Multi-million spend freeze
Waste disposal sitesshut
STEPHEN BARK
Plans to spend almost £75 million on capital projects in South Lanarkshire have been put on hold because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Councillors were due to discuss the proposals – which included £500,000 for Larkhall Leisure Centre, £475,000 to restore Hamilton Mausoleum and £60,000 to create a masterplan for East Kilbride Civic Centre – last Wednesday, before all council meetings were cancelled.
A report by executive director for finance, Paul Manning, outlining the council’s plans for 2020-21 detailed the £74.318 million plan. Grant funding from the Scottish Government along with funding from the Glasgow region city deal would cover the childcare a year.
Some of the £18.35m budget would be spent on temporary accommodation to allow the council to roll out the programme before some facilities are completed.
Repairs to Hamilton Mausoleum are expected to cost around £475,000. This would see the lead and guttering on the flat roofs and dome replaced. However, no grant funding has been identified for the project.
Potentially £30m is earmarked for upgrades to Larkhall Leisure Centre, Blantyre Leisure Centre and the John Wright Sports Centre.
In 2020/21, £500,000 would be spent on design costs for Larkhall Leisure Centre with a further £9.5m allocated for the project.
So called ‘steady state’ funding of £11.5m is proposed to maintain the condition of the road network across South Lanarkshire with a further £2.4m included for roads infrastructure work including footpaths and traffic management systems.
In addition to the work to stabilise Turtle Rock in Calderglen Country Park, £200,000 has been allocated to replace gabions and bridge supports at Horseshoe Bridge.
A master planning exercise for East Kilbride Civic Centre is proposed.
This will assess in and around the centre, the utilisation of the space and whether these and other public sector uses, could be located in the town centre or elsewhere.
It will also consider the building itself, the financial viability of any potential repair/ relocation and the project’s time scales.
Once complete, a report will be brought back to council to consider the way forward for the civic centre.
All recycling and waste disposal sites in South Lanarkshire have been closed until further notice.
South Lanarkshire Council enforced the measure on Monday to help ensure they can continue to provide household waste collection services during what they are calling a “demanding period”.
Services affected include bulky uplift request service; the garden waste collection service; and deliveries of dog bags, food waste liners, caddies and recycling bins.
A council spokesman said: “Waste Services will make every effort to complete any requests that have already been received.”
Meanwhile, individuals self-isolating are being urged to get rid of household waste to ensure the virus is not spread.
Whether you are quarantined as a precaution or because you are confirmed to have coronavirus, all personal waste such as used tissues and disposable cleaning cloths should be placed securely in a plastic bag or bin liner.
This plastic bag should then be placed in another plastic bag and securely tied.
These bags must be stored separately to other waste for at least 72 hours before being placed in the general rubbish collection.
After 72 hours outside the body, the virus is no longer viable and the double bagged waste can be put in the general rubbish collection as normal.
Only waste that is contaminated, such as tissues that have been coughed in and cleaning cloths, need to be treated in this way. Regular household recycling and waste should be treated as normal.