Dirty land find hits work at school

The discovery of contaminated l and has delayed the completion of demolition and landscaping work which was to follow the construction of the new Alyth Primary School building by at least another two months.

The council’s property sub committee heard last week the contaminated land was detected beneath an already demolished boiler house and that as a result all of the demolition and landscaping work involved in phase two of the £9m school replacement and refurbishment project cannot now be completed on schedule.

Elected members further heard on Wednesday that work to move the potentially hazardous land off the school site, where pupils have already moved into a brand new building, will likely set the local authority back tens of thousands of pounds more.

The council’ s senior business and resources manager, Greg Bola nd, first told the committee the demolition and landscaping work, which was due to be completed in October, will now not be completed until at least December because of the unexpected discovery.

Perth City North councillor Dave Doogan then asked Mr Boland how much it would cost the council to deal with the contaminated land and which of the local authority’s budgets would have to absorb the cost of the work.

Mr Bola nd replied the work to transport the contaminated land off-site had been estimated to be worth around £76,000 and would come from the schools budget.