MORAY Council has pulled the plug on plans to revamp a historic building – despite having spent just a fraction of the insurance money paid out when it was badly damaged by fire.
Angry campaigners want to know why the £140,000 was not earmarked to help preserve Grant Lodge instead of being diverted into the local authority’s general reserves.
The future of the 18th-century property in Elgin is now hanging in the balance after members of the council’s economic development and infrastructure committee halted a feasibility study into proposals to give it a new lease of life.
The study – which was examining its possible use as a registrar’s office, family history centre and tourist information office – has already cost £62,000.
The building was a gift to the people of Elgin by the Cooper family more than a century ago and served as the town’s public library for many years.
It later housed a local heritage centre – but has lain boarded up and empty since it was damaged by a blaze in 2003.
The lodge, which is held in public trust for the people of Elgin, was in line to be revived as part of a wider heritage project but this stalled because of financial constraints.
However, it emerged yesterday that £140,000 remains of the £326,000 insurance payout received by the council to return the building to the condition it was in before the fire.
The cash was spent on re-housing the archives and some minor emergency repairs at the time of the blaze.
The money – which would cover the estimated costs of keeping the building windproof and watertight – is being held in the authority’s general reserves.
Elgin North Labour councillor Barry Jarvis, whose ward includes Grant Lodge, is not a member of the economic committee but spoke at the meeting in favour of proceeding with the revamp.
He said he had been shocked by the revelation about the insurance money.
Mr Jarvis said: “Although the money would not have totally restored the building, it would have brought it to the position it was at prior to the fire.
“It is doubtful that, given the passage of time, this would even come close to covering that now.
“The people of Elgin have been let down and, given the lack of any current interest in the building, appear to have lost a precious gift.”
Elgin South SNP councillor Graham Leadbitter said he was frustrated that the £140,000 had been put into general reserves rather than the Grant Lodge trust.
He added: “I don’t think that’s acceptable and that needs to be looked at.”
Councillors agreed yesterday to organise a meeting of interested parties over the future of the building, which currently has an annual maintenance budget of just £400.
The terms of the Grant Lodge trust say it must be used as a library, heritage centre or archive store and kept in good repair for community use.
Any proposal for alternative use would require a public consultation and a petition to the Court of Session, which could cost up to £20,000.
Campaign group Friends of Grant Lodge said in a statement last night that members were “very disappointed” that the feasibility study had been scrapped.
The statement said: “This is a missed opportunity to gain access to potential external funding which could have turned around the fortunes of Grant Lodge, and brought much-needed economic benefit to our area as a whole, not just to Elgin.”
“The glimmer of hope is that the doors have not been firmly shut, just left on the latch,” the group added.
Members have branded the maintenance budget of £400 “totally inadequate”.
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