Community centres: 'It must have been a hard decision to take'

THE hefty savings the council is being forced to make are now going beyond trimming services and bleeding into the very heart of communities.

Today the Evening News reveals that six community centres are to be closed – most of which lie in the south and west of the city. It must have been a hard decision to take as the council knows that in order to save 120,000 a year – a mere pittance against savings of over 90 million it has to find over three years – that it is likely to get considerable grief from the communities affected.

The council says the criteria for choosing the six centres that will close was made on the basis that similar facilities exist nearby and that access to premises and services will not be adversely affected.

Already it has been spotted that in the three wards that are worst affected the coalition administration only has three councillors – one Liberal Democrat and two SNP – against seven opposition councillors. The arithmetic is already leaving the administration open to accusations that other factors may have influenced the decision on which centres to close.

But this is only the first wave of community-based cuts. Next month councillors will decide which local organisations will have their budgets reduced and this is likely to have a far deeper impact on largely voluntary groups serving local communities than the closure of centres themselves.

The home front

WHILE it can be appreciated that there is an ongoing need to be vigilant and guard against acts of terrorism and extremism it is possible to take things too far.

Training council workers to act as spies and report potentially suspicious persons when they visit people in their homes is a prime example of the Big Brother state gone mad.

We have become used to rigorous and lengthy searches at airports, restrictions on what we can carry aboard aircraft and are aware that we are all subject to search on request in public places. This intrusion into our lives is part of the price we have all had to pay since the atrocities of 9/11 and the attacks on the likes of London and Glasgow Airport. And although it is inconvenient we have come to tolerate and accept it.

But for goodness sake leave us in peace in our homes – unless of course the authorities have legitimate grounds for suspecting that illegal activity which threatens public safety is taking place.