A defiant developer has been urged to “do the decent thing” in the saga surrounding an eyesore Angus town centre hotel.
Kirriemuir councillor and Angus Provost Ronnie Proctor has branded the former Hooks Hotel a “rotten tooth on the face of Kirrie” as the local authority continues to chase Fife builder John Cape for almost £9,000 the council laid out to make the building safe in a direct action move nearly three years ago.
The C-listed building was bought by Mr Cape with the intention of transforming the untidy property with the aid of grant money from the Kirriemuir Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS) but he has remained at loggerheads with the council after the plans fell through.
Councillors approved direct action to make the building safe but the £8,875 works were branded “excessive” by the developer, who lost a subsequent appeal to Scottish Ministers and has failed to settle the outstanding bill.
Mr Proctor said: “To see a prominent building on a prime site in such a state of repair is just a frustration after so long.
“After all the money that was invested in CARS to make the town look so good, this building is still a rotten tooth in the nice face of Kirrie.
“My hope is that the owner should show some civic respect to the town and make the centre of Kirrie worthy of what it is in terms of its history and the investment which has been made.”
He added: “There’s a lot of work going on from all parts of the community and not a thing has been done to this building since that which we took in terms of the direct action to make it safe for people to walk by.
“Sadly, there’s nothing more we can do. It’s a privately-owned building and we’ve taken all reasonable and legal steps we can.
“I’m asking the owner to think of the people of Kirriemuir, think of the town and do the decent thing by getting something done with this building. But all we can do is make that plea.”
Mr Cape, who previously blamed council “red tape and manipulation” for the collapse of his plans said he was talking to another developer about potentially selling the building.
“This should have been done, but I’m not stretching myself because of the incompetency of others.
“I’ve not thought about it for the last year to 15 months – I’m pig sick of it.”
He said that he was unaware of the regular development standards enforcement reports presented to councillors.
“There’s a miscommunication somewhere, I have had nobody come near me to try to sort out this mess.”
