Job, library and gym fears under recovery plans

COUNCIL: Unions claiming proposals for Leisure & Culture Dundee are ‘blueprint for a reduction in services and headcount’

Dundee gyms and libraries may shut and workers lose their jobs under Covid-19 recovery plans being considered by council leaders.

Unions branded the strategy for restarting Leisure & Culture Dundee (LCD) services a “blueprint for a reduction in services and headcount” at a meeting of the council’s policy and resources committee last night.

Papers published ahead of the meeting revealed the council’s sport and culture arm is facing a more than £3 million financial black hole as result of the Covid-19 crisis.

LCD bosses would only say it was an “ambition” to restart all the services.

Councillors agreed on advance payment of a quarterly management fee to let LCD keep trading until November.

GMB union representative Stephen Massey said: “We are concerned with what you have in front of you this evening, which is essentially a blueprint for a reduction in services, the reduction in headcount and the potential closure of facilities across the city.

“What we are seeing is essentially underfunding frontline services for mental health and wellbeing in the city.”

The report from LCD chief executive and acting managing director Judy Dobbie said: “The only other avenue open to Leisure & Culture Dundee to reduce the projected deficit is to reduce the anticipated level of expenditure.

“Over 85% of the projected 2020-21 expenditure relates to staff costs and this is the only area where a reduction would have a significant impact on the projected financial position.”

Lochee councillor Michael Marra, Labour, said: “As a board member of Lesiure & Culture, and quite frankly someone reading this paper, it is quite clear to me that in the absence of the council stumping up the cash LCD cannot continue to trade.

“When there’s no money coming through the tills, that’s the situation the organisation faces,” he added.

West end councillor Fraser Mcpherson, Liberal Democrats, asked if all facilities would reopen by November, as timetabled. “The last thing anyone wants to see is the loss of community libraries or any other services across the city that LCD manages,” he said.

Judy Dobbie said the council’s sport and leisure arm was “very much on schedule” for restarting services in November.

“The financial deficit we are facing is too great for us to trade out of. The ambition for leisure and culture is for us to reopen our services and fulfil our charitable purpose.”