A former social work HQ could be converted into a “limited service hotel” which could be used to house homeless people after West Lothian Council agreed to its sale.
West Lothian Council’s Executive agreed on Tuesday to sell the building on Whitburn Road, Bathgate, to Kaim Park Investments limited (KPIL) for £535,000.
The council had earlier turned down a request for the building to be turned into a community arts venue for the town centre as part of the asset transfer process.
But the SNP opposition criticised the sale of the building, claiming the council would soon be renting rooms back to battle the ever growing homeless crisis in the county.
KPIL owns the Kaim Park Hotel in Bathgate. The firm proposes and converting the former social office internally for use as what is described in paperwork as a “limited service hotel”, similar to the firm’s existing Kaim Park Hotel operating model.
Limited service hotels offer budget accommodation without food.
However in an amendment depute SNP group leader Robert De Bold said: “Given the scale of West Lothian’s current housing crisis there is a likelihood that if this building is sold and converted for the purposes stated then West Lothian Council may quickly find themselves renting these rooms back at great cost to meet the demand for temporary and emergency accommodation.”
The amendment went on to outline that in January, West Lothian had over 862 homelessness applications and the projected homelessness overspend was £1.79 million.
The amendment suggested that the bulk of the money went on paying expensive B&B and hotel bills when it could be used for a sustainable programme to tackle homelessness.
It added: “The SNP group therefore propose that this sale does not go through at the present time and officers instead examine the possibility of this building being repurposed in the short term to provide temporary accommodation to alleviate the present homelessness crisis”
SNP Group leader Councillor Janet Campbell said before the meeting: “If the potential is there for a commercial developer to repurpose this property we question the logic of West Lothian Council’s strategy which will result in the loss of this prime town centre asset in the long term and ultimately the Council ending up out of pocket.”
Seconding the amendment Councillor Carl John said retaining the building was a gold opportunity to help the community “ and probably help ourselves.”
Labour’s councillor Andrew McGuire rejected the suggestion the council was doing nothing, pointing out that the council already had the Rapid Rehousing Transition Programme to tackle homelessness.
Councillor McGuire told the meeting: “ We do have a plan which has now been in position for five years. The council cannot run hotels, The council can run homeless accommodation which it does already in Blackburn. We would all like to live in a world where the council didn’t need any bed and breakfast or any hotel or homeless accommodation, because there’d be enough houses for everyone. Very sadly until the Scottish Government does more to help us build more houses that won’t be the case.”
Councillor George Paul, who chairs the Housing Services PDSP, said: “Councillor De Bold should go back to his MSPs in the Scottish Government and ask them why they cut £150m from the budget of this council.”
The depute council leader, Councillor Kirsteen Sullivan said: “The RRTP has been severely underfunded. the Scottish Government gave a fraction of what was requested by WLC to address the homeless issue. There ‘s also been legislative changes that have increased pressure, not least that anyone from anywhere can now present in West Lothian and West Lothian Council has a duty to provide them with accommodation.”
She said to councillor De Bold: “ If you are really serious about addressing the issue of homelessness in West Lothian I suggest you speak to your colleagues in the Scottish Government and make a case for adequate funding for council to address this very serious issue.”
Chairing the meeting council leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick summed up a motion to sell the building: “ The option of conversion to housing accommodation was considered by officers. It is ultra expensive and there are no funds to rehabilitate the building. Nor is there any grant available for this, even within the housing association sector. I understand that only extends to new-build. Furthermore we would lose out on a capital receipt. We desperately need that money.”
The amendment was defeated by ten votes to three.
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