£18,000 DRY ROT BILL
The latest outbreak of dry rot in Selkirk’s Victoria Halls is costing £18,000 to remove, Scottish Borders Council (SBC) has revealed.
Work is still ongoing to eradicate the devastating fungi in the Scott’s Place facility, despite hopes it would be finished by Christmas.
“To ensure minimal disruption for users, the contractor has worked around various lets in the hall. This obviously has taken longer than if the contractor had a ‘clear run’ with the works,” explained an SBC spokesperson.
The council went on: “Dry rot was found in the window frame in the corridor outside the ground floor committee room. This meant the committee room, staircase and lesser hall were checked for dry rot – and treated as necessary. The last spore in the lesser hall was in the wall adjacent to the balcony, and an area in the balcony is being checked.
“With dry rot works you need to examine one metre past the last spore, and this is what is happening at the moment. Work is therefore still ongoing. Decoration still needs to be carried out.”
However, the council reassured Souters that the hall would remain open. “Every effort has been made to make sure there is minimal disruption to hall users and the hall has not closed as such. Works have taken place to suit hall users. We will need to liaise with [the] hall keeper to arrange suitable times for redecoration to take place, again to cause minimal disruption to hall users,” said the spokesperson.
The dry rot reappeared in the Victoria Halls after apparently being destroyed two years ago by a specialist company which has since gone bust, The Wee Paper reported in October. Questions were asked at the time how the dry rot had come back so soon, and how, if at all, SBC could recover some of the money from the defunct firm or its insurance.
However, the SBC spokesperson said the two dry rot outbreaks were not related: “The dry rot did not ‘come back’, it is important to emphasise that this is a completely separate outbreak.”
As such SBC would not be able to recoup any of the previous cost. “This is a separate outbreak so any original insurance may not be valid. SBC’s investigation is ongoing, though,” added the spokesperson.
The costs for eradicating both outbreaks comes from SBC’s repairs and maintenance budget.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Selkirk
Sunday 19 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 8 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
