Campaigners to
save Bonnyrigg Leisure Centre were delighted when Midlothian
councillors decided yesterday to defer a decision on demolition for five
months. This is to give the local community the opportunity to come forward
with alternative proposals through the Bonnyrigg and Poltonhall Neighbourhood
plan consultations, both due to start this month. I too was delighted, as this
is something which I seem alone amongst councillors in thinking an obvious
thing to do - especially given all the lip service paid to community
involvement and asset transfer.
So why the change of
heart? Well, actually there hasn't been one - and that was clear from
yesterday's debate. What has changed is that Midlothian Council
discovered just a couple of weeks ago that the building cannot be demolished
without the permission of Fields in Trust (FIT - formerly the Playing Fields
Association). Herein lies the problem for the council - earlier this year,
FIT's UK Chief Executive, Helen Griffiths, visited the building and wrote to
the council requesting that the building be retained for 12 months to
"allow local residents time to make a combined community decision and
to conduct a feasibility study on future possible uses". The reaction of one
Labour councillor yesterday was to ask officials what the repercussions would
be of pulling down the building anyway!
Of course, 5 months is not
12 months, but if properly co-ordinated, sufficient feedback from the
Neighbourhood Plan consultations should provide enough indication of support to
put together a robust Business Plan by December for the council to make an
informed decision. Reducing the time scale also reduces costs as well as risks
associated with maintaining a building which is not currently in use. The
estimated cost to the council of the five month delay is £41,000 - about half
the money which the council would save in demolition costs if a long term
future is found to be viable; a point lost, it seems on those who would rather
the bulldozers had already done their job.
To be fair, not all the
other 17 councillors are in agreement - of those who spoke yesterday, Cllr Lisa
Beattie (SNP) said that the community's proposals bear closer examination, and
other SNP councillors, as well as Independent Peter de Vink, have privately
expressed surprise that the administration is so opposed to listening to the
community before taking action. The Labour Group, on the other hand, shows no
signs of listening to anyone on the matter.
These were the arguments
presented yesterday, and I'l, er, demolish them one by one...
1. The council cannot
afford £41,000 and the figure may escalate.
This was stated time and
again by Labour councillors - the same group who earlier this year presented a
budget with a £1.5 million black hole, and subsequently presented proposals for
food waste management involving hundreds of thousands of pounds
annual costs - all uncosted. Both times I asked them where the money
was to come from and each time they said it was for council officials to find
it. Similarly, in June, the SNP administration forced through a decision to
build the Newbattle school hub as well as retaining local facilities, resulting
in an estimated £600,000 unbudgeted annual deficit. So why the sudden concern
over £41k? What about the saved demolition costs? What about the savings in
social work and child and family support costs accruing over many years when
the new community facilities start to have an effect?
2. Consultation was
carried out years ago and no-one was interested.
The Bonnyrigg Leisure
Centre Initiative group carried out an online survey which
found that only a tiny proportion of those asked found out about the demolition
proposals over a year ago, and the vast majority only in the last 3 months, no doubt
due to the recent publicity.
So, only two 'arguments' presented, neither of which stands up to scrutiny. In fact most of the debate was taken up with councillors asking why FIT had not been consulted years ago - concern it seems that boxes had not been ticked rather than "why do we want to do this?".
Interestingly, the
Bonnyrigg & Sherwood Development Trust, which had previously been in favour
of only retaining the back hall, now has plans which involve retaining the
whole building. So we now have two community groups opposing demolition, and a
consultation which will no doubt bring forward much more interest in using the
building. The task now is to bring all those with a common interest together
through the consultation process and present a single Business Plan to the
council in December. If by then we fail to build a compelling case for keeping
the building, then at least we will have tried, and then the building can come
down. However, I'm confident that will not be the case, and we will look back
on yesterday's decision as a turning point in what has been a long and hard
fought battle by our community to have its voice heard. A voice which,
finally we hope, will be heard by the politicians.
