Golf course and leisure centre saved

Published on Thursday 9 February 2012 12:02

COUNCIL chiefs are set to plough nearly £900,000 into Edinburgh Leisure to prevent the closure of two major sports facilities and to roll out a string of new youth projects.

Extra funds will be given to the local authority sports body to keep open Portobello Golf Course and Kirkliston Leisure Centre, which have been at risk.

The cash stems from a £26 million surprise windfall in this year’s budget.

Around £300,000 will go towards keeping the Portobello and Kirkliston sites open.

Other major investments include free swimming classes for selected nursery pupils and secondary pupils with disabilities, along with an activity scheme for over-65s.

The proposals from the administration will go before councillors at today’s budget meeting.

Yesterday, the Evening News revealed that extra funding included £4m to ease the repairs backlog at crumbling schools across the Capital, and £1.5m extra for home help and care homes, among other projects.

Council leader Jenny Dawe said: “We had a very useful discussion with John Comiskey, chief executive of Edinburgh Leisure, and asked what impact it would have if we increased their grant and he listed what he would be able to do with that.”

She said that £300,000 would go to towards preventing some “difficult measures” he was going to have to introduce, potentially including the closure of Portobello Golf Course and Kirkliston Leisure Centre, as well as price increases and a reduction of youth development services, while £200,000 would go towards activities for the over-65s, £100,000 for positive destinations for school-leavers, and £140,000 for a programme called Looked After And Active for children in care.

Others measures included £50,000 for a programme for young people with disabilities, and £100,000 for free swimming for children in selected nurseries.

Leisure chiefs hope the Jump In project will see 500 nursery pupils and S1-S6 pupils with additional needs increase their physical activity, develop skills and show more confidence in the water.

With the High Flyers project council chiefs intend to establish four multi-sport programmes, at Craiglockhart, Gracemount, Meadowbank and Ainslie Park in Pilton for 200 children with disabilities.

Inspired by the legacy of the 2012 Paralympics, the programme will work to help mainstream sport clubs such as football, rugby and hockey to accommodate those with disabilities. Councillor Dawe added: “They all seem to be very worthwhile projects and that is money we see as ongoing; not just for one year but a minimum of two years and preferably three years.”

When asked why the money won’t go towards reducing charges, which have risen recently, Cllr Dawe added: “At the end of the day it is a decision for Edinburgh Leisure to make and we did have a discussion about that but they felt their fee structure was still very favourable and did not see that as being a priority. ”

Edinburgh Leisure chief executive John Comiskey said: “Edinburgh Leisure are delighted at the prospect of this proposed level of additional funding, which we hope will be agreed by the city council today.

“It will not only protect our existing services but will also enable us to develop and roll out a range of new programmes targeting several priority customer groups including older adults, young people in care and those with special needs.”

The extra funds have come from a £20m surplus in the council budget which comes from a Scottish Government pledge that no local authority’s funding will fall below 85 per cent of the Scottish average per head of population. A further £5.9m has come from raiding a series of “assigned reserves”.

The £26m also includes £11m to improve the “in-house” services which councillors agreed to save last month, instead of outsourcing work to private companies.

Related Articles

• Plan for users to play bigger role in running of pitches

  PARKS, pitches and pavilions would be run by the people that use them under a radical shake-up proposed by the main opposition group on the city council.

  1 Comments

• Tories warn of heavier cuts in future

  THE Tories have criticised the Lib Dem/SNP administration’s proposals to spend reserve funding, arguing the move will lead to heavier cuts in the future.

  5 Comments

• Schools and care to benefit in £26m council spree

  Crumbling schools across the city are to benefit from a £4 million programme of repairs to tackle a growing backlog as part of a massive one-off council spending spree unveiled today.

  42 Comments

• City leisure services set to face axe

  LEISURE centre chiefs today warned cutbacks are "inevitable" as the firm that runs the city's council-owned sports facilities faces up to its worst ever financial crisis.

  0 Comments

• Leisure bill still in bad shape

  THE boss of the company that runs Edinburgh's council-owned sports facilities today warned of more cuts as he revealed a new slump in income.

  0 Comments

Comments

There are 9 comments to this article

Order by:

• Newest first
• |
• Oldest first

Page 1 of 1

• 1
• Show all

9

Aristotle

Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 06:00 PM

Yet more blatant electioneering - the People will not be fooled - what happens next year when this money is spent and there is no magically found fund and no elections?

• Report Unsuitable

8

Elvis

Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 03:32 PM

#6-it's all the fault of social workers and the social work dept.-too busy monitoring sex offenders.

• Report Unsuitable

7

Maurice the Dolphin

Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 03:21 PM

Cardownie first on the list for a round of golf is he?

• Report Unsuitable

6

Rugal

Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 02:38 PM

The £26m also includes £11m to improve the “in-house” services which councillors agreed to save last month, instead of outsourcing work to private companies............Plus the £5.2m the SNP cost us by voting against privatisation at the very last minute which was nothing more than blatant electioneering.

• Report Unsuitable

5

leithforme

Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 02:10 PM

#4 we've got one - Just Edinburgh Council has always had it in for Leith since the forced merger aka 'Anschluss'; perhaps we should appeal to the UN?

• Report Unsuitable

4

SouthsideLad

Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 01:59 PM

Wouldn't EL be better off shutting down that massive ongoing waste of money climbing frame at Ratho? I can't believe city centre facilities are closed yet that place is kept. A capital city with no leisure pool (flumes, lazy river, fountains) for kids to enjoy is a scandal.

• Report Unsuitable

3

leithforme

Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 01:55 PM

what about doing some elction bribing in Leith? re-open Waterworld, or give us independance!

• Report Unsuitable

2

A Friend of Fernando Poo

Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 01:27 PM

We're short enough of money that we should require the users of these facilities to pay for their own hobbies.

• Report Unsuitable

1

Incandescent

Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 12:42 PM

"Edinburgh Leisure chief executive John Comiskey said: “Edinburgh Leisure are delighted at the prospect of this proposed level of additional funding" ------- Mr Comiskey should keep quiet and keep his head down. He has failed disasterously to make Edinburgh Leisure a going commercial concern - even with the safety net of CEC funding - and been paid handsomely for his failure. Come to think of it, why's he quoted here when EL has another highly-paid "executive" to deal with communications?

• Report Unsuitable

Order by:

• Newest first
• |
• Oldest first

Page 1 of 1

• 1
• Show all

Logged in as:

Comment here. Start typing your comment here:

Post comment

Please adhere to our Community guidelines

Your view

Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.