Vanguard Bears explain the reasons why Glasgow City Council are withholding the Geo Technical report for the Westthorn site, sold at a knock-down price to Celtic F.C.

First, some background. Two adjacent pieces of land, in close proximity to Celtic Stadium, have been sold off to private organisations (one to housing developers, Kier Homes, and one to Celtic F.C.) for substantially different prices.

The old Belvidere Hospital site was sold by the NHS to the developer for approx £8.1M.

The Old Westthorn Recreation Ground (London Road) which is in close proximity to Celtic Stadium, was sold by Glasgow City Council to Celtic for £493,000 (ex. VAT).

The reason given for this huge reduction in price is that due to ground 'abnormals', houses could not be built on the site, thus seemingly reducing the land's value significantly. Glasgow City Council claimed the reason the piece of land sold to Celtic was so much cheaper was because it is/was contaminated. As we will show, this claim is false.

Over the last few months we have seen the gradual unearthing (no pun intended) of the truth surrounding the sale of the Westthorn site to the Celtic FC. The continued refusal by GCC to hand over the Geo Technical report has enraged many trying to establish the true reasoning for the far-below-value sale of the plot.

Well, as GCC do not want to reveal the report, we have established the facts of the Westthron plot and have published our findings.

There are no underground faults that would destabilise any building work. as can be seen in the graphic below:

There is no hidden soil composition that would prevent building. The bore hole report from the site to a depth of 36m shows nothing that would prevent building homes on the land.

To put this in perspective the site next door where the former Belvidere Hospital was situated is now the site of Belvidere Village, a housing development built by Keir Homes and the soil composition is as good as Westthorn. The Belvidere site that was sold for £15.2M minus £7.1M for the remediation work that was required to rid the site of foundations and lead pipework from the old hospital.

Just to finish it off, the myth of contamination was busted yesterday with a Freedom Of Information disclosure from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to a request by Big Joe Canoe. There was no contamination!

So, now there is irrefutable proof that there was not, and are no abnormal ground conditions nor contamination in place at Westthorn, we hope that along with the footballing authorities, the European Commission look deeply into this matter and commence a full scale, thorough investigation into the unfair and illegal State Aid that has been given to Celtic F.C. causing an unfair sporting advantage at best, and straight-up fraud at worst.

ADDENDUM: Glasgow City Council have repeatedly refused to release information with regards to any geotechnical report they may have instructed. They refuse to release information in response to direct queries in relation to the supposed contamination. They cite confidentiality exceptions to the Freedom of Information Act(Regulation 10(5)(e) as outweighing the public interest in disclosing the information.