City Hall plans in the spotlight again

Feb 20 2009 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A DETERMINED bid to rekindle the City Hall debate within the council chambers or simply political posturing?

Councillors were divided this week as the future of the vacant listed building again came under the spotlight, with doubts spiralling over the proposed Wharfside retail project and a contractual deadline looming at the end of May.

Tory Group leader Councillor Alexander Stewart and sister Heather admitted they were “disappointed but not surprised” that their motion to debate the City Hall issue was blocked.

But he warned that the mettle would have to be grasped further down the line.

“The airing we wanted in the chambers rather than the media didn’t take place,” he said.

“But the prognosis for the current plan for the City Hall isn’t good.

“The writing may already be on the wall.

“If it doesn’t happen we will have to reinvestigate the whole process and we’ll be back to square one.

“It will go back out to tender and that will be quite expensive for this local authority. We are nowhere near the end of this journey.”

In a rare move, the full council voted not to progress to a full debate, with local authority leader Ian Miller noting that the Tory request was “premature,” given the existing agreement with Wharfside and impending court action which the local authority intended to fight “robustly.”

He had already asked the Tories, unsuccessfully, to withdraw their motion.

Lib-Dem Councillor George Hayton branded the motion “spurious” and, later, Labour group leader Councillor Archie MacLellan was equally scathing, labelling it “self-seeking”.

He said the public debate had been engineered initially by the Conservatives and observed that when the PA canvassed city councillors for their views on the future of the City Hall should the Wharfside project flop, the Stewarts were the only two who failed to give a response.

He said: “The reality is that there is a legal agreement in force and the Tory party knows as well as anyone that there is nothing to be done until that expires, at which stage a full report will come back to the council giving us all the options.

“And it has to be noted that the involvement of Historic Scotland is a further complication which may effect the decision taken at the appropriate time.”

Calling for the green light to debate the City Hall – on the basis that many councillors weren’t involved in the initial stages – Councillor Alexander Stewart sought clarification on:

The current situation regarding the approved developer.

The timescale involved in the development and costs incurred.

The options that are available if the planned development does not progress.

He added: “With the economic climate as it is, it may well be out of Wharfside's reach to achieve their goals for the building.

“We now find ourselves in the same position as many other towns and cities. We have a growing number of empty business premises and you just have to walk around the city centre to sense a feeling of despair.

“In the run up to our city status bid it’s vital we show strong leadership and are not perceived as having a lack of direction.

“We are advised that Wharfside remain committed to making every effort to bring this project to fruition. That may well be the case. But we must also be realistic and look at the options that are available to us, even if that does mean discussing demolition.

“Many do feel very strongly that this whole exercise is costing us money and it’s time to move on, whereas others just want to know what is going on and when it will be resolved.”

But Councillor Miller reminded Councillor Stewart that the Wharfside contract was awarded after extensive public consultation.

He said the company had invested heavily in the project but lost a major retailer to liquidation even before the recession.

“I am satisfied that the lack of progress is due to the recession and that is not an excuse, it is a fact.”

That had warranted an extension of the contract time limit to the end of May, when the situation would be re-assessed if no progress had been made. That was a stance which had attracted cross party support, Councillor Miller recalled.