Council Agrees £600,000 Additional Funding for Eden Court Project

Highland Councillors today (Thursday) agreed to contribute an additional £600,000 towards the £3 million package of funds required to complete the extension and refurbishment of Eden Court, Inverness.

The Council is one of five sources of funding to meet the increased cost of the project, now estimated at £22,746,000.

Chief Executive Arthur McCourt told councillors that the Council was the “last brick in the wall” as the Scottish Executive had agreed to contribute £900,000 now and to consider a further £600,000 later in this financial year;  Highlands and Islands Enterprise were contributing £600,000; Eden Court fund-raising, £200,000; and the European Regional Development Fund, £100,000.

As owners of the building, the Council had already given a grant of £2,350,000 while Inverness Common Good Fund had contributed £1,000,000.

He said the £600,000 would be funded in part from the uncommitted balance of the 2007/8 Capital Discretionary Fund and the remainder from capital receipts.  The funding would not displace funds earmarked for any project.

The additional costs, said Mr McCourt, were due to revisions to design elements and actual costs differing from estimates; and unforeseen problems with the two existing buildings on the site, including extensive rot works in the Victorian Bishop’s Palace and structural movement in the theatre, built in 1976.