Urgent action needed on Lews Castle College repairs says MSP

The Scottish Conservative MSP’s call has come after an Audit Scotland report highlighted a backlog of over £163m of repairs facing colleges across Scotland.

Lews Castle College UHI in Stornoway is faced with over £2m worth of repairs, with almost £400,000 worth classified as “urgent”.

Overall, the total repair bill for UHI’s ten sites tops £24m, with almost £2m classified as “urgent”.

Donald Cameron MSP said: “It is a fact of life that any working building will require repairs, some of which will be urgent.

However, the fact that the University of Highlands and Islands has been allowed to build up a repair bill of over £24m, with £2m worth of urgent repairs, is of extreme concern to both staff and students.

It is clear that the SNP Government have taken their eye off the ball on this, and that their failure to monitor the situation has been laid bare by Audit Scotland’s report.”