How can we challenge the credibility of the £13.5M refurbishment
estimates?

The estimates have a serious credibility problem.

I have seen the estimates as supplied to the committee members. The
values are clearly suspect even to the untrained eye. eg the task of
removing the existing, very small sauna (less than 3 by 3 meters) -
say 2 man days plus the cost of a skip - is estimated at £ 3,000!
A more realist value would be £500.

Apply this factor of 6 to the overall estimate of £13.5M and the
bill falls to less than £2.5M!

There are other items, some costing 10's of 1000's of pounds that are
of debateable worth or appear to be duplicates.

These estimates should be made public so we challenge these figures
in both in terms of what is needed and the accuracy of the estimated
costs.

Is there anyone in the group who could advise on the best way to move
forward on this ?

Best Regards - Mark