V & A Report - Full Disclosure Required

Dundee City Council today published the McClelland Report on the V & A project. You can read the official Dundee City Council news release here.  The report will be discussed at the council's Policy & Resources Committee on August 24th.  Along with my colleagues in the Labour Group we will be discussing our response over the next few days.

 

You can see some of my views on the way forward on this STV News report.

 

The Labour Group on Dundee City Council's biggest issue with the the V & A project is that given that we strongly support the V & A project why were we excluded from information about the project time after time. 

 

A number of Labour councillors asked about the reality of the costs of the project and we were told on a number of occasions that the original figure of £45 million was accurate. It is clear that this had not been the case for a very very long time. Why was this information kept from the people of Dundee?

 

We have only just received this report and we will take some time to read it and consider a fuller response however, we are clear that governance issues in the final analysis are the responsibility of the political leadership of the council. We hope that lessons have been learnt but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. We hope that we will be able to have confidence in the responses we receive from officers in the future.

 

There is a need for further analysis of this and especially the role of the Scottish Government and other partners in this project. The Education and Culture Committee of the Scottish Parliament should now examine this project. The McClelland Report was restricted in its remit and does not get to the bottom of who amongst all the partners involved in this project knew what and when they knew it. A Scottish Parliament Committee inquiry is required the people of Dundee deserve to know.