Here we are again.
A decade after Lord Fraser's report on the lack of control over the building of the Scottish Parliament called for more rigour and transparency in the commissioning and construction of public buildings, it emerges that Dundee's V&A Museum cannot be built for the £49m previously budgeted.
In fact, the preferred contractors for the prestigious project, BAM, have confirmed the signature building cannot be built for less than £27m over the original price. Associated costs will take the new total to £80.11m
Dundee City Council is asking the Scottish Government to help make up the gap. The building's opening will also be delayed by a year until 2018.
It is baffling that such mistakes are repeated so regularly, and that public sector planners can't seem to deliver remotely accurate figures about the likely expense of such major construction schemes.
A report published by the council confirms that cost-cutting measures have been considered. A potential £6.5m in savings is possible by reducing design specifications. However the effect these would have in reducing the quality of the building and its visual impact have been deemed "so severe and detrimental" that they cannot be pursued.
As the first purpose-built design museum in the UK outside of London, it is important that the V&A is a statement of intent and not a cut-price compromise. But that should not mean a blank cheque.
Questions need to be asked about this and also what other government priorities the extra money might fund. The City Council's claim that it can locate an additional £6.5million for the V&A without compromising other services is frankly implausible in the context of the savings the authority is already having to make.
Yet it is the rise in cost which is a surprise, not necessarily the cost itself. The new V&A still compares with Glasgow's Riverside Museum, another cultural attraction in a landmark building which cost £74m.
Or in the worlds of sport and entertainment, Glasgow's Velodrome was built for £113m while music venue the Hydro came in at £125m - although it is claimed to generate more than that every year for the local economy.
The V&A is the cornerstone of Dundee's waterfront development and its location in Scotland a cultural coup which will also generate a substantial level of business, estimated to be worth £11.1m a year to the local economy.
Scottish Labour is calling for an inquiry into the cost increase and the delay in construction but it is not clear what this would achieve, apart from risking further delay.
The questions here are not the same as those faced by Lord Fraser with the Holyrood building, whose backers seemed determined to opt for higher quality over cost at every turn. But there are questions about how and why the council's original estimate was so misguided.
They should be answered, but that should not be allowed to derail the construction process.
The revised total includes agreement from BAM to complete the building for a fixed price of £76,16m. The eventual tender documents must be watertight on this point to ensure the cost cannot spiral like so many similar projects in the past.
There are few who would not want to see this development succeed and ministers must work with the council and other funders to ensure it does, within the budget cap now proposed by the local authority.
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