DUNCAN PLACE RESOURCE CENTRE

I was saddened to read the article in the Evening News’Neglected centre to be razed over repair bills’ but wasn’t surprised. When I first became involved with Leith Links CC our meetings were held in a church hall but we moved to Duncan Place to show our support for this community asset. I’m happy to be corrected but prior to the last City Council elections possibly 4 or 5 years ago I attended a meeting and the same repair cost figure of £3.5 million was quoted but nothing was done.(Strange how the figure hasn’t increased) The£387,000 for the lift which would have made the centre accessible for the disabled was allocated and ring fenced by the city council well before my time on the CC but nothing was done. The money has layen untouched over the years with someone wondering how they could get their hands on it to be used in the budget black pit. According to the News this money will now have to be pay for the building being pulled down. You couldn’t make it up but this appears to be another symptom of council mismanagement which when added to other failures has resulted in the population of this fine city facing cuts to chip away at the massive debt faced by the council. The building has always been well used by the local community but I fear that the real decision on its future was made many years ago by council officials and not elected councillors that it would be closed. The lack of necessary repairs which were identified in 2008/9 have allowed the building to deteriorate to the point where the only option appears to be to demolish it. Will any council officials be taken to task, reprimanded or dimissed? I’ll let you answer that one.