East Ayrshire Council will now spend £25m on refurbishing the existing facilities at Doon Academy, Dalmellington Primary, Dalmellington Area Centre and Doon Leisure Centre.

A report to the local authority’s cabinet earlier this week revealed that projected costs of the state-of-the-art new build had rocketed from £33m in 2019 to £41m in 2022.

High inflation, cost of materials and issues around new flooding guidance have now seen this price increase to £62m.

To illustrate the impact of these problems, the report said that, had the £59m Barony Campus been built now, it would cost between £120m and 145m.

The report to Cabinet went on to acknowledge the need to upgrade the school facilities with a ‘targeted and realistic’ investment that would aim to include as many features that were in the new build plan as possible within the reduced budget.

The refurbishment work is expected to start in 2025 for around three years.

The re-profiled Capital Investment Programme over the next five years will invest £13.5m to modernise and refurbish the Galleon Centre in Kilmarnock.

Councillors also gave the green light for a number of other ‘critical’ projects to continue as planned over the next two years, including: construction works at Dunlop Early Childhood Centre; refurbishment of St Sophia’s Primary, Kilmaurs Primary, Stewarton Academy and Galston Office; completion of works at Merlin Park and Kilmarnock bus station; finalising plans for Ayrshire Innovation Park at Moorfield as part of Ayrshire Growth Deal; the marketing of Dunlop Street site for sale and the demolition of the multi-storey car park.

In recognition of the growing demand for Additional Support Needs support within education, provision, Councillors also approved immediate investment plans for Willowbank School, Onthank Primary and Lainshaw Primary.

A spokesperson for East Ayrshire Council said: “These are challenging times and our financial position is undoubtedly the most difficult one yet, but we are still committed to doing the very best we can for our communities.

“This revised capital programme prioritises where we need to focus our investments across our learning estate; wellbeing, leisure and culture projects; economic growth and local infrastructure, in the short, medium and longer term.

“By refocusing our capital investments in this way we can be confident that we will be able to continue to deliver sustainable services for our communities – now and into the future.

“Our job is now to ensure that we obtain the absolute maximum value out of the funds that are available to us to see these projects through to completion and this will require innovation, creativity and above all else, an acceptance of change.

“This revised programme represents significant ongoing investment on the part of the Council, but we will continue to explore additional funding opportunities to support these plans wherever possible.”