Shetland Islands Council Support
In 2008 the Shetland Islands Council voted to review their support for Mareel even though they had agreed their support on number of previous occasions and had "already spent around £750,000 on Mareel and previously committed itself to spending a further £4.5m from its capital programme.". The council voted 15:7 to commission a business plan review and re-vote six weeks later.
The Shetland Islands Council's finance officials reported the business plan to be "robust" and "well researched", but that costings estimates were “light” and audience and income targets “challenging”.
The result of the subsequent vote on Wednesday 25 June was in favour of continuing support for Mareel. Due to a 9:9 split convener Sandy Cluness used his casting vote and is reported to have said "As far as I am concerned you can go ahead and build Mareel" as he delivered his decision, to "cheers of delight and lengthy applause from the 40 or so supporters" who were present in the council chambers.
Despite the vote "a few councillors (were) apparently unable to accept the democratic decision." West Mainland councillor Gary Robinson called into question the convener’s handling of the vote stating “I think Sandy (the convenor) has won a battle, but the war isn’t over yet” and that he and other opponents (including Alison Duncan who had 6 weeks previously expressed his desire to "place a bomb"" under Mareel and Jonathan Wills, a one time supporter of Mareel) would be considering their options in the coming weeks. This group continue to voice their opposition
Councillor Alan Wishart, who had voted against Mareel, reflected the majority view that the vote had been handled "properly and fairly" stating it had been "pretty intense, but a reasoned debate and I’m content with that... It was very reasonable on both sides and democracy had its say."
Read more about this topic: Mareel
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