THOUSANDS of people have signed petitions in a bid to stop a Scottish Labour-run council from closing 39 sports facilities, libraries and community spaces.
A public protest is being planned for this Thursday afternoon outside North Lanarkshire’s Civic Centre headquarters following the decision.
Opposition politicians have vowed to campaign to save the facilities although council leader Jim Logue says there has been “collective amnesia” over an agreement for cuts being made in this year’s budget.
READ MORE: North Lanarkshire Council approves closure of 39 leisure facilities
Both the SNP and Progressive Change North Lanarkshire groups opposed the closures and called for the decision to be delayed for public consultation.
A number of petitions are online, with more than 10,000 people signing their name to one to save the Sir Matt Busby Sport Complex in Bellshill – it can be accessed HERE.
Another more general petition simply calls for all the community facilities to be saved with five swimming pools, seven leisure facilities, seven libraries and 20 community centres to close.
Almost 4000 people have signed the second petition and it can be found HERE.
The latest public protest will come as council members arrive for the latest quarterly full council assembly.
The protest has been organised by Airdrie resident James Cassidy who said: “I am utterly disgusted at the decision by a small group to close 39 community facilities across the area – many of these have received significant investment of our money and are vital to our community.”
We previously told how sports clubs were also planning on staging a demonstration in Motherwell on October 18.
Around 180 people have so far expressed an interest in attending.
Elsewhere, SNP MP Anum Qaisar (below), the Airdrie & Shotts MP, said she has been “inundated with emails” on the issue.
She said: “Labour have shown themselves to be heartless when it comes to selling out our future generations as a direct result of their mismanagement of finances and services; as SNP councillors demonstrated this was an unnecessary decision and we will work with local communities to fight it.”
Council leader Logue said: “We have done everything possible to protect services, but with £64 million to save over the next three years, we are now in the realm of making decision that no councillor would wish to take.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel