A new testing centre new for taxi and private hire vehicles is £1.3 million over the estimated cost and also nearly a year late.
Sources have attributed the delay to problems including concrete work having to be redone and the facility not having enough electricity.
Staff at the current Murrayburn testing centre have been paid overtime to deal with capacity issues after part of the building was declared unsafe in late 2022.
Council officers did not contest the issues at the new South Gyle facility but said upgrades to power supply infrastructure had been included in plans for the new centre from the start.
And they said that the costs of the project, as they had originally been identified, were based on pre-Covid estimates.
SNP finance spokesperson, Cllr Stuart Dobbin, said the council had ‘serious questions to answer’ over the spiralling cost of the project discovered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
The City of Edinburgh Council requires tests on taxis and private hire cars in the capital at a facility which it runs to standards exceeding those set out by the DVSA for MOT tests.
Vehicles are also checked to ensure they comply with the council’s emissions requirements for licensed vehicles.
Capacity issues
Taxi insiders have said a new centre is sorely needed given the capacity restrictions at Murrayburn, with council chiefs saying the wait for new vehicle tests is currently eight weeks.
But they said other types of test were not facing delays, and that vehicles needing retests and drivers not attending bookings were contributing to the new vehicle test delays.
A report to the council’s regulatory committee in February 2023 said that ‘securing’ the new facility would cost about £1 million.
But by August that year, another report placed the project’s cost at an estimated £1.56m – while adding that the council’s taxi examination operations would also move to the new centre in 2024.
The report attributed the cost increase to inflation and new cost estimates for equipment purchase.
January 2025
Almost a year and a half later, in January 2025, an update to the same committee stated the site would be ready for use early this year.
In May, a report concluded the ‘fitout’ of the new centre would be completed by the end of that month – but said the price was now £2.1m.
By September, another finance report confirmed the total price had climbed to £2.3m – though it included no information on when the site would open, with it still closed at time of press.
The council said the original cost was calculated based on pre-covid estimates, and the £2.1m cost listed in May was reached in 2024 after a procurement exercise was finished.
Edinburgh’s current test centre has been limited to two ramps capable of carrying out full vehicle inspections since November 2022 due to concerns over roof safety.
Capacity shortages caused by the part-closure have forced overtime working in order to meet demand for over 4,000 tests of Edinburgh vehicles every year.
Licensed vehicles in East Lothian and Midlothian are also tested at the Murrayburn facility.
The building the new centre is in has been owned by the council since 2009, and was previously used by a tyre firm for warehousing and storage.
Planning application
Edinburgh Council officials filed a planning application for the site in 2021, with building plans showing four lift ramps for vehicle testing.
Office space and spaces for training are also included in the plans, with provisions made for a future conversion of part of the training space to another inspection area.
Edinburgh Council filed an intention of development statement for the site in April of 2024, with works scheduled to start near the end of that month.
Regulatory convener, Cllr Neil Ross, said he was conscious of the ‘frustration’ the delay to the works was causing.
He added: “This was initially due to issues arising from the pandemic and later due to the complexity of the works.
“We’ll continue to do everything we can to ensure the process is completed promptly.”
By Joseph Sullivan Local Democracy Reporter
