Sleepwalkers rest on office
Having a snooze for the entire summer
Stunned council bosses will take three MONTHS to sift the wreckage of their shattered town centre plans.
South Ayrshire officials are to spend the summer soul searching in a bid to find a plan B for their Riverside project.
And it could be the end of the year before the scheme is dragged back on track.
It comes as new figures showed £ 527,000 has already been blown – without a brick being laid.
A “workstream to explore the options” was this week set to be approved, following rejection of a new £ 11million office block.
But a report on where to go next will not come before councillors until August at the earliest – after they return from their summer holiday.
Critics labelled the timetable “an insult” as the project threatens to plunge into crisis.
Norman McLean, chair of Fort, Seafield and Wallacetown Community Council, said: “This is totally unacceptable.
“What we need now is to fast track ideas and utilise the talents of those who can help.
“Some ideas are simple and some are more complex, but we need urgent progress.”
A “limited competition” open to a handful of “innovative design companies” is among the options favoured by Mr McLean.
He added: “At this rate, we will be in December stuck in exactly the same position.”
Conservative opposition leader, Councillor Martin Dowey, said: “We are sleepwalking our way into a disaster and nobody at the top seems willing to accept reality.
“Any suggestion that this can be kicked into the long grass is an insult.
“It seems a case of crossing our fingers and hoping for a magic cure.
“The sooner the council wakes up to what’s happening here, the better.”
The Ayrshire Post contacted South Ayrshire Council last week for a statement on the £ 527,000 spent thus far on the Riverside project.
The council failed to respond to our request for comment.