Moray Council has refused to reveal the cost of legal action that tried to recover a huge £750,000 unpaid business rates bill from the owners of the St Giles Centre.
Debt collectors were tasked by the local authority to try and bank as much money as possible to cover the shopping centre’s liabilities.
The operation even involved sheriff officers visiting the private homes of tenants to demand the money – before they were instead ordered to instead pay their rent directly to the council.
Last week it emerged the legal action had recovered absolutely nothing, just days before the owners applied to be put into liquidation.
Now it can be revealed Moray Council has refused to say how much the St Giles Centre legal action, carried out by its debt collectors Scott & Co, cost the taxpayer.
Communications between Moray Council and St Giles Centre remain secret
Councillors have held private talks to discuss the St Giles Centre circumstances, during which a confidential report detailed there had been “extensive communications” between senior officials and the shopping centre’s owners and management in 2022 about the bill.
The council says a repayment plan for the debt was agreed and legal action was ordered when the agreement was not upheld.
A freedom of information request by the Press and Journal to view correspondence related to the debt has been refused.
The ruling also covered a request asking for details of how much the legal action had cost.
And even the exact total the business rates debt had risen to at the point the Elgin shopping centre closed has been ruled a secret.
In response, Moray Council said: “The council has considered the public interest in releasing this information.
“However, as the current situation regarding the shopping centre is ongoing the costs and communications related to it are currently sensitive.”
An application from the owners of the shopping centre, St Giles Shopping Centre Holdings Ltd, to be put into liquidation is currently being considered by the courts.
Moray Council has ordered an internal audit to be done to examine how the debt was allowed to grow and how the process to recover the money was caried out.
Calls for St Giles Centre debate to be held in public
There have been calls for more of the details surrounding the St Giles Centre debt and subsequent closure to be made public.
Last month Elgin North councillor Sandy Keith called for talks to be held publicly.
He said: “There has been an unusual level of public interest in how Moray Council arrived at its decision to enforce the collection of business rates for the St Giles Centre.
“We are not obliged to hold the discussion in private and I would say on the balance of harms, the public interest would favour transparency.”
However, councillors voted to still hold the discussion in private to allow a more open debate.
Marc Macrae, chairman of the council’s economic development and infrastructure committee, added: “It’s a very big concern for the public.
“Holding it in private would allow this to be investigated in another place. By another place I don’t mean by an external auditor, but by the police of Scotland.
“If we do hear it in public then it could inhibit any attempt at a fair and unprejudiced investigation, should there be one. There may not be one.”
Read more from Elgin
- How the St Giles Centre could still be key to winning the fight against retail parks: Experts on what the future holds for Elgin town centre
- Where will the 1,600 homes go? When will new primary school open? Big questions answered about the Findrassie housing development
- No shops, more than two years late and a bankrupt developer: The saga of how the St Giles Centre in Elgin finally opened
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