Aberdeen City Council has come under fire after refusing to stall the sale of historic Bon Accord Baths to give a community group more time to take over the listed building.
Bon Accord Heritage asked the local authority to push back the closing date for bids so they could prepare a business case to reinstate the baths – but were refused.
John Law, head of facilities and fundraising for Bon Accord Heritage, has vowed to fight on, claiming the council has not given them enough time to deal with issues thrown up by a recent survey of the site.
Last night, Aberdeen MSP Kevin Stewart urged the council to hold off on the sale to allow new legislation which gives communities greater powers to take over disused buildings and land to come into effect.
Mr Law added: “All councils should be preparing on how to deal with the new legislation and that would require them to have an officer to help community groups take over council assets and operate them.
“They have done absolutely nothing to prepare and support community groups. You have just got to look at what happened to Victoria Road School to see that.”
He said: ” The council only let us get into this building in late May which has revealed a whole lot of problems which they caused.
“We are not prepared to build a business case when there is so many uncertainties with that. We wanted to do further investigations to get a handle on that. We think it was quite a reasonable request.”
The Scottish Government’s community empowerment bill aims to promote regeneration by putting unused and dilapidated land and property back into the hands of communities across the country.
Mr Stewart, in a letter to the council’s chief executive, Angela Scott, said: “Can I ask that Aberdeen City Council hold off on the selling of the asset until this bill comes into effect and to then have discussions with the Bon Accord Heritage committee that have been fighting hard to keep this venue available to the public of Aberdeen.”
An Aberdeen City Council spokeswoman said: “All parties who had noted an interest in the property were advised on Wednesday, May 27 of the closing date of Tuesday, July 7 to allow all interested parties time to prepare their submission.
“It is essential that the City Council continues to act in an open and transparent manner, which is fair to all interested parties.”