Art gallery revamp facing delay and £7m shortfall

Staff raffle tickets are being sold at the city council HQ in an attempt to close a funding black hole of nearly £7million for the Aberdeen Art Gallery revamp.

Yesterday it emerged that the reopening of the gallery has been delayed for at least a year.

Council chiefs conceded that visitors will not get the chance to see the results of the ambitious £30million redevelopment of the gallery, Cowdray Hall and the Remembrance Hall until “late 2018 or early 2019”.

A report to the finance committee on December 1 is expected to provide further details on the delay and potential budget implications.

The council has pledged to pay £10million towards the project with that sum matched by the Heritage Lottery Fund. But the council’s search for private sector donations to cover the remaining third has fallen well short so far, netting only around £3.3million.

Now its own employees are trying to drum up more of the cash, offering raffle tickets for £2.

Opposition SNP finance spokesman Alex Nicoll said: “With nearly £7million still to be raised towards the art gallery redevelopment you’d think the council would be looking for ways to leverage significant sums of money.

“Instead hard-pressed staff are being asked to buy raffle tickets.”

Council co-leader Douglas Lumsden said: “This raffle was organised by staff themselves so I think we need to congratulate them if anything. Before the opposition start criticising our own staff they should check their facts.”

Comment, Page 29

The gallery’s reopening has been delayed