The council has been accused of “sitting back and letting the Loreburn Hall rot”.Members of the policy and resources committee will receive a report next Tuesday on the pending closure of DG One for repairs.But Nith ward councillor Colin Smyth claims proposals to use the Loreburn Hall as an alternative venue have been “dismissed out of hand”.He said: “It is pretty clear the council didn’t even look at this option seriously.They are determined to sit back and let the hall rot away.“The Loreburn Hall is literally round the corner from DG One yet the public will be forced to travel miles in some cases to use other facilities.“It is ridiculous that the council will be paying other organisations to use facilities when the council own empty buildings they could use.”All full-time, contracted staff at DG One are to be re-deployed whilst the facility is closed with almost half returning after five months when the dry-side and fitness suite re-opens.Councillors will hear at next week’s meeting that officers have been successful in finding alternative locations for groups that currently use DG One.Council Leader Ivor Hyslop said: “Our council has been meeting with our user groups well in advance of any closure.This has allowed us to work together to get contingency plans for all our groups at least seven months before the end of this year.“This means that we give the clubs the reassurance that we have found alternative locations for them during the closure period.”Councillor John Martin,who also wants the Loreburn Hall to be re-opened, added: “I am pleased that the council has met with local clubs who have block bookings on a regular basis and are working out alternative arrangements and they have also guaranteed that staff will be re-deployed.“However, these plans simply do not go far enough and don’t begin to meet the needs of the majority of users.Thousands of members of the public who aren’t members of local clubs are going to lose out because their use isn’t being catered for.”Read
