Councillor’s rec commentsneedclarified

I’d like to respond to comments made by Councillor Tom McEwan in an article titled ‘£24m Rec project delayed by COVID’ (PA, April 23).

Cllr McEwan is quoted as saying: “Public pressure through an SNP petition resulted in a U-turn of immense proportions in terms of both design and costs,” in relation to the proposed new recreation centre. I think there needs to be clarity on the background to this matter.

The previous SNP administration allocated a sum of £17 million for a new recreation centre in Blairgowrie.

Whilst a sizeable sum, there was no business model produced to show how the capital employed would be financed or assessment of revenue costs.

When the current administration took over in May 2017, there was a commitment to follow through on this capital project.

However, it soon became apparent that the structural condition of

Perth High School was such that a new building was required with an estimated cost of £50m.

At that same time the SNP government made it clear that it would not be offering any funding support and this funding had to be found within Perth and Kinross Council’s capital budgets.

At that point some capital projects, including the new recreation centre, saw their budgets reduced.

A revised concept was put forward for public comment which saw the proposed six-lane pool reduced back to five lanes.

Public consultation showed that having a six-lane pool was the most important element of the new centre.

Whilst a petition organised by the SNP highlighted public concern, the main thrust of getting the recreation centre back on track was the persistent lobbying of the leader of the council and council officers by Cllr Caroline Shiers and myself.

After much work in putting together a complete business model, the council was presented with two options in October last year – a standard construction costing £21m or the more energy efficient Passivhaus construction, costing £24m.

There was unanimous support for the latter, which also benefited from lower revenue costs.

Cllr Bob Brawn