A new building to house the
Scottish Parliament is currently under construction. It was
originally planned at a cost of £40m with an opening date of October
2001.
Costs
have escalated and are now [August 2004] expected to be £431m.
The
first 375 out of almost 1,000 staff are moving into the building
this week [week beginning 2 August 2004].
The
MSPs until now have been using a debating chamber on The Mound.
They are expected to move into their accommodation in the new
Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood on 30 August and 1
September. The Royal Opening will be on 9 October 2004.
The Scottish Parliament is being
built on a site close
to Holyrood Palace at the foot of the Canongate. Cranes can be seen
on the site in some of the photos below.