It’s time for Wharfside to step aside

May 29 2009 by Our Correspondent, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

Dear Editor, – Like most readers, I have followed the City Halls debate with great interest, and MP Pete Wishart’s announcement on local Radio (Monday, May 24) of the decision by Perth Council to procrastinate further on the issue and delay a decision on the Wharfside proposals should be taken by all as a positive. Comments from John Bullough and others are quite correct with regard to the intentions of Wharfside, these people have had their chance and ‘It is time for them to step aside’.

How many people in Perth have had the chance to see inside or use City Halls up to now, or will have the opportunity to do so in the future? If Wharfside’s ‘Arty’ revamp were to take place … in reality, very few.

The centre of the town should be a vibrant, beating heart and it is currently occupied by a hideous building that has long since passed its purpose.

As for recent calls by one writer to involve Prince Charles and mention the Phoenix Trust, Stanley Mills and Heritage (several times) in dispatches … I sincerely hope that the Council powers-that-be see those comments as a blatant attempt at self-promotion by the individual involved and disregard them as such. Heritage for Heritages sake is nonsense … Perth needs regeneration, as the multiples of empty shop premises and vandalised hoardings in the town centre make clearly evident.

Should councillors choose to show a little courage and foresight, the centre of our town could become a real focus, a centrepiece, a heart that all the people of Perth can enjoy, and not just an elitist few.

Let’s get rid of this eyesore of a building once and for all and open up the area … cafes, an open space for markets, street performers, a space for people to use.

Perth Council … show a bit of backbone and don’t be brow beaten by people who have only their own agenda to pursue.

Name and address supplied.