SCOTTISH Borders Council has been forced to move £96,000 from elsewhere in its budget to pay for more spending on the Great Tapestry of Scotland visitor centre in Galashiels.

A report presented to Scottish Borders Council’s executive committee yesterday (Tuesday, February 12) shows that the extra money, which the council describes as an ‘acceleration of costs’ brought forward from the next financial year, comes from increased spending on marketing, branding, interpretation and business planning.

The author of the report, the council’s chief financial officer David Robertson, said that the extra money had mainly come from savings made by the council in employee costs across its planning, electoral, and protection services, as well as underspend in the housing benefit, revenue support grant and council tax reduction scheme budgets.

The savings and underspends in the council’s general fund have also gone towards increased employee costs elsewhere in the council, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly where the money has come from.

The council estimates that the tapestry, set to be installed in a new £6.7 million visitor centre in Galashiels, will attract up to 50,000 people to the town each year, generating £900,000 annually for the region’s economy.

The visitor centre is expected to open in spring 2020 and will be managed by the leisure trust Live Borders.

The tapestry has previously been put on display in Dundee, from March to May 2016, in Alloa, from May to August 2017, and the rest of the time it’s been kept in storage.