Another frustrating decision at the latest council executive over the sale of land in Haggs.
If the sale goes through it will generate £365,000 of capital investment for the Falkirk area.
The council’s Labour Group was keen to see this money going back into the communities that need it most.
It would have been good to see at least some of it spent in the Haggs and Banknock area. Unfortunately, there are real double standards.
In Falkirk, Grangemouth, Denny and Bo’ness any asset sold goes into that area’s common good fund and is spent on projects in the area. Proceeds from assets sold in Haggs, Banknock, Bonnybridge, Braes, Larbert and Stenhousemuir go into the Falkirk Council capital fund and can be spent anywhere in the Falkirk area.
To get around this Falkirk Labour proposed that the £365,000 should be used to top up the £3 million Community Asset Transfer Fund. This fund used to total £6 million but was cut down to £3 million in a deal by the SNP and Conservatives who took half the fund to spend on projects allowing public access to schools during the day.
The SNP argued the £3 million left was more than enough and that so far none of it had been spent so there was no point in topping it up.
The scary part of that is we now have around 50 groups working on community asset transfer bids for vital community buildings right across Falkirk, buildings that have a maintenance backlog running into tens of millions of pounds.
How anyone can possibly think £3 million is enough to support all these asset transfers
Despite making a clear case and winning the support of the independent councillors the SNP/Conservative coalition carried the vote again, ordering that the £365,000 be put into the general capital fund and used to fund the ever-increasing construction cost of the council’s new projects, most likely either the new town hall where costs have spiralled from £45 million to £65 million without a shovel even being put in the ground, or possibly the £3 million Arts Park.
The problem with Falkirk Council’s capital programme is not that there isn’t enough money in the pot but that the priorities that the money is spent on are not right.
Looking at the council’s £170 million growth deal there are four big projects for Falkirk town centre and six for industry in Grangemouth, although to be fair the Grangemouth projects
But what do other areas, for example Bonnybridge and Larbert, get out of the £170 million - a footpath so we can walk into Falkirk town centre?
The £365,000 is nothing in comparison to what is being spent in Falkirk and Grangemouth. But allocating it to the asset transfer of our community centres and pavilions could have made a bit of a difference in areas like Haggs, Banknock and Bonnybridge.
The decision made today has me really questioning the SNP and Conservatives’ commitment to Community Asset Transfer. Part of me suspects they would rather the buildings closed so that they can be sold off to raise funds for their flagship projects like the HQ/Arts Centre and