Following recent discussions and meetings about the potential closure of certain council owned buildings, the results of South Lanarkshire Council consultation are in and unfortunately…..its BAD news for a number of facilities in Blantyre and beyond.
At its meeting today, the Board of South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture (SLLC) considered proposals placed before it which would see SLLC withdraw its services from a number of facilities, with the venues being handed back to South Lanarkshire Council (SLC), on whose behalf SLLC operates the venues.
SLC, together with councils across Scotland, continues to face unprecedented budgetary pressures, with it having an expected budget gap over the next two years of some £42 million. As SLLC’s largest funder, this has had a knock-on impact on the services SLLC can itself deliver.
The meeting concluded confirming that SLLC will withdraw their services from a number of facilities in Blantyre and beyond.
Chair of the Board of SLLC, Dr Avril Osborne, commented: “Decisions were required to be taken in light of existing financial pressures placed on SLLC as well as SLC’s decision at its own Budget setting meeting last week to reduce the management fee it provides to SLLC to run its services.
“A comprehensive consultation process with residents and other stakeholders took place between November last year and this month which saw around 14,500 responses received across the three stages of the resident consultation.
“Work has been ongoing throughout to examine how we best mitigate matters, including through efficiencies, rationalisation and increased income generation. However, with a regulatory duty to ensure we return a balanced budget, the Board has, with regret, agreed to withdraw from the following facilities:
In Blantyre:
High Blantyre Community Hall
June Stewart Centre (Hall)
TACT Hall
Blantyre Library
This means that without SLLC management of these facilities, the three Blantyre Halls and Blantyre Library have taken another stride towards potential closure, unless community groups or other organisations can step in to run them.
A long list of other facilities have been announced as no longer having SLLC
Clydesdale area:
Crawford Village Hall
Coulter Village Hall
Carmichael Village Hall
Crossford Village Hall
Braehead Village Hall
Tom Craig Hall
Carstairs Junction Hall
Thankerton Village Hall
Douglas St. Brides Hall
Carstairs Village Hall
Pettinain Village Hall
Forth Library
Rest of the Hamilton area:
Uddingston Community Centre
Tileworks Park (Pitches)
Ferniegair Hall
Larkhall Hall
Netherburn Community Hall
Hillhouse Library
Bothwell Library
East Kilbride area:
Greenhills Hall
Calderwood Hall
Strathaven Park (seasonal operation)
Kirktonholme Hall
Westwood Community Hall
Stewartfield Community Centre
Greenhills Library
Cambuslang/Rutherglen area:
North Halfway Hall
Eastfield Community Centre
Peter Brownlie Pavilion
Halfway Library
Cambuslang Library“
SLC last week announced that £1million is to be made available to affected communities through the Community Fightback Fund (CFF) for a period of time while consideration is given to the viability of facilities and whether community management may be a long-term option. In addition, the Future Libraries Fund is separate, one-off, monies that could help keep facilities open.
The £1 million Community Fightback Fund means NO halls or libraries will be closed immediately BUT….it’s a short term fix only, designed to cover a finite short period of time until its hoped Community groups or asset transfers can take place.
South Lanarkshire Council have failed to apply this fund to all the facilities in Blantyre, forcing alternative community based solutions to be found if the facilities are to remain open. It’s our understanding this short term ‘patch’ will be only be applied to 2 halls and insufficient to operate the facilities in the ways they were intended.
Further funding arrangements could include access to Renewable Energy Funds (REF) that are administered by the Council, if the community hall is located in one of the REF areas in Clydesdale, East Kilbride and Strathaven.
It is anticipated that groups which believe they have a credible interest in potentially managing their local facility will be able to register this interest with the Council throughout March 2024 and therefore be able to apply for funding through the funds available.
Dr Osborne concluded:
“SLLC and SLC are already engaged in the community to actively support continuation of facilities through these initiatives and that support will continue in the months ahead.”
SLLC’s withdrawal from the affected facilities will take effect from 1st May 2024.
Any local groups wishing to register an interest should email the council at communityassets@southlanarkshire.gov.uk before 31 March 2024.
Further information on community asset transfers can be found on the relevant SLC webpage https://www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk/community-asset-transfer.
Details of the three phases of the SLLC consultation can be found on our website. https://www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk/sllc/news/article/4428/resident_consultation_-_results
