Problems with the heating and electrical systems at Angus Council’s showpiece Forfar HQ have led to thousands of pounds of unplanned repairs.
Angus House at Orchardbank opened almost exactly four years ago.
Word that it was largely responsible for overspending on a council maintenance budget drew comment at a meeting of the council’s corporate services committee in Forfar.
“Angus House is less than four years old,” said Councillor Rob Murray. “We are told unplanned maintenance on a new building has led to overspending.”
The corporate services department is responsible for eight buildings across the county, including Angus House.
In his annual report to the committee, director of corporate services Colin McMahon included a section on asset management. That showed the maintenance budget for the eight properties overspent in the year to the end of March and around £10,000 of the unplanned expenditure was due to problems at Angus House.
Mr McMahon said: “A total of £70,568 was spent on planned and unplanned maintenance in 2010/11 against an overall budget of £60,000. The overspend was mainly due to higher than anticipated unplanned maintenance at Angus House.”
He added: “Given it is a new building, we really roll along on a practically zero budget basis and have to deal with matters as they come forward. We had some problems with the heating systems and also electrical problems within the year.”