Dundee City Council has been told to “come clean” on whether any of the £6.1m of public money allocated for repairs on the Olympia centre can be recovered.
The huge sum will be used to fix up the nine-year-old leisure centre after it closed suddenly in October 2021.
Northeast Scotland Labour MSP, Michael Marra, says key among lingering questions is whether it’s too late for the council to recoup any of the public money in a legal case.
It has previously been claimed any case against builders Mansell — now owned by Balfour Beatty — could be time-barred for a challenge, meaning taxpayers will be forced to foot the bill.
And repeated questions put to the council on the issue from its members and the press have been met with resistance so far.
‘Costs met by taxpayers’
The city council was asked if a legal case was in preparation or underway against Balfour Beatty but it declined to answer.
It was again contacted and asked to explain if there was a legal reason for keeping the information from the public but did not give one.
Mr Marra, a former Dundee councillor, said: “Will those who delivered this disastrously flawed building project be liable for the cost or will they not?
“The people of Dundee deserve an answer.
“Correspondence released under freedom of information laws show that senior SNP councillors knew about the problems at Olympia years ago.”
He continued: “If it now emerges that it is too late to claim the multi-million pound costs of these major repairs from the builder due to the SNP sitting on their hands then they are doubly liable.”
‘Inappropriate to comment’
The centre was shut suddenly shortly after reopening at the tail end of the pandemic.
Serious concerns over the safety of light fixings were raised and upon further checks, severely corroded bolts, rusted flumes, and water leakage near electrical equipment were all found.
It was shut indefinitely to allow for widespread repairs and the public has been left without a major leisure centre ever since.
It is now slated to reopen in October 2023 with repairs having begun this summer.
The council has only provided a short statement making clear no more information surrounding liability will be revealed to the public.
It said: “It would be inappropriate to comment on questions surrounding legal liability in this matter.”
The council’s head of legal and democratic services, Roger Mennie, was then asked the same questions in an email but did not respond.
Referring to this in a phone call, the council spokesman emphasised that the press office speaks for the council, without variation.
Georgia Cruickshank, Labour councillor for Maryfield, also asked legal services for an answer but was told nothing new.
Council must ‘come clean’
Mr Marra added: “The council did not act on the repairs until the building had fallen into such a dangerous state that it is now closed for years to the public who paid the bills.
“On top of that all of these repair costs will of course be met by the taxpayer.
“If there is some reason other than time having run out that no legal case appears to have been raised then what is it?
“The situation is as intolerable as it is incompetent. All of this sits at the SNP administration’s door. They must come clean at long last.”
‘The best interests of the public’
At a council recess sub-committee in July, Ms Cruickshank was told by Roger Mennie, that he could not discuss the issue of liability in a “public forum”.
This is despite Ms Cruikshank making clear she believes it is likely in the public interest to do so.
‘Dundonians deserve transparency’
Also responding to the lack of clarity on a legal case to recoup money, Conservative North East MSP Maurice Golden, said: “The saga at this crucial facility has got completely out of hand. The council has a number of important questions to answer, and it’s time they face up to that.
“The people of Dundee deserve transparency and accountability. Most important of all, they need to get this facility properly up and running again.”
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