A Dumfries councillor this week demanded action to improve a traveller site at Collin.
Andy Ferguson described the local authority’s failure over many years to address problems at the facility as “an absolute scandal”.
Speaking at the communities committee, he said: “I wonder what would have happened if this development had to be somewhere else other than the gypsy/travellers site. Would we still be dragging our feet?
“This is a long, drawn-out saga. It goes back 30-odd years.
“Total, total disregard for people’s livelihoods, the conditions they live in, and everything else.
“It’s an absolute scandal. It needs to be sorted – and it needs to be sorted quickly.”
The facility is in need of significant investment to upgrade living conditions, tighten up health and safety, and meet Scottish Government requirements.
The remedial work was estimated at £8 million four years ago and an options appraisal was to be carried out to consider the best course of action.
But, as yet, the council is no further forward.
Council governance officer Vlad Valiente said: “It’s actually quite a complex matter that we have to look at, with various factors including human rights within that, and ensure that before we take anything back to members, we have a robust options appraisal for members to take decisions upon.”
Mr Valiente explained that the matter will go before the council leaders’ panel and there will also be a councillors’ seminar so that all options can be discussed before it goes back to the communities committee.
Mr Ferguson said: “I’m afraid we’ve not got time here. We were almost under special measures (from the government) over it, and we managed to work our way through that by promising to get things done quickly.
“I do know that officers have been on a working group with the Scottish Government, and they changed the goalposts to be fair.
“But they changed the goalposts a couple of years ago, not yesterday.
“We need to move things forward quickly.”
Councillor Ian Blake, the new communities committee chairman, said: “You have raised it now and you have a commitment from Vlad that we will certainly look at the situation, and try to progress it.”
In 2018, the Scottish Government published a new report which slammed numerous councils for their poor operation of gypsy/traveller sites.
The report highlighted significant failings by councils and called for urgent action to be taken. Only two sites out of 26 – Angus and Falkirk – met all the requirements set out by the government, with the report stating that 14 sites did not meet safety and security standards.
The report stated: “The sites in Aberdeenshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Fife and West Dunbartonshire did not have smoke or heat alarms at the time of the review.”
The report continued: “At Collin in Dumfries and Galloway, the council told us that the blocks currently keep out water but, as there is subsidence on the site, there is evidence of structural problems. A number of pitches are currently out of use because of the subsidence
issues.”
