OPPOSITION councillors and council taxpayers alike were thunderstruck yesterday when cash-strapped Scottish Borders Council shook its own magic money tree and conjured up nearly £10 million for a speculative housing and industrial development.
Earlier this year the Tory-led council pleaded poverty and blamed the Scottish Government for its savage reductions to grass cutting and bus subsidies among other cuts, yet on Thursday night the council revealed its wholly-owned arms length company has bought 109 acres of Lowood Estate at Tweedbank near Galashiels for £9.6m. A report to the council says the multi-use development of parts of Lowood Estate could create an estimated 179 new jobs as well as 173 construction jobs.
The main part of Lowood was compulsorily purchased 50 years ago after a bitter fight between the owner and the council’s predecessors. The report reveals that the remaining part of the estate is now in the ownership of a newly formed company called Lowood Tweedbank Ltd.
According to Companies House documents the sole director is David Robertson, chief financial officer at the council. The company has just one £1 share with SBC as the shareholder.
The details of the deal show that the property comprises a compact residential estate set on the south bank of the River Tweed and extends to 44.38 hectares (109.66 acres). It includes an “attractive and substantial principal dwelling” and a further eight residential properties. Of the total land area approximately 15.78 hectares (38.99 acres) is parkland and a further 14.28 hectares (35.29 acres) is woodland.
The deal took place without full council approval, and complaints are already being made by disgruntled residents, one contacting The National to vent their anger at the council “pleading poverty one minute but spending money like water” the next.
Pointing out that there is no guarantee of any jobs from what he called a “speculative development”, SNP councillor Stuart Bell, pictured above, told The National: “The council is financially over reaching itself by taking a risk on buying Lowood land that I think is over-valued.
“There’s a danger the public will see this as another Central Borders vanity project.”
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According to the council, “the Tweedbank Masterplan identifies the potential for new residential and business space development on Lowood Estate, as part of a wider Tweedbank expansion proposal, which would seek to attract existing and new residents and businesses moving into the area, including those who would wish to use the nearby Borders Railway as a key transport mode”.
Councillor Mark Rowley, Scottish Borders Council’s Executive Member for Business and Economic Development, said: “There are a series of opportunities for significant development on some key sites in Tweedbank, with many of those well progressed. This will be carried out and funded by the Council, a range of partners including Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government, and the private sector. We look forward to all these coming to fruition and seeing very substantial employment opportunities, both in the construction phase and longer term, which is extremely exciting for the whole of the Scottish Borders due to the wider economic benefits this would provide.
“In addition, by acquiring Lowood Estate the Council now controls a vital site which has significant development potential for both the public and private sector, associated employment benefits and the scope for the delivery of a large number of homes.”
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