Parliament upkeep bill tops £4m

Published on Monday 5 October 2009 09:55

TAXPAYERS have had to fork out more than £4 million in maintenance costs for the Scottish Parliament building since it opened five years ago.

New figures show the bill last year alone reached more than 1.3m. Today MSPs blamed the elaborate design and said little could be done but pay up.

Figures released by the parliament under freedom of information show planned maintenance – such as re-varnishing the oak poles which decorate the building, keeping the lifts going and cleaning the windows – totalled 2.7m for the years 2004-8.

Unscheduled maintenance – such as repairs to doors, lifts, windows and lighting – added another 1.3m to the costs.

The figures also showed that one contractor, Norland, was paid a total of 5.1m for mechanical, electrical and fabric maintenance and work on security projects.

Lift company Otis has been paid 122,313 for maintenance. Contractor ISS has received 77,221 for landscape maintenance and Honeywell was paid 48,507 for security maintenance.

Critics of the 414m Holyrood building raised concerns during construction about the high maintenance costs which would result from a building where every component was specially designed.

Independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald said there was little that could be done now: "The place has to be maintained and the reason we have such extraordinarily high maintenance costs is the design."

But Ms MacDonald said the public would not be impressed. She said: "People are doing everything they can to save money in their own household expenses. We can't really save on the expenses in this place because everything about it gobbles up money."

Edinburgh Pentlands MSP David McLetchie added: "It's obvious to anyone who has been to the parliament that it's a high- maintenance building."

"It's an elaborate, sophisticated construction and having cost ten times more to build than it was meant to, perhaps it should come as no surprise that it is then expensive to maintain as well."

A Scottish Parliament spokeswoman said: "Holyrood is a unique building which is used by up to 1,000 people every day as well as more than 350,000 visitors a year. Naturally this has an impact on maintenance. We constantly review and develop our maintenance plans to ensure that cost-effective solutions are delivered."