Top brass slammed over Eastwood Park consultation

Conservative Jim Swift took aim at East Renfrewshire’s top brass over what he described as “appalling mismanagement of the current facility”.

A report is due later in the year after the local authority’s public consultation on the future of the leisure centre closed last Tuesday.

Mr Swift said: “The council has spent £211,000 in the last seven years on The Eastwood Leisure Centre and half of that wasn’t on maintenance. The Council has not adequately maintained the current leisure centre; not even nearly and the numbers do not lie.

“Frankly, those figures are scandalous and if you are not outraged, you really ought to be; this is appalling mismanagement. Having broken the one they have, the Council like some sort of spoiled brat wants a new one.”

Anthony McReavy, the chief executive of East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure Trust (ERCLT), has already given his backing to a new multi-million-pound facility.

But Mr Swift pointed to the £10m David Lloyd Centre as proof it can be done cheaper than what the council is proposing.

He added: “The council pleads poverty and has to make cuts, yet it will add massively to the debt pile that it has and the interest payments that it has to make to service this debt. That equates to approximately £3 million per annum.”

Vllr Swift added: “What the cunning politicians that put together this consultation also didn’t tell us is where the new facility might be.

“They didn’t tell us which park we would lose, so we might not get too upset about losing one more bit of vital greenspace, where our children play, and we walk our dogs while we build out towards Ayrshire, Paisley and East Kilbride and fill in all the green bits in between.

“They seem to want to make East Renfrewshire some sort of ghastly built up concrete wasteland.”

However, a spokesman for East Renfrewshire Council responded: “The Council is committed to providing the best possible facilities for our residents.

“The purpose of this consultation was to get feedback about the type of leisure facilities residents want to see in Eastwood in the future.

“Once all feedback has been collated a report will be brought before councillors for consideration.”