Council reject claims it is squandering Lanark's birthright
SLC defends Common Good Fund allocation
ALLEGATIONS that it is squandering Lanark's birthright, its Common Good Fund, have been strongly rejected by South Lanarkshire Council.
As reported in the Gazette, a furious row has broken out over the council's decision to spend 30,000 of the fund it administers on behalf of the people of Lanark on carrying out a survey of three small buildings in the Castlegate, earmarked to be converted to a new Lanark Museum with a strong William Wallace theme.
Critics, including the Royal Burgh of Lanark Community Council's chairman Frank Gunning have slammed the spending as ''excessive'' and the former local council planning boss Graham U'ren has also accused South Lanarkshire Council of regarding the fund as a ''soft touch''.
However, their comments have alarmed the Museum Trust, trying to turn the project - at an estimated cost thought to be now over a million pounds - into a reality. Some members feel that the Community Council has effectively sabotaged the whole museum project and claims have been made that the Trust almost disbanded when it heard of the Community Council objection to the survey cost.
SLC, for its part, has now totally rejected accusations of irresponsible plundering of the fund, stating that the whole future of the project could hang on what is, relatively speaking, a small portion of the total project costs.
It states the 30,000 - plus the 120,000 it had already committed from the fund to the project - will be seen as cash well spent if and when the museum is built, becoming a major tourism moneyspinner for Lanark, long chasing the coat-tails of Biggar and New Lanark in attracting visitors.
In a statement the SLC reveals that a meeting was held late last month between Lanark's two councillors, Brian Reilly and Mary McNeill, the SLC's finance chief Archie Strang and members of the Community Council special sub-committee monitoring Common Good Fund spending.
An SLC spokesperson claimed that the meeting was ''extremely positive and worthwhile'' and had gone into the issue of the 30,000 survey.
The spokesperson said that the survey was absolutely essential at this stage to establish exactly how much the whole project was going to cost - figures as high as one and a half million pounds have been mentioned to the Gazette but this could be just speculation.
Pinning down an accurate estimate was necessary through an intensive ''intrusive'' survey of the fabric of the Castlegate buildings - two old shops and a cottage in a rear yard - so that the costs in the business plan for the project to be used in bidding for major Lottery and government grants don't end up way over estimate.
He went on to state that, if it became a reality, the new museum would be a major asset to the Royal Burgh.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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