Caithness councillor brands two-year Terra Tracker project 'a waste of money'
A Highland councillor from Caithness has criticised the local authority for spending more than £400,000 on a two-year project aimed at building up a digital record of all its land and buildings.
Councillor Jan McEwan described the Terra Tracker initiative as a waste of public money at a time when Highland Council is facing a £108 million budget gap over the next three years.
The project, costing £410,000, will seek to "validate and update data on Highland Council land and building ownership". Terra Tracker will "focus on areas most likely to produce income, saving or cost avoidance".
It will involve going through deeds dating as far back as 1617, and possibly documents written in medieval Latin.
Councillor McEwan (Scottish Liberal Democrats) represents the Wick and East Caithness ward and is provost of Wick.
She pointed out that many assets were transferred from the former district councils under local government reorganisation in 1996.
“I cannot believe that after 27 years they don't know what their assets are, and now we're strapped for money," Councillor McEwan said.
“Why not wait until we're a wee bit more flush? Or why could they not have done it years ago?
"Solicitors can do it, and we have our own solicitors.
“I asked, can our own staff do that? And they said no, they haven't got the resources.
“When I was a civil servant, when there were any projects like this coming up, they put it out to all the staff to see if there were any volunteers, because some people might be really interested in that.
“The solicitors have assistants and what not. They have administration staff. I just cannot understand it.
“I think the way Highland Council is at the moment, it's so strapped, there's a £108 million funding gap over the next three years, £61.7 million next year, and they're going to spend nearly half a million on this.
"At the end of the day it's the public's money they're spending.
“If it has waited all this time and they don't know, what's another two or three years until we're maybe a wee bit more affluent?
“There are houses with heating that's not right, windows are leaking... There is something amiss here.
"I asked the question and I got shut down. I just think it's such a waste of public money."
A Highland Council spokesperson said the £410,000 "largely represents the cost of a new team of four officers for two years, although it is expected that these costs will be met through income generated by the project".
A report to councillors pointed out: "Most land and buildings owned by Highland Council are not registered but are still recorded in one of several older registers. Principal among these is the General Register of Sasines, which is the oldest national public land register in the world.
"Establishing ownership from Sasine deeds can be challenging for various reasons."
The chairman of the corporate resources committee, Councillor Derek Louden, said: “Highland Council as a local authority covers a substantial 25,653 square kilometres which, in context, is almost the size of a country like Belgium.
"It’s a substantial landmass and an accurate audit of our land assets is essential for the council to effectively deliver ambitious housing and renewable energy projects and identify income generation opportunities.
“Consolidating all the council’s assets in one central place will substantially assist with asset rationalisation, identify any encroachment of land by third parties, reduce duplication and in turn will improve service productivity and efficiency savings.”
The convener, Councillor Bill Lobban, explained: “As a continuing legal entity, Highland Council, which is the largest local authority in the UK, has existed for many centuries through various statutory predecessors, including the former district, regional, county and burgh councils.
"Consequences of this long history include the geographic dispersal of records with associated losses of both physical records and institutional knowledge.”