The Edinburgh Reporter January 2019

@EdinReporter /EdinReporter /edinburghreporter SPORT 23
Rugby - Autumn Test
Top officer in public
apology over Murrayfield
planning row
Edinburgh Rugby were given the green light for a new stadium despite
objections
Scotland played Argentina at Murrayfield on a very dreich November day in front of a full house.
It was not the most exciting of matches but Scotland won 14-9 when Sanchez eventually scored (he had
had many chances!) With the rain falling steadily, the match kicked off with the usual BT Murrayfield wall
of noise, which ramped up a degree when Greig Laidlaw kicked Scotland into an early lead with a penalty
for 3-0.
A few minutes later, Argentina had the chance to equalise when a ruck infringement drew the referee’s
attention, but the, ever reliable Nicolas Sanchez pulled the easy kick wide, thus setting the bench mark for
the visitor’s kicking record by the final whistle.
Above Scotland's Finn Russell slides round the outside of Argentina's defence | Photo John Preece
East Lothian Council
Racecourse row resurfaces
by Marie Sharp Local Democracy
Reporter
EAST Lothian Council has been
accused of taking up to £300,000
out of Musselburgh Racecourse’s
funds to cover the legal costs of
finding a new operator.
Ray Green, a director of Lothian
Racing Syndicate (LRS), described
the legal costs as “excessive” as
he criticised the local authority
for delays in progressing the
future of the course .
The council is currently
preparing to put the future
operation of the course out to
tender but the process has fallen
behind its original timescale.
At a meeting of Musselburgh
Racing Associated Committee
(MRAC) in December, Mr Green
said that the LRS, which has
jointly run the course with
the council for more than
two decades, was extremely
concerned about the delays and
legal costs incurred.
And he said the LRS had asked
the racecourse auditors to look at
the decision to take the
money from its funds.
He said: “I believe that the costs
being incurred are excessive.”
MRAC replaced the Musselburgh
Joint Racing Committee, which
oversaw the management of the
course, earlier this year after
relations between the LRS and
elected councillors who made up
the group deteriorated.
The British Horseracing
Authority was so concerned
by the situation it called for
an independent review of the
governance of the course threatening
to withdraw its licence to
race unless action was taken.
Following the review East
Lothian Council set up MRAC
with four elected councillors and
two racing experts, currently LRS
members on it and agreed to put
the operation of the course out to
tender to a third party.
However tensions between the
two parties rose to the surface at
the recent MRAC meeting as it
was confirmed that the original
plan to have a new operator in
place by July 2019 has now put
back to October 2019.
Mr Green challenged the cost
of the legal bills asking why no
discussions about who should
foot the cost had been held prior
to funds being taken from the
racecourse.
However the council’s legal
adviser Carlo Grilli pointed out
that it was the LRS who “asked”
for the external legal team
involved to be appointed.
MRAC meetings have been held
in public in a move to make the
running of the racecourse, which
is on common good land and
leased to operators by the local
authority, more transparent than
it had been in the past.
However six of the ten items on
the agenda were held in private,
including a report from course
general manager Bill Farnsworth
which was expected to update the
committee on the ongoing BHA
inquiry into the deaths of four
horses during one race day at the
start of December.
The council said the items were
held in private as they contained
“sensitive/confidential”
information.
by David Bol Local Democracy
Reporter
A council director has been forced
to apologise following a row over
the process that gave Edinburgh
Rugby’s new stadium the green
light.
The city council’s chief planning
officer was asked to carry out
an investigation over the ‘Mini
Murrayfield’ proposals being
determined by officers rather
than councillors, after concerns
were raised by planning convener
Cllr Neil Gardiner.
In September, planning officers
approved Edinburgh Rugby’s
plans for a 7,800-seater stadium
after a letter from Murrayfield
ice rink was incorrectly not
classed as an objection. Usually,
any application that receives at
least seven objections is brought
before councillors for determination
– but the omission left the
application with just six objections.
The plans were also not
classed as being of “considerable
public interest”.
Chief planning officer David
Leslie said: “The case officer did
make reference to the proposals
being modest in scale, compared
to the existing main stadium.
This is not something that the
officer at the time considered to
be of considerable public interest.
“The representation from
Murrayfield ice rink both
supports the growth and
retention of Edinburgh Rugby
and raises an objection to the
intensification of use of the site.
On balance, my view is that letter
could have been treated as a
representation but the judgement
of officers did not amount to
unreasonable exercise of their
planning judgement.”
He added: “In view of the wider
interest of sporting venues and
with the benefit of hindsight, it
would have been advisable in my
view for a team manager to have
been consulted about whether or
not it was appropriate to delegate
the decision. It’s not unreasonable
that they took that view but they
didn’t seek a second opinion.
“It’s not considered that officers
acted unreasonably in exercising
their planning judgement but it
would have been advisable that
the application had been referred
by them to committee and they
could have sought a second
opinion in doing that.”
The council’s executive Director
of Place, Paul Lawrence, has
written to objectors to apologise
for the oversight and has publicly
apologised to the council’s
planning committee.
He said: “The reason that I wrote
a letter of apology to the objectors
to the application was to make
clear that there was a process
which we believe would have
been more robust.
“We will be ensuring that our
procedures are improved in
the future to ensure that such
judgements are improved and
that there is stronger senior
management oversight of the
decision-making process. I regret
the position this has put you as
a committee in and I am sorry to
you for that.”
Cllr John McLellan labelled
the row a “pretty extraordinary
episode” and said Edinburgh
Rugby and the SRU were
“absolutely gob-smacked” the
decision was taken without being
scrutinised by councillors.
He added: “The expectation
of the applicant was that there
would be a hearing. When it didn’t
have one, they couldn’t understand
why. I think that’s probably
as damning an indictment of the
process as any.
“Whilst I accept the report and I
accept the recommendations and
the apology to the objectors, it
doesn’t particularly assuage them
that the ice rink in particular
believes the report is a whitewash.
“There’s page after page
of problems that it raises. It
still absolutely confuses me how
anybody thought it had been
dealt with and did not need to be
discussed by the committee for
something as important as this.”