Council chiefs in Fife have come under fire after it emerged more than £51,000 has already been spent on aborted plans for a new playpark at Lochore Meadows.
Construction of the £750,000 facility had been due to get under way this spring.
But Fife Council confirmed in January that the original proposals would not be going ahead, after all the tenders submitted to carry out the work were rejected.
Spiralling costs and the impact of Covid-19 were blamed.
Now, figures obtained by Benarty Community Council show £35,200 has already been spent on work by council officers – while a further £16,380 has been spent on external consultants’ fees – with no playpark to show for it.
The council insists it is still committed to a replacement playpark, albeit at a different site, and that some of the spend will still be of use.
But Tom Kinnaird, chairman of the community council, says it is an “embarrassment”.
He said: “That money is now gone and we have absolutely nothing to show for it.
“The decision to now move on, relocating the play area, will mean a whole new set of surveys, landscaping designs, play equipment choices and a whole new planning application will need to be submitted.
“Furthermore, a new tender process will need to be created, meaning costs will be incurred again.”
Addressing the council’s decision to reject all the tender bids, he added: “With 41 firms interested, what we should have had was 41 individual expressions of creativity and design to choose from, and that would have squeezed every penny of value from the available budget.
“Instead what we got was a complete failure of the procurement process.
“Now we’re faced with Fife Council digging themselves even deeper into their hole by giving up on the idea and opting for something else.
“The community here are right to be concerned, and many are outraged at the new proposals being announced.”
Council ‘still fully committed’ to playpark
Sarah Roxburgh, Fife Council community manager, said: “We share the disappointment of local people that we’ve had to delay the planned replacement of Lochore Meadows Country Park’s play area.
“The original tender bids we received were higher than expected which is why we’re now reviewing the project, and I’d reassure the community that we’re still fully committed to the playpark replacement.
Our team are now looking at another site on the park
“Our team are now looking at another site on the park and, if it’s suitable, we’ll share the design and consult again with local people.
“There are no additional internal costs to the council for this work as the project is still to be delivered.
“We’re really looking forward to improving Fife’s most popular free attraction for the benefit of the local community and visitors to the area.”
Lochore Meadows attracted over 900,000 visitors during 2021, making it Fife’s most visited attraction.
