Watchdogs slam pitch cash offer
Furious Cambuslang residents have accused South Lanarkshire Council of short-changing them with a “token gesture” of cash – after it offered around just half of the amount needed to replace a play area that was scrapped last year.
The council axed the MUGA pitch in Halfway, having earmarked the land for the new Lightburn nursery, which is opening next month.
The decision prompted anger from many parents, who felt the pitches were the only remaining local play resource for children.
Now the local authority has announced it will contribute £25,000 for replacement facilities and equipment, a figure that residents say is woefully short of what is necessary.
Experts say a quality MUGA pitch would cost at least double what the council is providing.
A spokesperson for Halfway Community Council told the Reformer: “South Lanarkshire Council took away an area of land that was used by local kids for playing football, without any consultation with the community, and have provided a token gesture of £25,000.
“It was a rundown facility but that’s because the council did not look after it.
“We have been saying for years that the Halfway and wider Cambuslang east area needs proper levels of investment in community resources and amenities, such as parks for all ages, to enjoy with sports facilities.”
The community council has now called for further investment in an effort to provide a boost for the whole community.
Their spokesperson added: “We know that it would cost a lot more to replace the MUGA facility than £25,000.
“This small financial gesture as recompense for a sustainable long-term facility smacks of complete intransigence to provide proper levels of investment into community resources and amenities in an area that desperately needs them.
“All the council wants to do is squash in as many houses as they can get away with and benefit from council tax income, without any thought to what level of community infrastructure is actually needed.”
The Reformer spoke to Jason Douglass, the group director of the leading construction firm S & C Slatter, who specialise in building sports pitches.
Mr Douglass is also chairman of the Sports and Play Construction Association.
He said: “For a smaller facility you’d be looking at around £50,000 as a starting point, assuming it wasn’t going to have things like floodlights or more than one pitch.
“One of the immediate considerations would be if the original MUGA was fully used. If this was something being used by the community regularly, then we would expect a like-for-like replacement.”
Responding to the community council’s concerns, a spokesperson for South Lanarkshire Council said: “More than 1000 residents in the Cambuslang East ward took part in the neighbourhood planning survey carried out during early 2020 to identify the community’s priorities and the results from this were used to develop a plan for the ward.
“This work identified the top priority in the area as improvements to playpark and sports park provision and more specifically play equipment and informal places (non-bookable pitches) to play football.
“As this money is to compensate the community for the loss of an informal pitch, the criteria for its use will be focused around this priority.
“The neighbourhood planning stakeholders group will take a participatory budgeting approach to identify more specifically how the community wish to see this funding used in the area.”