STEPHEN McCabe has declared that Inverclyde Council is ‘open’ to an approach from Clune Park landlords to finally resolve the expensive and lengthy legal impasse over the rundown Port Glasgow housing scheme.

The local authority leader told the Telegraph that he accepts a court judgement ruling against the council’s case for bulldozing the badly dilapidated estate. 

But during a visit to the eyesore scheme Councillor McCabe insisted that the strategy adopted by him and other Municipal Buildings decision makers had been the correct one, although he is now inviting dialogue with the property owners.

The council — which has spent nearly £1 million on litigation and other costs — has lost twice in court, with Sheriff Derek Hamilton ruling in favour of landlords over the structural integrity of the ageing 430-flat development.

Councillor McCabe said: “We are disappointed that the sheriff ruled against us and we obviously accept what the sheriff is saying and why he made his judgement.

“But fundamentally we still think we’ve got a very strong case that these properties should be demolished.

“We will continue to pursue the demolition of the properties through appropriate means.”

It appears that those appropriate means could now involve discussions between council officials and landlords over an acceptable price for Clune Park.

Asked if such a deal was possible, Mr McCabe responded: “It’s not for me to negotiate a deal like that. The ball is in the court of the landlords, so it is up to them to come forward with a credible proposal.

He added: “The reality is we are open to a proposal from the landlords but in the meantime we have got a duty to continue to address the issues in this estate.”

The council — which moved in May 2011 to regenerate the area — had argued that Clune Park was beyond economic repair, had to be torn down and was structurally unstable.

However, its case was undermined by a buildings expert whom it had commissioned to provide a survey report and who stated in court that the estate would be safe for up to a further 10 years.

Councillor McCabe and a senior Municipal Buildings official told the Telegraph that the structural issues at Clune Park were ‘ongoing’ and that there is ‘no future’ for it other than demolition and regeneration.

Mr McCabe said: “Nobody is living in these houses, they’re not getting heated, they are going to deteriorate.

“The longer these properties are left, they’re just going to continue to deteriorate and become a bigger blight on the community and become more unsafe.”  

Asked if he thought the council’s approach — which included serving hundreds of demolition orders on the strength of a walk-round survey — had been wrong following successive legal losses, Councillor McCabe said: “No, I don’t think it’s been wrong in any way.

“We believe these properties should be demolished and that they are beyond economic repair.”

He added: “We have a meeting of the education and communities committee tomorrow to agree the course of action.”

Meanwhile, it is understood that the council will carry out a fresh series of surveys to monitor the ongoing deterioration of Clune Park, which now resembles a ghost town with just 25 people living within the 430-flat scheme.

The local authority agreed a £2.6m Clune Park regeneration project in May 2011 with officials anticipating that it would take no more than five years to complete. 

But Councillor McCabe said: “Actually when we embarked on this course of action we were anticipating that it could take up to 10 years because we were absolutely clear that a lot of the big landlords would resist this strategy.

“I don’t think it’s fair to say that nothing has been achieved.

“We have moved quite a significant number of residents out of below tolerable standard housing and low quality housing to new houses in Lower Mary Street and they are delighted with their new accommodation and the improved quality of life that they now have, so we’ve made progress.”

Councillor McCabe said that he ‘absolutely’ anticipated such a lengthy legal situation.

Asked if litigation had been budgeted for in the first instance, he said:

“It’s been allowed for, yeah. That’s why we set aside a significant sum of money, because we knew what we were up against.”

Asked if the time and money spent up til now represents best value for taxpayers, Mr McCabe replied: “I don’t think that the council has any other option than to go down this route.

“If somebody wants to tell me what the other option is I’d be happy to listen.”

MP Ronnie Cowan and MSP Stuart McMillan have recently offered to step in in a bid to broker an agreement between the council and the landlords.
Councillor McCabe said of the possibility of any negotiations: “The council has consistently said to the property owners that if they have a Plan B for Clune Park let’s see it. We are still waiting.”

He added: “If they come up with an alternative plan which we think is realistic we will look at it and talk to them about it.

“The council’s door is open for discussion with the landlords.

“There is no problem with that and the reality is we don’t need anybody to mediate in terms of this situation.

“The council has got a dialogue with the landlords, we can speak to them and they can speak to us and if the landlords have got a credible proposal to bring to the council the council will listen to that proposal.”