The Leader of Dumfries and Galloway Council, Ronnie Nicholson, has met with the Environment Minister Aileen McLeod MSP to discuss concerns over the lack of progress in establishing a National Resilience Centre (NCR) in Dumfries.
The Scottish Government announced their commitment to establish the NCR at the Crichton site on 14 August 2014. However, a report to members of the Council’s Policy and Resources Committee in June 2015 stated “there is a need for Scottish Government to renew the impetus relative to the NCR”. As a result Councillors agreed that an urgent meeting be requested with the Minister to raise concerns at the lack of progress.
Councillor Nicholson met with the Minister at the Crichton yesterday (28 September) at which it was revealed the Scottish Government aimed to establish the NCR by March 2016, however the exact location and number of jobs that will be created remains unclear.
Councillor Nicholson said, “The Council backed the establishment of the centre in good faith and has supported the work to date so it is very disappointing that the Scottish Government have been dragging their heals over the project. Progress has been painfully slow and it would be fair to say that the Government announcement of the centre well over a year ago now was premature with the actual detail not thought through. It is also clear that when the original announcement was made, at a time the Scottish Government were being criticised over the job losses at the Police control room in Dumfries, the announcement was rushed out with the spin all about how new jobs were coming to the area. The reality is that looks unlikely with at best only a handful of new posts being created. The details of posts and appointment timescales are still very sketchy and most of the work is likely simply to be collaboration with others across Scotland rather than many new jobs in Dumfries. However, I am pleased that the pressure to move this project forward is beginning to pay off and we now have a target date when the work will begin. There is no doubt that the location of the centre in our region is due to the fact Dumfries and Galloway Council leads the rest of Scotland when it comes to resilience work and hopefully that best practise can be shared through the centre.”
