Calls for Scottish Government to support the reopening of all Glasgow Life venues

Out of 171 libraries, museums and sports centres only 90 are scheduled to reopen.

Author: Linsey HannaPublished 13th May 2021

There are demands for the Scottish Government to find the money to get all Glasgow Life venues reopened.

Out of 171 libraries, museums and sports centres only 90 have a date to unlock their doors.

Labour councillor Archie Graham is putting the motion to the council later on in the Glasgow City Council meeting.

Cllr Graham told Clyde 1: "Glasgow Life is in crisis - there is absolutely no doubt about that.

"They're saying that they can only open 90 of the 171 venues that they run on behalf of the council with the budget that they have.

"It's council policy as agreed by council to reopen them all as soon as it is safe to do so.

"In order to be able to do that, we need the Scottish Government to give us monies to adapt the buildings, to employ more staff.

"It's absolutely crucial - if I give you an example of some of the issues we're facing, the likes of Langside Library was used to film a scene from a television programme last week.

"If it can be used for that, surely it can be opened up to be used for my constituents."

28 of the 33 public libraries in Glasgow are scheduled for reopening, as well as all of the swimming pools, and gyms with the highest capacity have been prioritised.

Six museums have also been included in the 90 venues reopening to support Glasgow's visitor and tourist economy.

Councillor David McDonald, chair of Glasgow Life, said: "Glasgow Life venues have a really important place in people's hearts all across Glasgow and so we really hope we can be in a position as soon as the finances allow it to reopen as many of our venues as we possibly can.

"Over each of the last two years, Glasgow Life has brought in about £40 million of its own earned income, and Covid wiped those income levels out overnight.

"It's going to take time to recover, and we're asking the public and the communities to be patient and to work with us.

"We have so far created a safety net of £100 million which has allowed us to open 90 venues but we want to open far more.

"To do that, it takes all of Glasgow's politicians working together and continuing to make the case for extra resources and finances to come into the city."

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