Perth Harbour closure saga costs taxpayers £600k, claims top councillor
A senior councillor says the failed closure of Perth Harbour has cost taxpayers more than £600,000.
John Duff blasted the expense as colleagues agreed a plan to end the stalemate on Wednesday.
Twenty-seven months have passed since Perth and Kinross Council voted to shut Perth harbour to commercial traffic.
The February 2023 decision was meant to save the council £157,000 a year.
But chiefs have been unable to reach an agreement with Transport Scotland.
And they have had to spend an additional £308,000 on keeping Perth Harbour open since then.
Just eight boats have docked there in that time.
The council's economy and infrastructure committee approved a new strategy on Wednesday.
Officials will now pursue a harbour revision order (HRO), rather than a full closure order.
That means Perth and Kinross Council will stay on as statutory harbour authority.
But the harbour will be closed to commercial vessels over 24 metres.
Mr Duff, leader of the opposition Conservative group, asked how long this was likely to take – and how much more expense the council would have to bear.
'If I'm reading this correctly, the failure to close the harbour has meant we haven't made the proposed savings totalling £314,000,' he said.
'And instead we've had to incur expenses of £308,000 in keeping the harbour open.
'Do we have an idea of what additional costs the council might incur over the next 18 months on top of the £600,000 it has already cost us?'
Serge Merone, the council's strategic lead for economy, development and planning, said officers were hoping to reduce costs to around £65,000 a year.
Council leader Grant Laing said he shared colleagues' frustrations.
But he said the problems had arisen because no one has ever tried to close a harbour before.
'There's no framework to comply with, no legal advice to work to,' he said.
Liberal-Democrat councillor Willie Robertson suggested the council should be writing to the Transport Minister to protest Transport Scotland's 'incompetence'.
But others raised questions about the council's own legal advice ahead of the closure vote in February 2023.
Councillors also agreed to axe Perth Harbour Board after hearing it hasn't met since November 2023.
But the move sparked anger from the board's departing chairman.
Bailie Chris Ahern, who is a member of the committee, claimed the board had not been told it was for the chop.
And he said it did not get advance notice of the recommendation to close the harbour in 2023 either.
Mr Ahern said the board's demise poses questions over who will take on its responsibilities.
He claimed a jet-ski was involved in a near-miss with another river user last week, and said this was one of the areas where the board had been working to keep people safe.
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