Call for the council to support EK task force
An East Kilbride councillor has called on South Lanarkshire Council to give its unequivocal support to the town’s task force.
The independentlychaired multi-agency group was set up 10 years ago to tackle the difficulties facing the town in the wake of the Rolls-Royce closure.
It aims to promote East Kilbride as a centre of excellence in sustainability and help the town prosper long-term.
However, a review into how it is shaped going forward is ongoing with various options on the table.
But independent East Kilbride West councillor and member of the task force, David Watson, has called on SLC to commit it support to the cause going forward.
Councillor Watson told the News: “The feeling over the last six months is
that SLC is not committed to the East Kilbride Task Force and would prefer to subsume it into a wider South Lanarkshire Planning Forum.
“A clear commitment to the continuing work of the task force, from the leader and chief executive of the council, would give reassurance to the other members of the task force that it has a future.
“East Kilbride is facing increasing specific challenges and the task force can help focus on these challenges and opportunities for the town.
“If SLC are not prepared to commit to the future of the task force it will be a betrayal of the town and the town’s economic future.”
In September the town’s MSP, Collette Stevenson, called for the task force to continue and be reshaped to meet the new challenges the town faces in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
At that point three options were being discussed:
• To wind up the task force
and not replace it with any equivalent local mechanism;
•To wind up the task
force and introduce a new mechanism;
• And the third option was
to repurpose and renew the existing task force.
An SLC spokesman told us: “We understand that the independently-chaired East Kilbride Task Force is currently undergoing a review, and this is yet to be reported on.”