Council's role in Caltongate set for European legal probe

Published on Saturday 17 April 2010 11:24

A EUROPEAN legal probe has been launched into the city council's role on the Caltongate site, it emerged today.

The European Commission has confirmed that an initial assessment has found that the council broke rules regarding the awarding of public contracts.

It has now launched "infringement proceedings" against the city council's actions by writing to the UK Government to say that it believes that European laws could have been broken.

The move follows a complaint more than two years ago from architectural historian David Black, who previously sparked an investigation into the Scottish Parliament project.

Mr Black – a founder of the Old Town Association, which has always opposed the plans – said: "I had made the complaint about the Holyrood process and it was set to one side by the Scottish Government under Jack McConnell, with them just saying it would not happen again.

"Then exactly the same nonsense has happened with Caltongate. I thought there were irregularities that had to be looked at because I did not think it was compliant with European law."

One of the key allegations centred around a patch of council-owned land that Mr Black believes the council supplied to Caltongate developer Mountgrange without offering it on the open market.

He was not willing to comment in detail about the current status of the investigation. But the Evening News has seen a letter from the European Commission saying that "public procurement rules" had been broken by the council.

It is understood that any action from the European Commission would be taken against the UK Government, rather than the city council directly. If no agreements can be reached, the case could be referred to the European Court of Justice, which could ultimately opt to impose a fine.

The gap site is now in the control of administrator Deloitte, with main creditor Bank of Scotland thought to have a major say on who purchases the site.

Nobody from Deloitte was willing to comment today on the European Commission legal probe.

A spokesman for the city council said: "The council has always paid due regard to its legal obligations but recognises the European Commission's right to investigate this matter and is currently preparing a response."