The Peeblean: Councillors consider Live Borders review
A summary of Thursday's meeting of SBC to discuss the 'provocative' consultants' report commissioned to look at Live Borders sporting and cultural buildings.
Borders Sporting and Cultural Estate Review
At Thursday’s meeting of the full Scottish Borders Council, councillors had a first opportunity to comment on the Live Borders review document that dropped last Sunday. Described as provocative, dispassionate and at times inconsistent or incomplete, the report has generated concern across Tweeddale as the realities of the Live Borders budget gap are applied to the current estate. The financial gap is between £2.5m-£3m and all councillors agreed that the status quo was not sustainable and difficult decisions may need to be taken.
The Tweeddale premises included in the report are:
Innerleithen Memorial Hall
St Ronan’s Wells Visitor Centre
West Linton Graham Institute
Gytes Leisure Centre
Peebles Drill Hall
The proposals for each are summarised at p15 here and at p113-116 of the full report.
A period of consultation was always planned to follow the report and SBC have acknowledged that this will include the verification of data, closer assessment of the implications of changes, the views of communities and the community value versus savings proposed.
A few of the comments made by local councillors are as follows:
Cllr Viv Thomson (Tweeddale West) said the report was independent and devoid of emotional attachment but had gaps and inaccuracies. She raised the conflicting proposals for the Gytes and the Drill Hall, noting that Gytes sports hall users couldn’t be moved to the DH if it was closed. She raised reports of difficult booking processes, short notice cancellations, the low savings proposed (below £4k for the Memorial Hall) and the fact that not all the buildings referenced were owned by SBC/LB. She said that some communities would welcome the opportunity to take over buildings but not all would have the enthusiasm or capacity to do this and urged all those with a concern to engage with the process.
Cllr Marshall Douglas (Tweeddale East) suggested the report was something of a desktop exercise where the cost of everything and the value of nothing was included. He expressly criticised the failure to gather usage figures for the Drill Hall – a point also made later by Cllr Julie Pirone who said it took her just 25 minutes to obtain detailed figures from the volunteer management committee. Cllr Douglas said that closing the Memorial Hall for a saving of less than £4k would remove “the living heart of the Innerleithen community”, noting the hall’s importance to Games week, the operatic society and for important fundraisers. He asked for some of these halls to be made available for public meetings without charge during the consultation process.
Cllr Robin Tatler (Tweeddale East) also highlighted the report’s flaws and inaccuracies but welcomed the start of a discussion to ensure that Live Borders was returned to a financially sustainable position. He asked if the Community Asset Transfer process could be improved with more multi-disciplinary working so that communities considering taking on a facility weren’t subjected to lengthy and protracted discussions beyond what was necessary. He, like many councillors, offered support to Live Borders staff who are facing an anxious time.
Cllr Julie Pirone (Tweedale East) expressed concern about the report’s minimal mention of culture, heritage and their importance to the tourism industry. She spoke of the important cultural impact of museum and other collections, many of which were gifted for safe keeping, noting the cultural value of museums was far more than the 31% of income generated. On the Drill Hall she queried the deficit figures saying these were more in the region of £5k, not the figures quoted in the report. She asked for a double check of all the facility data in the report so that communities could engage in the consultation process with more confidence that the underpinning data was robust and accurate.
Cllr Drummond Begg (Tweeddale West) spoke of the importance of “walking the walk” when it came to usage of spaces to keep usage figures high and ensure they were financially viable. He asked for the staff to be given clarity on their positions at the earliest opportunity and asked for an early meeting between LB, councillors and the Eastgate Theatre management to get reassurance of when this year’s payments would be made.
The Consultation Process as laid out by SBC
“Council and Live Borders Officers are developing a robust, structured approach to community and stakeholder engagement to gather community views to help shape future services. Engagement aims to be inclusive and will use best practice from Scottish Borders Council Customer Engagement Strategy Toolkit.”
Consultation will commence in May 2025 and run until the autumn. There will be some flexibility in how consultation is undertaken in each locale, but this is likely to include:
· In person meetings with Community Councils, Town Teams, Councillors, and local community groups to understand local priorities and place plans etc. to help shape wider engagement
· Planned ‘Community Conversations’
· Online public consultation to gather input on the consultant’s suggestions, any other identified options and capture other views, ideas and suggestions
· Further engagement with key stakeholders as required, including key user groups
· With communications available throughout the engagement through a range of channels (including web pages) both to inform and encourage feedback from communities on service and property proposals
· Integrated Impact Assessments to gather equalities data will be initiated and developed throughout the engagement period for each/any service or property change proposal.
Final property and service recommendations will be brought back to the Council for decisions in autumn. Any proposals that involve Common Good assets would require associated decisions from Common Good Committees following specific community consultation.