The reopening of Aberdeen Art Gallery has been delayed by another year.

A £30m revamp of the building began in 2015 and was scheduled to be completed in late 2017.

Last year, the project's planned opening was pushed back to 2018.

However, delays have meant the gallery will now not reopen to the public until autumn 2019.

Cllr Marie Boulton, Aberdeen City Council's culture spokeswoman, said: "Completion of the construction works at Aberdeen Art Gallery is expected in the coming weeks, which will allow the extensive fit-out to begin to prepare for the return of the collections.

"It is expected that the new art gallery will be open to the public in autumn 2019, marking the completion of the landmark redevelopment of one of the city's most significant historic buildings.

"This once in a generation project is creating a world-class visitor attraction which will bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to Aberdeen and be an integral part of the growing tourism and cultural offering which underpins the regional economic strategy."

The news of the gallery's delay has been criticised by the council's SNP group leader.

Councillor Stephen Flynn said: "This is a farce, plain and simple.

"In the time it has taken for Dundee to stick a spade in the ground and build the V&A, we haven't even been able to redevelop an art gallery.

"Constant delays to key projects are all too common for this administration and they now need to hold up their hands and apologise to the people of Aberdeen.

"The big question now is whether these further delays have resulted in costs soaring even higher.

The construction of an art warehouse in Northfield that had been expected to open before work on the gallery began was also hit a series of delays.

It was expected to open in late 2014 and cost £3.6m but a series of issues pushed the final budget up to more than £6m, as revealed by STV News.

Politicians were warned of the need for a council-owned storage facility as far back as 2009 but the warehouse did not open until late 2016.

Aberdeen City Council spent more than £230,000 storing artwork in North Lanarkshire while the storage facility was being built, but construction delays pushed the cost of the deal up.