Council’s handling of ‘ leisure site’ is a joke
It could be straw that breaks their back
I see that South Ayrshire Council is advertising for a “Web and Social Media Analyst” on a generous annual salary of around £ 38,000. It would be a judicious appointment.
Someone needs to get onto SAC’s social media Twitter account and analyse this little gem . . .
“Now that we’ve secured the future of the Arran Mall Ayr for the new leisure hub, we’re working with the existing tenants of the mall to understand their preferences”.
Who would have thought that a limited 280 characters could raise so many issues!
Like . . .
1) SAC has NOT secured the future of the Arran Mall.
2) The “new leisure hub” is still no more than “blue sky” vote candy. It’s a figment of the controlling SNP’s imagination and probably 18 months away from even a planning committee – by which time we’ll have a new administration anyway.
3) The existing tenants are completely in the dark – and have heard the square root of hee- haw from the Council they’re supposed to be ‘ working with’!
But hey – before I go any further – I have a couple of corrections to make.
Last week, I said that SAC had spent £ 250,000 on the former Hourstons Alloway Street site – without a clue to its suitability for an Olympic swimming pool.
Sorry . . . the correct figure now appears to be £ 600,000!
I also claimed that the Arran Mall’s owners would hold SAC’s “feet to the fire” and use the council’s desperation to purchase the site as a bargaining tool to extract an inflated price.
Well . . . my assertion turned out to be prophetically late.
It seems South Ayrshire Council’s toes have already been well and truly toasted.
I understand the “future” SAC has “secured” with the Mall’s owners is no more than an agreement in principle . . . subject to a raft of planning and building consents.
And the price agreed is . . . wait for it . . . THREE MILLION POUNDS!
That’s more than DOUBLE the last figure being bounced around when SAC talked up an ill- fated partnership deal for the Kyle Centre and Arran Mall several years ago.
It must have been the only cinema venture in history to begin with the words “THE END”!
That £ 3 million figure came as a bit of a shock. I hadn’t seen it flagged up in any SAC budget forecasts, documents or panel meeting agendas.
But the real shock here is that it came as an astonishingly bigger shock . . . to several of our elected councillors!
I’m no expert on how councils work, especially the South Ayrshire version! But elected members learning of a major spending commitment - via a garbled Tweet - is not it!
You have to ask if South Ayrshire Council has finally eaten itself.
The administration that promised ‘ openness and transparency’ is now making important policy decisions behind its OWN back!
Next up is whether Operation Secret Squirrel- Away £ 3million of the tax payer’s money is not in breach of the SAC’s own standing orders? My understanding is that any council commitment in excess of £ 750,000 requires the approval of a full council meeting.
This deal was done, dusted - and Tweeted – with alarming secrecy.
So, who knew of the Arran Mall negotiations? Who was involved in the talks and what was their brief?
By who, when and where was the £ 3 million figure first mentioned – and who gave it final approval?
And just out of interest – who sanctioned the tell- tale Tweet that let the £ 3million cat out the bag at 4.41 pm on October 16?
I can feel a Freedom of Information question coming on.
But based on Chic Brodie’s recent FOI experience – I don’t expect any straight answers coming back.
The current South Ayrshire Council is rapidly running out of friends, favour and faith within the South Ayrshire public.
And it’s rapidly running headlong into enemies who are becoming increasingly organised as they become increasingly disillusioned.
We’re not talking about Mr Angry from Alloway in a letter to the
Ayrshire Post.
I’ve met people – some seriously professional people – who wonder what a local authority inspectorate or the accounts commissioners would make of SAC’s handling of Ayr Station Hotel . . . Belleisle . . . the Riverside Place high flats . . . Citizens Advice . . Common Good Land and the Golf Academy or the shrinking, affordable housing stock.
But in this Citadel/ Hourstons/ Arran Mall/ Leisure Complex stramash – involving absurdity, duplicity, secrecy and millions of taxpayers’ pounds – they might just have the issue that could finally bring down the House of Cards.
As someone should have said - so I’ll say it first - “For a poor local council to succeed . . . all it takes is a few good councillors to do nothing!”
Administration who promised ‘ openness and transparency’ is making decisons behind its OWN back