SCOTTISH Borders Council, which is pumping £3.5m into a new visitor centre at Tweedbank to house the Great Tapestry of Scotland, has admitted it carried out no inspections of other buildings before the site was selected in December last year.

An unnamed Freedom of Information requester asked in March for the details and dates of any surveys or inspections carried out by or behalf of the council on any buildings in Galashiels, Selkirk or Hawick “to ascertain if any of these premises are suitable for adaptation” to house the 160-panel tapestry.

Last week, the council formally responded that no such surveys or inspections had been specifically carried out in any of the three towns.

“Officers and consultants utilised existing knowledge and information already held by the council in coming to the conclusions utilised in the report and business case considered by council on December 18, 2014,” added the response.