A former president of Falkirk Arts Network has blasted what he calls a "sham consultation" on the closure of Falkirk Town Hall.
John Paterson, who is also president of Falkirk Tryst Orchestra, is angry that the consultation is following the council's controversial decision to close FTH for good - a decision he calls "an act of vandalism".
The one-question consultation was launched last week, asking people if they agree that Falkirk Council should accelerate the demolition of Falkirk Town Hall alongside the remainder of the Municipal Buildings.
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The two buildings are part of the same complex and share utilities including water and power - making their separation complex and expensive.
Falkirk Council's director of place, Malcolm Bennie, says the council cannot justify spending £6 million to separate the two parts of the building - a task that would require closure of the town hall for a year.
Last month, SNP and Conservative councillors agreed that keeping the town hall open at such a cost would stall progress on building a new venue and voted to close it on February 6.
The council says it intends to use money from the sale of the land to help build a new, greener theatre and town hall in its place.
But the fact that the saga has reached such a crisis point with no decision yet taken on where the new venue will be or what it will look like sparked anger from the many arts groups who had been promised that the old building would remain in place until a replacement was found.
Mr Paterson believes the council "may have acted illegally in taking the decisions it has without following due process".
And he has strong words for the councillors who have, over many years, failed to reach agreement about a replacement for the 50-year old buildings.
He said: "In doing so, they have treated the people of Falkirk very badly. They now appear to be trying to cover up their apparently illegal actions by, belatedly, having a sham consultation when it is already too late.
"They have known for many years that the building containing the Town Hall and the Falkirk Council HQ was nearing the end of its useful life.
"They have had several opportunities to ensure that a suitable replacement facility was in place before there was a need to close the existing building, but on each occasion, the elected members of Falkirk Council have chosen not to proceed with plans to provide a new facility.
"Falkirk Council has taken a deliberate and calculated decision to put us in this awful position.
"A large number of Falkirk residents, who are very unhappy about the position that the council has put us in, have been voicing their views on the subject and will continue to do so in order to make sure that the council don’t get away with this act of vandalism and are not allowed to quietly go ahead with the demolition of the Town Hall in the hope that the people of Falkirk won’t notice.
"Falkirk needs a Town Hall and it needs it now. Some vague plan to provide a replacement in five or ten years time is not good enough and the people who put us in this position must be held to account.
"We will have a generation of children growing up in Falkirk with nowhere to perform in the annual displays of the many dancing schools in the area and nowhere for the youth theatre groups to perform.
"Many adult groups too will find themselves without a suitable performance venue, affecting hundreds of group members and thousands of people who look forward to attending their performances.
"I have grave concerns about the detrimental effect this will have on the cultural wellbeing of the town of Falkirk and doubt whether the town would ever recover if it is deprived of this facility for a period of several years."
In December last year, Falkirk councillors took the decision to demolish the buildings on a phased basis and sell the site. By law, they were required to consult the public and most of those submitting responses agreed that this should happen.
The new consultation is asking whether people believe that process should be accelerated to include the town hall, allowing demolition to start as soon as possible.
A council spokesperson said: "A previous Common Good consultation resulted in a decision that the site could be sold and a phased demolition process undertaken. The current statutory consultation considers the matter of accelerating the phasing of the demolition.”
