A local councillor has demanded West Lothian Council give money back to the local community after he claims they broke promises.
The council announced their budget for the year recently and the Conservative councillor for Broxburn, Uphall and Winchburgh, Chris Horne, was unhappy to learn that no new Partnership Centre is being delivered in Winchburgh.
He says the local community are furious at a decade of promises being broken and the time is now for the council to hand the money back to the community and allow them to lead on the project themselves.
The council did allocate £700,000 this week for new library facilities within a proposed new NHS led building in Winchburgh but Cllr Horne says they are trying to “palm off” locals and it is not good enough
He said: “WInchburgh plans were sold to residents, old and new, on the basis of fantastic facilities that include the good practice of Partnership Centres, over 10 years ago.
“Now the council will not stand by that promise and are instead betraying this wonderful community to save money and effort, whilst being happy to build very similar centres into other communities.
“Residents are rightly furious. The current line the ‘there will be plenty of facilities provided through the new schools’ - facilities that won’t be available to the public through the day - just doesn’t cut it.
“It is scandalous that the council only has money received from developer contributions in the budget for a Partnership Centre and they should either put in the monies needed from their side or seriously consider giving the money to the community, for Winchburgh residents to themselves lead on building what they need and want.”
“While pleased that the council have conceded and confirmed library facilities, I am furious that the administration would try and palm off the community with a small part of what was promised originally with no new investment coming in from the public purse.
“Council officers need a serious rethink, as there is strong evidence that more facilities akin to that of the community centre will be needed for during the day usage as more new residents arrive in this ever growing village.”
A council spokesperson said: “The council has secured the land for future facilities and, to date, the council is the only public sector partner to provide a financial commitment towards the development of partnership facilities in Winchburgh.
“The single largest occupier of any future centre is likely to be NHS Lothian, who for procurement reasons would likely be the lead partner.
“The council has continued to progress with our role and our responsibilities as much as we can, and the funding commitment of £700,000 was unanimously approved by all members of the Council Executive last week. There was no alternative plan or motion put forward for the delivery of a partnership centre or library services in Winchburgh.
“Fantastic facilities are being provided in the village and there would be out of hours public access to new school facilities being built in Winchburgh. We’ve had very few negative comments from local residents over the plans for local facilities, overall.
“This is an exciting time for the area which is currently undergoing West Lothian’s biggest ever investment in education. A £62 million project is well underway to build two new secondary schools and a primary school as well as shared sport, leisure and community facilities. Last week we also announced further investment within Winchburgh Community Centre.
“The legal agreement in place would not allow the council to hand over the funding package to a community group or individual to allow them to decide how this money is spent. There are statutory agreements in place that the council uses the funding specifically for library provision in the town. Therefore, funding cannot be used for other purposes.”
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