Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Bookings query
Council lets fall but museum visits rise
SNP councillors have questioned a fall in the number of hires of community centres and school facilities during 2015-2016.
Figures presented to North Lanarkshire’s education committee showed that both types of let came in below pre-determined targets for the 12 months to March.
However, the same performance report shows that the area’s museums, including popular Coatbridge attraction Summerlee, have exceeded their visitor number targets by more than double.
Community centres were let out on 60,890 occasions, while there were 43,412 bookings at schools in the local authority area – respectively 11.9 per cent and 10.3 per cent below the intended totals.
Opposition education spokesperson Tom Johnston says he is concerned the reason is that voluntary groups are unable to afford letting costs; but officials say last year’s anticipated usage was not met as the targets do not take account of the closure or transfer of certain facilities.
Councillor Johnston said: “The reasons given appear only to cover a very limited portion of the total gap. The council is 13,187 lets short of target, or 11 per cent.
“My concern is that [it] may be due to school and hall lets becoming too expensive for hard-pressed voluntary organisations.”
The report noted that school bookings were affected by last winter’s “period of pitch cancellations due to adverse weather”.
North Lanarkshire figures on lets at its 77 community centres also show that two transferred away from operator Culture NL during the year – including the Janet Hamilton centre which is now run by North Lanarkshire Leisure – while 18 were temporarily closed for refurbishments.
A council spokesperson said: “Our performance targets were never adjusted for the transfer of St Ambrose High, Janet Hamilton centre and Glenboig community centre to North Lanarkshire Leisure, or for the demolition of Abronhill High and closure of Braehead.
“Bookings for the first quarter of this year are above target at 15,180 – the target was 14,750.”
“Essential repairs” at the John Smith pool in Airdrie and the four-month closure of the Time Capsule pool from last November were cited in the report as the main reason for a decrease in swimming attendances.
However, it also showed that the area’s museums attracted 47,378 people during the year to March – easily outstripping their visitor number target of 18,000.
The report noted that “a strong showing at Summerlee for mine tours and activities” was one of the contributory factors to “a significant increase in numbers”.
The total number of individual usages of museums and heritage resources for ther 12-month period was 346,094, again more than double the targeted 195,000 .
Councillors were told that “Summerlee museum had a number of well-attended events”, and that the Easter weekend saw more than 6600 visitors attend the Coatbridge attraction.