TAXPAYERS could be bearing the cost of building Largs Campus until 2067 under proposed new plans by council officers.

In 2018/19, the council entered into a 25-year design, build, finance and maintain contract for the provision of the site, with an eye-watering repayment value of £46.626 million.

The repayments had been set to run every year until 2042, with between £1.5 million and £2.5 million paid back annually.

However, council finance chiefs are now looking to make use of a new directive from the Scottish Government, which allows local authorities to stretch their payments over a longer period.

Under new plans presented to councillors, payments for the campus could be reduced every year in order to free up funds in the council budget.

The repayment phase for the campus would then run until 2066/67, with repayments still breaking the £46m barrier.

Mark Boyd, head of finance at North Ayrshire Council, says local authorities wanted change to ensure current generations were not paying more than their fare share.

He explained: “Representations from local authorities to Scottish Government ministers have highlighted the issue in terms of inter-generational equity.

“Current taxpayers are required to meet the full cost of acquiring the schools while future generations will receive the benefit without any requirement to contribute towards the acquisition.

“The Scottish Government has outlined a provision for financial flexibility which will allow local authorities to apply a retrospective recalculation of the annual charges in DBFM contracts.

“There would be no change to the actual payments to the contractor and the schools would still transfer to North Ayrshire Council at the end of the current contract for nil consideration.”

Council officials had hoped that members would approve the planned changes at its December meeting, however Labour councillor Robert Foster has asked for a delay.

He argued that councillors needed time to look at the proposals further and meet with officials to scrutinise the plans.

He said: “Given the impact and magnitude of the decision, our group requested a meeting with officers.

“We believe all members should make this decision, but we need to scrutinise the proposals and set them out at the February meeting of full council.

“Some things that don’t quite add up such as the impact this will have on the interest element, and I hope members realise we need further scrutiny.”

The amendment by councillor Foster was accepted and the new plans will now be voted on in February.

Changes to repayments are also being put forward for four other schools in North Ayrshire that were procured in 2007/08.