A fine mess is costing a fortune
Who will be accountable for all of this?
Lead Accountable – it’s an uncluttered and unambiguous little word I tend to use a lot in this column. Sadly it’s a word that’s rapidly disappearing from general usage.
And unfortunately for all of us council tax payers, it’s vanished completely from the vocabulary at South Ayrshire Council.
That’s because the dictionary defines it as meaning “answerable”, “responsible”, “liable” or “blamed”. And South Ayrshire Council appear incapable of comprehending any of them.
This column has chronicled more examples than I can remember – but I’ll have a stab at some of the more expensive ones!
Let’s see . . . there’s the £ 900,000 from the Common Good Fund than was spent on stopping Ayr Town’s Hall’s roof leaking onto newly weds in the registrar’s office. It was surely somebody’s job to check and report on the roof’s slow deterioration before complete renewal was the last remaining and most expensive option. Of course, no- one was “answerable” for that one
There was the £ 250,000 spent on renewing the seafront children’s play area – which had to be cordoned off for safety reasons at the height of the summer season.
It was surely somebody’s job to check and report on its gradual rotting deterioration before complete renewal was the last remaining and most expensive option.
Of course, no one was “responsible” for that one either.
And I guess we can’t mention rotting deterioration without including Ayr Station Hotel which somehow bucked the trend.
Its lingering decline WAS well reported for years but – guess what? – South Ayrshire is once again facing the last remaining and most expensive option.
Once more, no- one appears to be “liable” for Ayr’s biggest ever town centre shambles.
And just to complete a “fullhouse” of costly bungling – our old friend Belleisle House Hotel has raised its ugly head again - with talk of a council “buy out”.
The last time I looked, owner John Campbell had fenced off the site in a giant two- fingered gesture to South Ayrshire Council who he blames for thwarting his development plans.
It’s a shambles alright – but the real shambles must be the circumstances surrounding its sale in the first place.
In any normal deal of this kind – its bargain basement sale for £ 300,000 would have been coated in legally binding commitments.
SAC’s legal people would have built in a raft of conditions that the new owner would have to deliver on – or face agreed financial penalties that would ultimately include revocation of the sale.
South Ayrshire Council should have had John Campbell over a barrel on this one.
Instead – it’s starting to look like the other way round.
SAC thought they were getting conveniently rid of a political hot potato – now they appear to be buying back a whole new can of worms.
The building is now back to looking almost derelict – an embarrassing edifice that taints all the good work surrounding it.
That it has reached this stage is incompetence – but it’s worse than that . . . it’s very expensive incompetence.
Will a survey, valuation and the legal fees surrounding any “buy out” cost more than the £ 300,000 SAC received in the first place? You bet it will.
And - to use up my final dictionary definition of accountable – who will get “blamed” for all this?
No- one. Of course. Accountability has now been replaced – by inability and anonymity.
And it’s costing us all a fortune.