Classroom scheme and vehicle testing centre among projects to exceed budgets

Treasury seeking additional £1.5m for over budget projects across four departments

Work to improve classrooms at a Douglas primary school is more than £400,000 over budget.

The figure has been revealed as four government departments seek extra funding from Treasury after a range of projects exceeded their forecast costs.

Treasury Minister Dr Alex Allinson will ask Tynwald to approve the additional costs of almost £1.5m at this month's sitting.

One of the overspends comes from the Department of Education, Sport and Culture, with a £418,503 excess on phase two of its classroom scheme at St Mary's RC School, which was originally expected to cost £3.9m.

Unforeseen additional works and a delay of funds from the church are among the reasons for the higher spend, with a further update on the new cost of the project expected later this year.

The total also includes the Department of Infrastructure's strategic structural maintenance scheme, which Treasury says came in £380,000 over budget as a result of spending not being reduced sufficiently to recover previous budget accelerations.

Meanwhile, construction of the new Vehicle Testing Centre exceeded its £3.5m budget by just over £200,000.

The project is said to have been significantly impacted by Covid restrictions on two occasions, resulting in increased time and costs, with materials used during the build rising significantly.

Treasury adds that a late stage land dispute resulted in the entire site having to be redesigned, with the building rotated by 180 degrees.

Elsewhere, the Department of Health and Social Care's asset replacement programme recorded a £448,595 overspend, which Treasury says is down to an administrative error which led the DHSC to believe the budget for the project was a higher amount, while a late invoice meant the Department for Enterprise recorded a £5,263 overspend on archive works for the Public Records Office.

A total of £1,134,919 is required for the 2021-22 financial year, with £323,255 for the 2022-23 period - if approved the funds will come from the Capital Financing Reserve.