East Ayrshire Council forking out £100,000 to repair bridge it didn't know it was responsible for

dailyrecord.co.uk:

East Ayrshire Council have had to fork out almost £100,000 to repair a Newmilns railway bridge for which it didn’t know it was responsible.A new report revealed that the cost of work at the former bridge at Stoneygate Road had increased by more than 160 percent, rising from an original £38,000 to £99,000.It was one of three bridge repair contracts which increased by more than 10 percent.The others were Galston to Newmilns Cyclepath and the Victoria Bridge in Kilmarnock.The projects are being considered by the cabinet on Wednesday, as any increases of more than 10 percent require officers to provide a justification for additional funds.A number of factors were reported to have increased the contract to realign a 350m section of the River Irvine which was threatening to cut the cyclepath between Galston and Newmilns.The cabinet report said: “The requirement for SEPA Licences, treatment of invasive weeds and dealing with nesting birds complicated aspects of the works.“Unfortunately, just after the river works were completed a very high flood event occurred which partially damaged a section of the recently installed works.”The repair work then had to wait until last summer as fish spawning season meant it would not be permitted.The original contract for £241k was subsequently increased to £326.5k – a 35 percent rise.The largest project of the three was the refurbishment of the Victoria Bridge in Kilmarnock.One of the issues which arose during the refurbishment was the discovery that the paint on the bridge contained polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a substance that is classed as hazardous.The council agreed that the only way to dispose of the material was by incineration at a very high temperature.However, this method was