At a meeting of the Cabinet on 3rd December 2020 the councillors agreed to the Director of the Environments bleating request to agree to cover his and his staffs overspend and cash give away.

Andy Cahill came out with, in our opinion, excuse after excuse to cover the loss.

In summary we can describe it as follows, however you can watch the whole sorry claims made by Cahill on the East Renfrewshire Council Youtube channel.

The throwing away cash item comes at 38.45 minutes and ends at 54.38 minutes.

Lots of competing figures were thrown about by Cahill, however these would appear to be the main ones, and the actual final amount, this includes bullet points, indicating where you the tax payer of East Renfrewshire will have to loose.

This relates only to the build of the six new nurseries.

The Director of the Environment wanted:-

£50K for a 'just in case fund' - Approved.
£803K compensation for Heron Brothers (Builders of 5 nurseries) - Approved.
£576K to Scottish Water for drainage requirements - Approved.
£233K additional contract charges - Approved.
£101K additional IT costs - Approved.
£233K incurred due to Parklands objection - Approved.
£380K compensation to the other 'nursery' builder - Approved.

Cahill's excuse to Cabinet Cllrs.

Heron Brothers who were provided with the multi million pound contract to build five of the six nurseries were hit by Covid restrictions and had to close down work.

They stopped work and secured the sites.

They retained some staff however the rest were laid off.

On resuming they were down to 50% staff initially so they are behind on the contract.

As are the other contractor working on the other nursery.

Heron Brothers decided to retain all of the hired portacabins on the five site, they also decided to retain all of the heavy vehicle equipment that was on hire.

So throughout the period of March to July 2020 they paid for the hire of equipment that they were not using, instead of returning it, and saving the costs.

According to Cahill this was the best choice.

Apparently Heron Brothers are looking for compensation from ERC for not working during Covid and the rental of Portacabins and heavy plant.

They have offered a deal at 50% of the costs which equals £803K.

Cahill states that at the commencement of the contract stage the council solicitors stated that they would not be liable for any compensation claims, as did the consultant that ERC had paid with regards to this contract.

However Cahill is of the view that in order to

Protect the economy
Avoid uncertainty
Maintain good working relations with Heron Brothers

that ERC share the Covid costs.

In addition pay compensation to the other nursery builder at £380K

Also in order to prevent substantial costs at any future litigation.

The independent consultant employed by ERC has also agreed that this payment would be good value.

Cahill's staff apparently tried to cut corners when it cam to joining the nurseries waste to the sewers.

They were aware that this was not approved by Scottish Water however they were of the opinion that Scottish Water would not object to their rules being broken.

They did and it has now cost an additional £196K to be paid to Scottish Water.