Neither South or East Ayrshire Council have published a register of common good properties, seven years since it was made a requirement by law.
Earlier this month, South Ayrshire Council’s Leadership Panel agreed to include its £14m common good assets in a broader review of its estate as the common good reserves dwindled.
During the discussion one senior councillor openly stated that the council need to reduce the number of common good assets.
A spokesman for SAC said that it hadn’t published its register as it was a ‘substantial’ and ‘time consuming’ piece of work.
It has, however, recently included a list of assets as part of its annual common good performance report.
East Ayrshire Council said it has already compiled an official register, but has yet to publish it. It has previously stated that the common good should benefit ‘communities’ own identified priorities and that they are ‘in fact, their own Common Good Funds’.
Both councils are required to go out to public consultation on the contents of the register.
In South Ayrshire, there is now a question of whether the council will opt to dispose of buildings, as it did with the Darlington Church at the end of 2021, before deciding what it will include in the public consultation.
The requirement to create a register is central to the 2015 Community Empowerment Act.
In its guidance, the Scottish Government states: “Assets held for the common good – such as parks, monuments and statues – are owned by local authorities, who must manage the assets in accordance with existing statutory and non-statutory duties.”
In a bid to increase transparency, the Act states that local authorities must ‘establish and maintain a register of property which is held by the authority as part of the common good’, and engage with local communities in setting up these registers’.
A South Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “The council has not yet published the common good register.
“Finalising of the list is a substantial piece of work which involves a time consuming process to ensure all information is correct. However, the process will continue to be progressed.”
An East Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “We have compiled an official Common Good Register, which we regularly update.
“In line with the Act we are actively working on publication at the moment, and invitations for representations will be issued in due course once this is finalised.”
There was £14m worth of asset, usable reserves of £397k in revenue and £939k of capital reserves in South Ayrshire’s common good accounts in March 2021.
This compared to East Ayrshire’s £5.2m in common good assets and a combined £384k in usable revenue and capital.
At the SAC Leadership Panel, Troon Labour Councillor Philip Saxton said: “A lot of the assets don’t bring in an income. That’s what is a concern.
“There is no use keeping common good assets if it does not bring income into the common good.
“We have to reduce what we have got in the common good.”
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