Live Borders (LB) continues to concern many people in Peebles and across the Borders and your community council still engage with Scottish Borders Council (SBC) over it. A recent exchange highlighted to us the difficult and complex tasks they, SBC have to face and the lack of resource that they have to manage with. I would not disagree with any of this and indeed some of what SBC do, they do very well indeed. However, in my view and that of many of my contacts, LB is more a self-inflicted injury than an accident of circumstance, and SBC appear to be doing all they can to avoid acknowledgement of this.

SBC say that the situation is urgent. It is, it was urgent in 2023 when “the serious position that the trust faces with the current setup being critically unsustainable” was noted. It was urgent when the March 2024 accounts were filed and identified that the base management fee provided by SBC was inadequate – Little if anything was done. It should have been clear to anyone who cared to look, that LB could not survive the level of cuts that they had had forced upon them, circa double those initiated by other local authorities with similar problems. If SBC were a commercial entity, shareholders would be holding directors to account. Public money should be managed just as efficiently, and should we, the rate payer, expect anything less?

Government, whether central or local is required to provide the services, that we as individuals are unable to provide for ourselves and that cannot be provided as commercial services. The law requires that a local authority ensures that there is adequate provision of facilities for recreational, sporting, cultural and social activities. The Leader of the Council, Councillor Euan Jardine appears to agree with this requirement, at least where sport is concerned. To quote him from his recent article in the Herald: “Sport and physical activity are not luxuries”, We need to invest more directly in sports clubs”, “we should be removing barriers, not creating more of them”, and “If many Scots value sport, why are we making it more difficult to access”? Why indeed! Perhaps the Leader of the Council should study our research and take this up internally.

Peebles and District Community Council has shared our Peebles Life and Peeblesshire News articles with SBC; the reaction shows a level of discomfort and a repetition of the same tired arguments; we’re not to blame, it was Live Borders, it was Covid, it’s urgent. [Why now? Why not earlier?] However, to repeat, SBC’s own commissioned report includes a serious indictment! “a lack of strong leadership and governance, the absence of a senior leadership team, unclear strategic direction, limited accountability, weak oversight of financial and operational performance, poor data utilisation, lack of performance driven culture, Inefficient resource allocation and suboptimal service planning. Surely, it did not take a consultant to identify this. Where was the SBC oversight? Perhaps no one was responsible, that is the modern way isn’t it! However, to end, last week I met the new Chief Executive of Live Borders. Time will tell how well she succeeds in her task. It will not be easy. However, without adequate support from SBC, her task will be impossible.

Peter Maudsley
Chair, Peebles and District Community Council

As always: support or comment to Anne Snoddy (Secretary PCC)