To have a £100 million new school, or community campus, is a good thing.
Isn’t it?
We can rejoice that Dundee City Council has placed a new jewel in the city’s crown.
We should also be confident they’ll have done the back-up work.
They will have looked at all aspects from every angle.
They’ll have considered every consequence of moving assets into the new building.
The campus construction is the the highest tender ever approved by the local authority.
And the proud councillors will turn up for photo opportunities when it opens.
“Behold!” they shall boast. “Look upon what we, in our munificence, have done for you!”
It will be just like council leader Mark Flynn striding around James Thomson House (Site 6 at the Waterfront) last year, declaring: “This is grade-A office space, which is what businesses are looking for”.
But then I’m puzzled that when accused of overseeing a significant reduction in library facilities across the city as a consequence of the new campus, all the council can do is have their PR department trot out: “A consultation on facilities in the East End has been carried out and we are analysing the results.”
It’s not much of an answer, is it.
And the ruling group have spoken to users of community hubs like Douglas Community Centre, haven’t they?
These councillors are the convenors of committees, the decision-makers. They own responsibility.
Many in Douglas are worried that the service they’ll be getting is much diluted compared to what they currently have.
Councillors, have you called a public meeting to explain the benefits of closing their hub and moving it?
The campus has been years in the planning, there was plenty time to prepare for all eventualities.
You see, I would have said reducing library space doesn’t actually improve the city.
It makes adult learning and self-improvement much more difficult.
And, to me, Douglas losing its community hub is a hammer blow. Certainly not an improvement.
I’ll tell you what this looks like, councillors – it looks like we have spent £100 million and some folk are worse off.
How did that happen?
East End Community Campus not without faults
As with Site 6, councillors should stride towards these issues.
When people have been disappointed, when they’ve had bad news, it is common decency for those responsible, those taking the decisions, to stand squarely in front of those affected, look them in the eye, and explain what is happening and why.
It isn’t easy to do. It’s anything but easy. But it is part of the job.
People are owed that level of respect.
The council should invite the press to see them making their explanations about the new campus building to Douglas residents and library users – just as they invited the press to see them boast about the new building at Site 6.
It’s easy to pose for the cameras when you’re pontificating about how wonderful an office block is (or could be, if you ever found a tenant for it).
Not quite so easy to spot you, councillors, when the difficult stuff arises.
Do you think the Dundee public doesn’t notice contrasts like that?
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