Issue - meetings

this item was referred to Full Council for a final decision.

(A)       In accordance with article 4 of this minute, the Committee heard the following deputation from Mr David Fryer and Mr Alistair Spence on behalf of Torry Development Trust.

Mr Spence made reference to a meeting with two Council officers who requested details of Torry Development Trust (TDT). He indicated that he had the impression that the officers had made their mind up that the TDT could not deliver their proposals, hence the report’s recommendation to market the site.

He advised that in a few short weeks, the TDT had before them three different proposals for the site, however the officer report was not complimentary inferring that they would not be able to carry out their proposals. He wanted to clarify that the comments in the report which stated that they had no interest in what happened to the building as long as it was saved, were very much taken out of context. He explained that what he had referred to in this statement was that he could not care less what was done ‘in terms of the three proposals’, as long as the building heritage was saved.

The Committee then heard Mr Fryer make reference to the previous meeting on 1 December 2017, at which the TDT presented the case for retention of the very fine examples of granite heritage and the need to link these to new uses to meet community needs following full restoration. He explained that they had received a hand of friendship for the TDT to take the lead to develop alternative uses on the Victoria Road School site and were professionally advised by others in the family of development trusts that up to six months would be needed to present their assessments.

He indicated that TDT had started small and was growing with opportunity and support to progress a detailed evaluation followed by public consultations on identified options to date. He questioned whether the door was being closed on them.

He made reference to the time TDT have had since the previous Committee meeting (27 working days), and during this short time they had identified strong community focused options through meeting three potential development partners and projects that could deliver community benefits such as affordable housing, working mum’s nursery, job club, heritage museum and sports/youth provision for Torry and the city.

He advised that in the days and weeks open to them, they had received goodwill, pro-bono offers from individual professionals, the Scotland Town Partnership, Grampian Housing Association and the Development Trust Association to assist and support them as an effective development partner.

He indicated that their community knowledge, skills and attributes of some 200+ years was an invaluable resource in that they were the community cement that could bond together a project with the potential development partners to help them achieve a new future for the granite heritage of Old Torry. In addition, in the last week, he explained that they had received 15 applications for membership of the TDT and there were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22