Fife Council must “seriously consider” how to reduce the number of buildings it is trying to maintain as maintenance backlogs are estimated to run into the “hundreds of millions”. 

The information came from Yvonne Gillespie, building management service manager, on Wednesday afternoon at a committee meeting. 

“One of the priorities we have to consider is the number of buildings we actually operate from,” Ms Gillespie said.  “We have to seriously consider how we reduce the number of buildings we are trying to maintain which would free up a little more money.” 

Fife Council currently has 1,738 land and building assets which includes buildings, play parks, war memorials, cemeteries, schools, and much more. 

Property services operates a £14.5 million corporate planned maintenance fund, which provides money for service contracts to legal obligations, repairs, and planned projects. 

However, in reality, Ms Gillespie said there is only about £2-3 million leftover for planned improvements.

“There’s only a very small amount of that money used for true planned improvements. The majority is on maintaining and keeping buildings operational,” she said.  “The focus is on ensuring they’re wind and watertight, making sure heating is operational, making sure we’re legally compliant, and making sure they’re safe. There’s not much scope for doing a whole lot more than that.” 

The figures were revealed to councillors after they previously requested an in-depth report about the council’s financial responsibility for maintenance within local buildings. 

It stated that the “value of outstanding backlog maintenance for operational buildings for the whole of Fife is estimated to run into hundreds of millions”. 

“This figure is made up of hundreds of notional estimates at a given point in time and the true cost is likely to be far higher,” the report said. 

Ms Gillespie added: “I absolutely agree that we have not maintained our buildings as well as we would like, but we have to consider how we would reduce the number to give us a much better quality of building from which we can operate.” 

“Parts of the report are pretty damning in terms of how the council has looked after its assets over the years,” SNP group leader Craig Walker said. 

Councillor Ross Vettraino (SNP for Glenrothes Central and Thornton) agreed: “The situation is only going to become more difficult as time goes on. Our buildings are all becoming older and when you get older you need more maintenance. The council needs to look carefully at its policy of maintaining its buildings and maintaining its other assets, such as vehicles.” 

He added: “We’re going to have to make significant, major changes if we are going to be able to continue in an effective and efficient manner.” 

Committee convener John Beare (SNP for Glenrothes North, Leslie and Markinch) recognised that the decision to reduce buildings or boost funding for building maintenance was not under the control of area committee councillors, but he said it will be a challenge for everyone when setting budgets in the coming years.