in last week’s Southern we reported on a response from Scottish Borders Council following a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by a member of the public who asked how many empty properties were currently under the control of the local authority.
That response stated that there were 761 such properties, with leader Councillor David Parker later citing “current market conditions” for derailing SBC’s proposals to rationalise its property holdings.
It has now emerged that the information contained in that FoI response was wrong, with a council spokesman explaining: “SBC currently has 71 empty properties under its control. Due to an error by the council the information given as part of an FoI request, stating that 761 properties were empty, was incorrect. SBC apologises for any confusion.”