Moray Council property sale
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NEW Elgin Primary School Annex, the Elgin registrar’s, and offices throughout the town centre are all buildings Moray Council wants to dispose of.
A list of 27 properties was included in a report on the progress of the Designing Better Services programme to save £4.4 million by 2014, which came before the policy and resources committee this week.
The buildings will be left empty after staff are relocated to the new council headquarters in the former supermarket building at the east end of Elgin High Street, which is expected to be complete before the end of the year.
A timetable has been compiled for the release of buildings to avoid saturating the market.
This year the council will vacate six properties it leases, and the Moray Music Centre on Francis Place will be put up for sale. A further eight will become available in 2012.
Ten others will be put on the market at a later date.
The current council headquarters and 17 High Street, Elgin – the home of Business Gateway – will be retained by the authority.
Graham Leadbitter, councillor for Elgin South, said: "We don’t necessarily need to hurry this too much; we don’t want to flood the market. And we don’t want too many empty buildings on the High Street at any one time."
He added that projects generated by the Elgin – City for the Future and the Moray Economic Strategy documents could benefit from some of the buildings.
Councillors John Russell (Elgin North) and Stewart Cree (Keith and Cullen) agreed with Councillor Leadbitter and welcomed the retention of the building occupied by business Gateway.
Barry Jarvis, councillor for Elgin North, was reassured that the property rationalisation would be handled sensitively.
He added: "The main selling point for the new annex building to the public was undoubtedly the assurance that it would result in a reduction of the other council buildings, and whilst many of the public accepted this they were often dubious about whether or not the council would actually relinquish its other properties.
"I myself did have concerns that almost half of the buildings on the list appear to be getting kept on until at least 2013 because I can see no bigger risk to the council for this project than the public losing faith in the process as a result of seeing no progress in this regard.
"It is vital that as a council we continue to do this work to achieve the identified savings and at a pace that will not adversely effect property values in the centre to maintain public faith in the project."
Buckie councillor Gordon McDonald said it was important the council’s property portfolio was dealt with before the authority became involved with issues concerning Grant Lodge in Elgin.
Councillors at Tuesday’s meeting agreed to note progress made in the third phase of the Designing Better Services programme, including the completion of the procurement project and the timetable for the dispersal of buildings.
They also agreed to approve recommendations following the community care redesign project staff and public consultation.
These include specialist services being managed by NHS Grampian and Moray Council Community Care, a requirement to have a registered officer for each day care facility and that any implementation plan for the change in use of day care facilities will be submitted for further consultation.
Mark Palmer, director of corporate services, said: "The Designing Better Services project is a massive undertaking and the council is changing the way we provide services."
He added: "We’ve achieved an awful lot in two years with more in the next two, and putting the next piece of the jigsaw together doesn’t happen overnight. Hopefully things will speed up from now."
