Council officials have been criticised for failing to realise the significance of legal access rights which have caused delays to Kirkcaldy’s planned new swimming pool.
Work on the £15 million pool at the Esplanade should be well under way by now, but issues relating to access rights at the Tolbooth Street car park site mean construction is now not expected to start until later this year.
New contracts had to be drawn up after the previous tender agreement ran out of time, while Fife Council also had to set aside £1 million which could be used to deal with the legal rights of access of surrounding businesses.
The council’s handling of the project was scrutinised at Tuesday’s standards and audit committee meeting in Glenrothes, with officials admitting that they had been “over-optimistic” when faced with the servitude rights issue.
Although the legal access rights problem came to public prominence when flagged up by campaigners fighting to retain the Tolbooth Street car park in January 2010, the audit noted that council lawyers had advised as far back as May 2008 that there could be problems ahead.
The report also suggested the team behind the pool project thought there would be few difficulties in agreeing any formal variations to access rights and that the key issue would instead be maintenance of access during the construction phase of the project.
It said, “As the timescales and transactions depend on the willingness of the parties to negotiate and reach agreement, it has been difficult to predict a meaningful timescale for conclusion.”‘Fundamental errors’After reading the report, Councillor Ross Vettraino said it was clear “fundamental errors” had been made and called for the matter to be considered by the strategic housing and communities committee to decide what action should be taken a suggestion backed by his fellow members.
Councillor Neil Crooks, standards and audit chairman and himself a Kirkcaldy councillor, went further, calling the action plan drawn up in response to the errors “so simplistic it’s embarrassing.”
He said, “Something went drastically wrong in the management of this project.”
However, Steve Grimmond, from housing and communities, said the project board had not identified the access rights issue as a “significant” risk in the early stages of the project, although it became more evident last year.
Ken Gourlay, from asset and facilities management, shared that view, adding that the team involved had been “overly optimistic” in their view that access rights could be dealt with fairly routinely.
Councillors noted the audit report and recommended that the housing and communities committee receive a follow-up report to see what action should be taken, if any.Opposition from localsThe project could face further difficulties after an MSP carried out a survey which appears to show strong opposition to building the pool at the chosen site.
Kirkcaldy MSP Marilyn Livingstone is calling for the project to be put on hold after her survey of locals found 92% of respondents were against building the pool on the Tolbooth Street site.
Just under half of the respondents 47% said it should be built at Invertiel, which houses a vacant brownfield site after the closure of B&Q.
Mrs Livingstone said she was pleased with the 140 responses, adding, “The results show that respondents are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the Tolbooth Street car park as the site for the new swimming pool.”