News / Building stops as Hoofields deal abandoned
A MULTI million pound council house building project has been put on hold after the tendering process was challenged by a building company.
The plan to build 76 houses at Hoofields, in north Lerwick, has now been delayed until a new approach to the £7.5 million development can be found.
Local construction firm DITT said that for the past five months they had been led to believe they would be building the new housing estate.
Director Peter Tait said the company was “extremely frustrated” by the sudden decision, saying they had turned down other work because of the Hoofields deal.
They would also now have to drop plans to recruit five apprentices, which will have a knock on effect on Shetland College, he said.
Councillors agreed in private on Wednesday to drop any agreement with DITT and have asked housing manager Anita Jamieson to come up with a new way forward for building the Hoofields houses by the end of August.
Work on the foundations has almost been completed and Shetland Islands Council housing spokesman Allison Duncan insisted that the project would still proceed.
“This will not stop new house building. The money used so far has not been wasted, but unfortunately there is going to be a delay,” he said.
“I am very sorry that is going to be the case and I am very disappointed DITT will lose the opportunity to take on five young apprentices. I sincerely hope that when things are sorted out with this delay and we start building again, whoever gets the contract can take on apprentices.”
Mr Duncan confirmed that there had been a challenge to the tendering process by another company who had tendered for the job, but said that he could not say anything more about it.
The Scottish government has changed the rules around funding for social housing since this project was first planned, with the possibility of partnership projects with the government and the private sector now on the cards.
Ms Jamieson said that the council might be able to attract in more outside funding to pay for the development.
“It’s better to get this right and be able to provide a more affordable solution into the future than carry on and do something that might not be the right thing to do financially,” she said.
However DITT said that they had been gearing up for this contract since February after being led to believe that it was going to go ahead, and this sudden loss of one of their largest ever projects was unexpected.
Mr Tait said: “There’s been a number of approaches over the last few months from people looking for work to be done and we have turned that away on the strength of information we have had from councillors and officials that the job was still going ahead. To have this pulled from us at the last minute is extremely frustrating.
“Initially we have had to cancel the recruitment of five school leavers that would have been four year apprenticeships and that has a consequent impact on Shetland College as well, because there’s a reduction in places they will have in their classrooms.”
The company had expected to start building the first 16 houses in May and have them completed by Christmas.
Shetland has a waiting list of around 1,000 people, predominantly for housing in the Lerwick area.
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