it from a single carriageway road to a “safer, straighter road with a new active travel route and waterside promenade overlooking Balgray Reservoir”.

It started in January 2024 and had been due to finish in early 2025, but is now projected for completion in spring next year. A council report stated delays had “led to a rise in costs for a number of reasons”, including the redesign of some aspects and the need for extra survey work.

Revised estimates suggest the project will now cost around £28m, up from the initial forecast of £22.7m. However, cost sensitivity of 40% on construction costs, has been included to reflect risk, taking the estimate to £30.5m.

Councillors agreed to use £3m from reserves and borrow up to £3.9m to cover the shortfall at a meeting earlier this month. The council provided an initial £1.8m while active travel charity Sustrans contributed around £8.6m.

The report added if the cost increase is £4.3m, £1.3m would be borrowed at an annual repayment rate of £97,500 while if the rise hits £6.9m, £3.9m would be borrowed at an annual repayment rate of £292,500.

It continued: “While the project has taken longer than expected and costs have increased, these much-needed improvements will be worthwhile in the long term, providing better transport links and an impressive waterside promenade to benefit local communities.”

Cllr Andrew Morrison, Conservative, asked whether there could be any “design variations” to reduce the cost, such as “scaling back the active travel element”.

But a council official said “not at this stage”. She said the active travel is directly funded by Sustrans and that money would be lost if it was removed.

She added: “We’ve done our best to get together any pots that we have and we’re not really in a position to change the design at this stage.”

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