AFTER an investigation spanning two-and-a-half years, retired Borders journalist Bill Chisholm is asking local MSPs to demand an inquiry into Scottish Borders Council’s failed and costly bid to bring a regional waste treatment plant to Galashiels.

Mr Chisholm has been using Freedom of Information legislation to uncover details of a saga which ended in February, 2015, when the council scrapped its 2012 deal with Dorset-based New Earth Solutions Group (NESG) and admitted it had been forced to write off £2.4m.

At the time, the council cited “technological and financial issues” for the demise of a contract, which was worth £80m over 24 years and included the provision of a £23m advanced thermal treatment (ATT) plant at Easter Langlee.

With a planning application for that facility due to be determined next month, Mr Chisholm has this week published his 43-page report on the NESG affair, based on hundreds of documents which the council has been ordered to disclose by the Scottish Information Commissioner.

And he has sent his report to his local Conservative MSP Rachael Hamilton along with other Borders-based MSPs Christine Grahame, Paul Wheelhouse and Michelle Ballantyne.

“I have asked Mrs Hamilton as my constituency MSP to raise the issue of this saga which cost Borders council tax payers at least £2.4m in the Scottish Parliament with a view to securing an inquiry.”

Mr Chisholm – awarded an MBE for services to his profession - said he has been “heartened” on Monday to receive a message from Mrs Hamilton.

“She has undertaken to look into the matter for me and also on behalf of Borders residents,” he told the Border Telegraph.

“In my view, my report clearly shows the council mishandled the contract on many fronts, but no-one has been held to account.

“It also explains why it has taken so long to assemble a reasonably clear picture of why the deal went so badly wrong.”

The Border Telegraph was unable to obtain a comment from the council.

Meanwhile, Langlee Residents Association is hosting a special meeting in Langlee Community Centre at 6.30pm tonight (Wednesday) to gauge public feeling ahead of submitting its response to the council’s planning application for the waste transfer station at Easter Langlee.