Another week, another new low in the ongoing saga of the Olympia leisure centre in Dundee.
Now it emerges that the city has lost more than £2 million over the last two financial years as a result of the venue’s prolonged closure.
That’s on top of the £6M cost of repairs to the building, which Dundee council tax-payers will have to foot if it is ever to re-open.
And it’s led to warnings that other leisure services, such as libraries, are likely to be hit by the shortfall in income while the Olympia remains shut.
It’s hard to see how Leisure and Culture Dundee and council bosses can continue to resist calls for an inquiry into what has gone wrong with the maintenance and construction of the £33M centre, which has been plagued by problems since it opened in 2013 .
Yet that appears to be the line they are trying to hold. At least until the next embarrassing revelation emerges.
It adds to the eye-watering £6 million repair bill already footed by local taxpayers.https://t.co/7VsnQrG2UU
— Evening Telegraph (@Evening_Tele) January 31, 2023
Dundee City Council’s defence that energy bills will have been far lower while the Olympia remains shuttered would be laughable if the whole situation was not so dire.
But the public’s patience over this embarrassing farce was worn threadbare long ago and their appetite for political point-scoring has deserted them too.
They deserve a proper explanation for what has gone so catastrophically wrong here – and some evidence that someone has a plan to fix it.
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