Pitch battle rumbles on

Council accused of ignoring ruling in row over condition of footie park

A community representative has described Perth and Kinross Council’s handling of his continued complaints over the condition of a muchcriticised football pitch as “farcical”.

Maurice Gray, a member of Bridgend, Gannochy and Kinnoull Community Council (BGKCC), also accused PKC at the group’s latest meeting of trying to dodge a recommendation it work with him to ensure a proper playable pitch is constructed at Murray Royal Hospital to replace one that was lost years ago.

Following a complaint from him last year the pitch that has been built is not fit for purpose the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) found the council failed to ensure a proper specification for the pitch was agreed before it let NHS Tayside construct it to fulfil a planning condition.

The Ombudsman said in its ruling: “Having considered all the available evidence ... I consider there was a failure by the council to make provision through the agreement that the specification of the replacement pitch be agreed in writing before construction began.

“I consider that as a result of this failing the new pitch was not built to a serviceable standard and the council has no formal recourse to require the developer to carry out requisite remedial works.”

Referring to the ruling Mr Gray revealed PKC had apologised to him for the mistake but had still not signalled it would be willing to work with him to try and improve the condition of the pitch as had been recommended by the SPSO.

Mr Gray said he had already complained about this but had been told by Anne Condliffe, the council’s interim development quality manager, that it was only obliged to comply with the SPSO’s recommendation in a “meaningful way”.

Telling members he had gone on to complain he considered this interpretation of the ruling to be an attempt to dodge having to do anything. He went on to say he had since received an email from another council worker saying they were no longer willing to correspond with him over the issue.

“So much for working with me,” he said.

Revealing he has now referred the matter back to the SPSO Mr Gray said he considered PKC’s handling of his complaints so far as “farcical, incompetent, evasive and disorganised.”

However he remained hopeful some good will come of the situation, saying: “I think it is possible that one day the football pitch will be fit for purpose.”

Responding to the latest criticism a PKC spokesperson said: “The SPSO is satisfied we have fulfilled the recommendations.”

Handling has been farcical, incompetent and evasive