A FORMER councillor has warned authority figures “we are not going away” after Helensburgh Community Council lost its case against Argyll and Bute Council.
Vivien Dance also grilled serving councillors on several aspects of a council update on the town’s leisure centre, which said that repair work was progressing ahead of schedule.
A temporary roof has now been fitted, allowing work to begin on the leisure centre which has been closed since Storm Eowyn in January.
The community council lost at the Court of Session in its legal challenge of the council regarding the tendering process for the area in front of Helensburgh Leisure Centre.
Discussion on the council’s update took place at a meeting of the community council at its meeting on Thursday, November 27.
Mrs Dance said: “The roof is temporary; can you define that, and did you get any feedback with what that means?
“It also says that the work is ahead of schedule – but that is certainly not the public’s schedule.
“Based on that wording, it has taken them from January, when the storm happened, to virtually the end of October to stop the place leaking. Whose schedule is this?
“And can you tell us why the press release is issued by Argyll and Bute Council when Live Argyll is a separate entity altogether, but apparently not allowed to issue its own press releases?”
Councillor Fiona Howard (Labour, Helensburgh Central) responded: “The council owns the building, so they will give out the press releases.
“The damage has to be repaired by the owner of the building, who is the only one justified in sending out the PR, because they know what is happening.
“Live Argyll operates the actual facilities in the community education, swimming lessons and staff, but they do not have anything to do with rebuilding the roof.”
Mrs Dance then asked: “Why was the Live Argyll board meeting this week to discuss all this?”
Councillor Howard responded: “They have to be on top of it. It was an already scheduled board meeting where we discussed everything that was going on.
“We discussed how to ask the council not to charge more in the next budget.
“As soon as [the leisure centre] is dried out they will put the roof on. This is allowing them to do the internal work, having to wait for the entirely new roof.”
Mrs Dance then said: “I want to commend the community council for the noise that has been made this year, but we need to make sure the noise continues. The real issue to address is that we are making noise but people making the decisions are not listening.
“The area committee, in all this year, has never discussed this as part of the agenda. It has only been when they have been asked a question. They are listening, but the council is not discussing it.
“They are waiting for it all to go away, and for us to run out of steam and go away. We are not going away.”
Argyll and Bute Council has been contacted for comment.
