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Comhairle failed to maximise building jobs             21/2/12

 

Sirs,

Only my old friend Cllr McCormack could attempt to compare the Scottish Government’s award of a contract for one new bridge with the Comhairle award of a contract for six new schools. (Letters 16 February 2012) and try to use this as justification for the Comhairle new schools contact.

It is clear to me, and it has always been the SNP group on the Comhairle view, that the schools’ contract could have been a “staged development” over an extended period.

This would have given local contractors a level playing field when bidding for the work and allowed the Comhairle to create a contact condition which could have led to dozens of apprenticeships on our islands.

The guidelines given to all councillors in 2008 clearly show that the scope for this exists. The Scottish Government were amenable to a “staged development” of the Capital award, as they have done with other authorities. It was scare-mongering by the “Labour Men” (all of whom are independent councillors) who demanded all the money up front, at once, which prevented this.

To be fair to the existing councillors, they will have saved the Council a few shillings and leave a huge monument in bricks and mortar, which in turn will create a better learning environment for our school children.

But, the lasting legacy will be the absence of apprenticeships for our young people and a more difficult trading environment for our businesses.

There has never been so much construction work on our island accompanied with so many local tradesmen losing their jobs and so many local firms worried about their future.

Independent councillors are good at counting the pennies but they appear incapable of the kind of clear strategic thinking needed to ensure that the benefits accrued from spending large sums of Scottish Government money on the island, are spent in a way which maximises the benefits to the people of the island, beyond the simple award of a contact.

This is important for the future as the wider political consensus emerges that investment in future capital projects is the way to work ourselves out of the current difficult financial situation. The next Comhairle must be ready to ensure that the benefits to local businesses are maximised.

Bill Houston

34A Leurbost

Isle of Lewis