35 facilities to learn fate
The fate of 35 South Lanarkshire community facilities is due to be decided today (Wednesday).
South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture (SLLC) board members will meet to decide whether or not to withdraw services from the community halls, libraries and other facilities following a cut of £750,000 in its management fee from the council.
The sum agreed in last week’s budget was half of the originally-proposed £1.5 million cut to the leisure service, and the council dedicated a £1m community fightback fund to aid local organisations in taking over some of the venues through asset transfers.
David Booth, South Lanarkshire’s executive director of community and enterprise resources, said:“SLLC’s board will agree its budget for 2024-25 at its meeting on February 28.
“Options they consider will include the potential withdrawal of their service from a number of community halls, libraries and other facilities. These facilities are council-owned but run by SLLC on the council’s behalf.
“The board’s considerations will follow a number of decisions taken at the meeting at which the council’s budget was agreed.
“These include an agreement to reduce the proposed cut in the management fee that will be paid to SLLC to provide leisure and culture services during 2024-25, instead of the original reduction of £1.5m, this will now be half of that amount, £750,000.
“Any rationalisation that the SLLC board does agree will be in the context of a new community fightback fund being made available by the council to provide transitional funding to support local groups that would like to take over the running of any impacted facilities.
“New funding will add £800,000 to an existing £200,000 pot, making a total fund of £1m. Funds can be drawn down from this one-off pot to help keep facilities operational whilst they transition to new arrangements.
“A one-off £150,000 Future Libraries Fund will similarly provide support to find alternative ways of delivering library services in any SLLC rationalisation.”
Council leader Joe Fagan specifically pledged that Whitehill Neighbourhood Centre in Hamilton will remain open, and that Hollandbush Golf Course would be guaranteed for a year to allow them to consider their long-term future.
The facilities in Cambuslang and Rutherglen in the consultation are Halfway Library, Cambuslang Library, Eastfield Community Centre, North Halfway Hall and the Peter Brownlie pavilion and pitches.
In Clydesdale, the facilities are community halls in Braehead, Carmichael, Carstairs Junction, Coulter, Crawford, Crossford, Carstairs, Pettinain and Thankerton, plus the Tom Craig Centre, St Bride’s Hall in Douglas and Forth Library.
Facilities in East Kilbride are: Calderwood Hall, Greenhills Hall, Greenhills Library, Kirktonholme Hall, seasonal activity at Strathaven Park, Westwood Hall and Stewartfield Community Centre.
Affected facilities in the Hamilton area are Blantyre, Bothwell and Hillhouse libraries, Ferniegair, High Blantyre, TACT and Netherburn halls, Tileworks Park and pitches, Uddingston Community Centre, the June Stewart Centre and Larkhall Community Centre.
South Lanarkshire Council’s leader has admitted “painful” decisions had to be made for this year’s budget as cuts totalling £13.19 million were agreed.
Joe Fagan said councillors had no option other than to accept a number of savings put forward by officers because local authorities across Scotland have been hit by a squeeze on the funding they get from the government to deliver services.
A funding gap of £20.5m for 2024-25 was addressed at last week’s four-hour budget meeting as savings were made across almost every part of the council’s work.
East Kilbride Central North representative Councillor Fagan said: “This is the toughest budget the council has ever known.
“We have made impossible choices, we have suffered horrendous cuts, but I promise the people of South Lanarkshire that we are fighting back, we’re fighting for them and this budget helps us do it.”
South Lanarkshire’s budget, agreed by a crossparty working group, includes implementing the council tax freeze announced last year by the first minister.
A total of 38 savings were agreed including cutbacks on some waste services, school crossing patrols, winter shrub beds, secondary school librarians and technicians, period poverty, community grants, early learning and childcare food provision, the removal of South Lanarkshire Council summer programme provision and an increase in the price of secondary school meals.
Some options were rejected, including the introduction of parking charges at local attractions including Chatelherault, Calderglen and James Hamilton parks, a reduction in grass-cutting, and council support for Christmas lighting and events.
The creation of a new £1m Community Fightback Fund was announced, to help keep halls and other facilities open while the council supports local groups to take them over through asset transfers.
A Future Libraries Fund was announced which will see £150,000 being injected into the service; and there will be a “significant investment” in maintaining the area’s roads.
Councillor Fagan said: “I agree with colleagues across the country in Cosla that the council tax freeze is not being fully funded by the government.
“However, we feel we have no choice other than to accept it this year, and I know that will at least provide some relief for local householders.
“I am also pleased that we were able to reject some of the most controversial options. This is because we listened to our residents, who told us very clearly that they wanted us to keep our roads in good condition. We also know how much people appreciate the work council staff do to keep our communities clean and tidy.
“We also rejected a number of proposed savings that would have impacted on our schools and taken away 44 teaching jobs.”
He warned: “Everybody needs to understand that this budget was only balanced because we were forced to take some truly awful and painful decisions.
“They also need to know that this is because the Scottish Government is not providing fair funding for councils – and every indication is that this situation will continue. So even more awful decisions are likely to be needed in the years ahead.
“This budget is about communities the length and breadth of South Lanarkshire, where local communities may not command the same profile but are nonetheless still important locally.”
Seconding the cross-party motion setting out the financial plans was Liberal Democrat councillor Robert Brown, who said: “It’s undoubtedly a budget set against the worst financial economic background that I can recall – and my time as an elected representative goes further back than anybody else in the chamber.
“I want to turn to the principles for our administration budget for 2024-25 – in essence, we’re left to decide which cuts do least damage to our local communities and our local services. No councillor of any party came into local government to cut things or to make services poorer.
“Our Lib-Dem group, like the administration as a whole, have tried the best we can to follow some core principles to get as much as possible from efficiencies and our charging policies.
“[This is] to reduce the pressure on services; fund spending to save projects which will reduce core revenue bills and contribute to tackling climate change; sustain highclass education and community care services; sustain and increase the capacity of voluntary organisations like the Citizens’ Advice Bureau or the LEAP project in my area, that contribute so much to our communities and support our citizens.”