00:00 I'm Councillor Martin Dowie, I'm leader of South Ayrshire Council.
00:11 A positive message coming out, or a tragedy basically, you know the station hotel has
00:16 been long running sore if you want to put it that way in South Ayrshire on my finances
00:22 and on the top of the town.
00:25 We need an integrated transport hub, there's been a fire now that you saw the drone footage
00:33 in my opinion and in a council for the politics side there's no saving the south wing, the
00:38 south wing needs to come down.
00:41 Again we've got to act within the legal constraints that we are, section 29 of the dangerous building
00:47 act allows us to do everything up to demolition if to make it safe.
00:54 We are concerned about the cable end in the south wing and the two east and west elevations
01:01 that are dangerous so we need to get that sorted but overall it's great news for Transport
01:07 Scotland that they can get things moving with network rail hopefully the 4th of December
01:14 and we'll have at least a diesel train running for there and we'll have at least pedestrians
01:20 going across the station bridge because the town's effectively been cut off by the boat.
01:26 We've got a package there for local businesses and that's been difficult for us to get because
01:31 we've had to find that money, it's revenue that we've had to find.
01:34 You know the Scottish Government Transport Secretary has been very good when it comes
01:37 to the station, station hotel etc but when it comes to compensation we've not had anything
01:43 from the Scottish Government to help us so this money is solely we're own, we know they're
01:47 hurting, you know there's a lot of businesses that are walk in businesses that really have
01:53 had no footfall and we're aware of that so yeah we can give the money to them, we're
01:59 not obliged to but you know it wouldn't be right not to.
02:03 But for the first time ever Council is united, you know the 28 Councillors no matter what
02:09 party they're from are united that one we need the station hotel situation sorted but
02:14 two we need to help our businesses to do it so we've introduced free parking as of Sunday
02:23 that'll run right through until December.
02:26 That's at a cost to the Council as well but we need to show that we're putting our money
02:30 where our mouth is to try and say that the place is open, we're doing some stuff at the
02:34 top of the town to try and get people in at weekends and stuff but people of Ayr need
02:39 to come into Ayr to spend money.
02:42 You know the footfall was just starting to recover because we'd brought in, we'd introduced
02:46 two hours free parking for the town centre and that was going really well until of course
02:52 we got the fire.
02:53 Do you feel that the Scottish Government should be stepping up and helping out?
02:56 Well the Scottish Government should be helping out, you know we had a storm in the North
03:00 East and you know they've come up with a funding package for I think it's £1,500 to £3,000
03:07 and it took a wee while but you know the station hotel is killing the top of the town.
03:14 We're hemorrhaging, it's about £68,000 a month was the encapsulation was costing us,
03:22 the network rail were paying half of that and we paid the rest.
03:27 Now that money, we passed new finances for that again coming out of our revenue budget
03:33 in September passed there so that's now being used on you know making the building safe.
03:43 So it's about £1.5 million that we've been spending on this between our contribution
03:48 and network rail.
03:49 That'll be gone come Christmas so once that's gone we are duty bound to find that money
03:58 as a council.
04:00 So at the last full council we wrote to Patrick Harvie who's the Minister concerned about
04:06 the legislation and the legislation should it be for councils to find money for absentee
04:11 landlords to make buildings safe and in this case this could cost up to six, seven million
04:17 pounds that we would need to find and because we don't own the building it's revenue.
04:23 That's a lot of teachers, that's a lot of cleaners, it's a lot of you know teaching
04:27 assistants and the legislation is quite clear it doesn't matter whether that bankrupts a
04:32 council that we need to make by legislation that building safe.
04:37 So what has to happen, what would you like to see happen?
04:40 Well we need a, so nationally there should be a ruling that it comes out of government
04:45 strategic reserve if you know we need better laws to pursue absentee landlords because
04:52 that's taking forever.
04:54 You know Mr Ong's getting pursued in at least three courts around the world, how long that'll
05:00 take you know goodness knows.
05:02 That building has been hemorrhaging money for years now and as soon as it becomes dangerous
05:06 which it is now we're liable for the bills and it's okay at First Minister's questions
05:12 you know the First Minister was asked about it on Thursday there and I think the only
05:18 response was the firemen did a great job which they did but the firemen aren't going to give
05:24 the cafes on Smith Street you know any money, it's the Scottish Government that needs to
05:28 do that.
05:29 I saw some drone footage of the inside of the hotel and it's in a terrible state, you
05:36 know my ill-entertained eye it looks like it'll be coming down.
05:39 I would agree with you yeah.
05:41 Would you like it to come down?
05:42 It needs to come down, it needs to come down, the southern wing needs to come down.
05:46 So the transport hub that we're looking at, so we as a council, so that's the political
05:52 will of the council in September we passed that at council unanimously that we would
05:58 like the station hotel down.
06:01 We gave 18 months, as I became leader 18 months ago I have met with all groups, SAVE and other
06:09 groups who want to save it, they were told time is running out, you need a plan, you
06:14 need money and you need a business plan.
06:17 The only plan they've got is the council's going to pay for it.
06:20 The council cannot pay towards doing up a building that we don't own and I've been very
06:26 clear with everybody, would I have loved to have saved the building?
06:30 Yes.
06:31 We've got a 20 million pound package that we're going to put in and we're not going
06:36 to allow the station hotel to hold that back and it's okay for SAVE and people who are,
06:41 you know don't stay in the town to save but you need to save it.
06:45 If they want to save it they've had the opportunity, the fire has accelerated the process here.
06:53 So what everybody, and public opinion's changed, you know when I first became a councillor
06:56 in 2017 if you'd have said you wanted to get rid of the station hotel you'd have been effectively
07:02 lynched in the street.
07:04 Totally changed now, there's very very few people wanting to, if you look at the social
07:09 media everybody wants it away.
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