Fresh hope for Kilbowie
A special council meeting to reopen the debate on the controversial decision to shut Kilbowie outdoor centre is to be held in two weeks’ time.
SNP councillors successfully campaigned for the full assembly of North Lanarkshire Council (NLC) as they bid to reverse the closure, following the announcement that North Lanarkshire is to receive an extra £6 million from the Scottish Government.
Opposition group leader Tom Johnston says they will also seek to revisit a number of controversial budget decisions.
The special meeting will be held on March 19, following the already scheduled meeting of the authority’s policy and strategy committee – where the decision to shut the outdoor centre was made in January.
Councillor Johnston said: “We called for the meeting to consider the action to be taken to spend this additional money – this is £3m which could be used to stop the closure of Kilbowie, reverse the decision to charge £3.40 for community alarms, reverse the decision to cease road safety provision and halt the review of music provision.”
The extra Holyrood funding came just days after the local authority had balanced its books for the year ahead with £31m of savings – which included the maximum permissible 4.84 per cent council tax rise, increasing costs for special uplifts and burials, and cancelling fireworks displays and Christmas lights.
Its first £3m will be used to replenish the same amount taken from the council’s reserve funds to balance the books, as agreed by all parties on budget day.
SNP group members have also written to council chief executive Des Murray questioning the closure decision and highlighting criticisms raised by Unison after obtaining a letter challenging information in the Kilbowie report presented to the policy and strategy committee.
Councillor Johnston said: “This raises many questions – it seems it will be virtually impossible to provide residential experience to North Lanarkshire pupils elsewhere, certainly not at current Kilbowie prices.
“The council is totally vague about alternatives; schools will be left to rush and fend for themselves to find residential outdoor experiences from a very short list of places.”
He added: “The report mentioned the 16 full-time equivalent employees who will lose their jobs at Kilbowie, but does not refer to the full 45 individuals affected, many of whom are not North Lanarkshire Council employees.
“We are still campaigning to reverse the Labour closure of Kilbowie and will continue to scrutinise this issue and call for the much-loved centre to be saved.”
A spokesperson for NLC said there had been “a request to hold a special meeting and in accordance with standing orders, this will take place on March 19”; adding of the SNP group’s Kilbowie correspondence: “The chief executive has received a letter and will respond in due course.”
Speaking last week, council leader Jim Logue said of the revised funding settlement: “Any additional money is always welcome and it’s not ring-fenced meaning each local authority is flexible in the way it wants to spend, which I’m delighted about; but while I welcome this, there are some caveats. The additional £6m still leaves us with a gap of £24m, and we need clarity on whether this is one-off funding or whether it’s included in future years. There are so many different variations and permutations.
“We’ve kept back £1.8m from the [health and social care] integrated joint board, so it might be we have a look at that; there’s great demand on the health service and patient care, including now with coronavirus. There’s a low level of reserves which might need to be built up, and this is only one year of a three-year budget – years two and three are calamitous as well, so is there the opportunity to mitigate that challenge?
“People will see the opportunity to look at some decisions and it’s for groups to come forward and look for support from others.”
A spokesperson for NLC said: “While this additional sum is helpful, it still leaves a significant budget gap for the council to manage.”
Noting there may be “further changes” following today’s Westminster budget, a statement added: “There is still some uncertainty around the final shape of the financial settlement to the council; that being the case, no decisions have been taken in respect of the remainder of the additional money.”