Campaigners battling to stop Aberdeen’s controversial Marischal Square scheme held talks with officials from the public spending watchdog yesterday.
The meeting with Audit Scotland was arranged as part of its annual review of the city council, which will consider concerns about the handling of the £107million office, retail and hotel development at Broad Street.
The watchdog’s assistant director, Stephen Boyle, was one of three senior figures to attend the meeting with members of the Reject Marischal Square Development group.
Campaigners Lorna McHattie, Bill Skidmore, Kenneth McHattie had requested the talks with Audit Scotland.
Last night, Mrs McHattie said: “The Reject campaign presented information which highlighted an absence of due process around the investment decision for the council to enter into a sale and lease back development.
“In particular, there was no investment appraisal or risk assessment to support a sale and lease back arrangement with Aviva Investors and Muse Developments.
“The council has entered into an agreement which involves very significant financial risk to Aberdeen City Council taxpayers, with insufficient regard having been given to the potential consequences.”
She added: “It was made clear at the meeting that, while a great deal of information had been available to the campaign group, there appears to be other relevant information to which the group was not provided access and which requires more detailed investigation.
“The group expressed the hope that Audit Scotland will review this information and discover how decisions came to be taken in the apparent absence of due process.”
The findings of Audit Scotland’s annual review of the local authority are expected to be published next month.
Senior councillors have been cleared of several complains made by the scheme’s opponents to the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life.
An Aberdeen City Council spokesman said: “We are confident in the processes that were followed from the initial marketing of the former St Nicholas House site through to the selection of Muse Developments and Aviva Investors as preferred bidder and the eventual conclusion of the deal.
“We are equally confident in the statutory processes that were followed around the consideration of the planning application.
“It is routine practice for Audit Scotland to carry out reviews of major projects, and we expect that it will do so with regard to Marischal Square as part of its normal annual audit report for Aberdeen City Council.”