Government urged to help save venue

THE Scottish Government has been urged to step in and help fund Aberdeen’s struggling exhibition and conference centre.

Opposition city councillors made the call after the Press and Journal yesterday revealed the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC) was facing “almost certain receivership” unless the local authority restructured its debt.

Councillors will discuss delaying the looming deadline for the AECC to repay a £7.5million loan, as well as converting a £2million debt into shares in the centre, at a meeting tomorrow.

Afterwards, it is expected that council leader John Stewart or Aberdeen City Council chief executive Sue Bruce will write to the government asking for formal recognition of the AECC as the country’s national energy exhibition and conference centre. Scottish Enterprise has previously provided £5million of funding to Glasgow’s exhibition centre, but the local authority in Aberdeen has been left to foot the bill for the AECC.

Opposition Labour group spokesman Willie Young said yesterday: “Glasgow gets money and Edinburgh gets money. We are the oil capital of Europe, we’re bringing billions of pounds into the Scottish economy.

“Alex Salmond (first minister) and John Swinney (finance secretary) said they wouldn’t leave Aberdeen in the lurch – now is their chance to prove it.”

AECC managing director Brian Horsburgh said: “Unlike our counterparts in Edinburgh and Glasgow, namely the EICC and SECC respectively, to date we have never received any financial support from the likes of Scottish Enterprise or the Scottish Government.

“We would of course therefore welcome any outcome which enables AECC to operate on a sound financial footing in the longer term.”

Mr Horsburgh also said the AECC had a fully-funded budget for the coming year and that the centre was not facing “imminent” receivership. The comments came despite senior council officials warning in a leaked report that the venue would “soon” be trading illegally unless a package of measures were agreed to secure its future.

Mr Swinney is due to meet Mrs Bruce, the leaders of the council’s four political groups and city MSPs in coming weeks.