The long-running campaign to save Scotland’s historic Dumbarton Studios – home for two-decades to the recently axed soap River City, as well as shows like Shetland and Two Doors Down –would appear to be over after the owners confirmed that the site has been sold to a developer despite a well-backed campaign to save the site as a studio.
Craig Watson, group property director at Westerwood Properties, owner of the property, has confirmed to Scotland’s The National that the site had been sold to developers.
Maureen Hascoet (inset), director of independent production company Firewalker Pictures, who was leading the campaign to save the site had enlisted the backing of Sam Heughan and Brian Cox, as well as £5 million in funding from a consortium of backers, in her fight to retain the studios. Despite nine months of discussions with the previous owners of the studios, the BBC and individuals from the creative industries, however, the studios have now been sold.
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Hascoet took to social media to share the news in an emotional video this morning and said: “I wanted to say for those of you who have followed and supported and engaged and funded and financed and invested in the campaign for the last nine months, of saving and buying and protecting Dumbarton studios. I’m very, very sad to say that the owners sold to the alternative cash bid.
“I was notified yesterday that they completed the sale on Friday. It is disappointing. I think it’s devastating for the Scottish film industry. I think we need to acknowledge and witness what is happening right now, because we’re losing a big facility that allowed, that facilitated a lot of careers, a lot of projects that are now being turned down.
“I think it’s shocking to be honest, I’m not going to mince my words. I think what I’m taking from this is that we do not have the infrastructure, the policies, the environment, to actually value the screen industries, to actually value the Scottish production industry and servicing industry.”
Despite the probably insurmountable setback, Hascoet does not appear to plan on going away quietly. She added: “I’ll be very vocal in the newspapers in the next few days, because a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, and I think we really need to use this to look at everything that allowed this to happen.”
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Hascoet explained that the previous owners had suggested that her own bid, having successfully raised £5m, was not a “massive difference” from that of the developers, but that the previous owner’s decision was informed by the fact that the rival bid had cash easily to hand and it would be a quicker process, an assessment that Hascoet also disputes: “The proof of funding showed that I could call up the money within 30 days, so I don’t think it would have been a massive delay if they had accepted my offer. I’m sure that we would have been around the same time completing the transaction,” she explained.
She added: “Even if it did take a bit longer, I understand on their side, the ease was a factor in this, but there’s a whole industry that depends on this. And I think too often the cultural and screen industries and creative industries are just brushed aside.”
Hopefully all may not be lost, however. Even if it’s the end of the road for Dumbarton Studios itself, Hascoet has at least identified one unexpected benefit from her nine-month struggle: “I am so grateful for the investor that has found me and who’s very much a partner right now, and that’s the only silver lining for me, is that it’s rekindled everything that I believe about the future of the industry in Scotland,” she explained.
“It will come through a studio that can bridge the gap between the production industry and the facilities industry. That is my core belief. That is what I will keep on building. And now out of this process, I have backers, which is a game changer. So today we cry, today we grieve, tomorrow we build. And I will leave you on this note, thank you for watching, thank you for all your support and your engagement, and I will speak to you soon.”
