FOR two years, the Borders public was told that if a permanent visitor centre for the Great Tapestry of Scotland was not built close to the rail terminal at Tweedbank, the £6m attraction could be lost to the region.

The die appeared to have been cast as far back as May, 2014 when Scottish Borders Council, after being briefed in private by the trustees of the giant artwork, voted 21-7 to commission a £40,000 business case for the project, focusing solely on that location.

In December that year and despite opposition from some elected members – notably the Conservative opposition group at Newtown which called for no action – the council voted 21-10 to allocate £3.5m in its capital programme (repayable at £208,000 a year over 30 years) for the construction of the facility on council-owned land at Tweedbank Drive.

Councillors were advised that the Scottish Government, through its railway blueprint programme, was prepared to invest the required balance of £2.5m into the project.

A Tory attempt to overturn the £3.5m spending decision before the council’s budget was set in February, 2015, was defeated by 19 votes to 11 and, in October last year, SBC’s planning committee gave the project full planning consent.

In the same month, a 4,300-signature petition, calling for the council to rescind its investment decision for Tweedbank, was rejected by SBC’s petitions and delegations committee.

In the months which followed, the site, despite being subject to a tree preservation order, was cleared and expressions of interest sought from construction companies.

A large banner at the Galashiels Transport Interchange proclaimed that the new centre was due to open for business at Tweedbank in 2017.

But in February this year it was confirmed that the Scottish Government was conducting a process of “due diligence” into the Tweedbank business case before releasing its £2.5m.

It was a protracted hiatus, during which local SNP MSP Christine Grahame, who favoured an urban location for the attraction, incurred the wrath of her party’s councillors on SBC’s ruling administration by claiming the business case for Tweedbank was “flawed”.

But the real doubts over Tweedbank emerged publicly in June when the council announced that a possible alternative site for the tapestry in “central Galashiels” was being considered.

In October, with the Scottish Government’s funding commitment still unclear, councillors, for the first time, considered reports on the two options from corporate transformation director Rob Dickson.

He confirmed that the Galashiels site was the recently-vacated Poundstretchers outlet at the bottom of High Street, linked to the former B-listed Post Office building at the top of Channel Street.

Mr Dickson said the total project cost for this location, including acquisition costs of £600,000, would be £1.1m more than Tweedbank, although the Galashiels site could attract a range of grants for which Tweedbank was not eligible.

He also revealed that the council had already spent £520,000 on the tapestry project – £192,000 on the development of the Galashiels option and £340,000 on Tweedbank.

That latter sum is expected to be written off if councillors agree next Thursday either to endorse the Galashiels option or to abandon the entire project.