Leisure services in Larkhall

Leisure services in Larkhall | South Lanarkshire Council

Idea	SLC need to allocate more money for services in Larkhall. The library was closed and a small area of the council office turned into a smaller library. The old library now sits vacant and looks very run down. The Coalyard Tearoom, Sports Barn and Community Centre have also been closed. The Leisure Centre is beyond repair. Please help the community of Larkhall.
Response	Facilities across South Lanarkshire Council are inevitably ageing and many have a limited lifespan. The council tries to address this with cyclical inspections and by carrying out essential repairs. However, there are limited resources for this, and unfortunately there have been additional budgetary pressures and reductions in the council’s real-term funding in recent years. Together with inflation in building costs and rising utility costs, these have led to a significant shortfall in the funding required to maintain these facilities. This means difficult choices are required. As a consequence, to alleviate these pressures, South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture services were withdrawn from 23 facilities across South Lanarkshire in March 2023. This included Hareleeshill Sports Barn and Hareleeshill Community Wing. However, both could be of interest to local groups for their use following community asset transfer. With respect to Larkhall Community Centre, this was closed in November 2022 for health and safety reasons. Works are required to be undertaken before this building can safely re-open. The community centre and Larkhall Leisure Centre are part of a wider review of all of the council’s leisure and culture facilities, which is being undertaken in order to address the pressures highlighted above. Future investment in Larkhall will be considered as part of that exercise, and arrangements have been made for the Hamilton/Larkhall locality to be the first area of review.

Idea

SLC need to allocate more money for services in Larkhall. The library was closed and a small area of the council office turned into a smaller library. The old library now sits vacant and looks very run down. The Coalyard Tearoom, Sports Barn and Community Centre have also been closed. The Leisure Centre is beyond repair. Please help the community of Larkhall.

Response

Facilities across South Lanarkshire Council are inevitably ageing and many have a limited lifespan. The council tries to address this with cyclical inspections and by carrying out essential repairs. However, there are limited resources for this, and unfortunately there have been additional budgetary pressures and reductions in the council’s real-term funding in recent years. Together with inflation in building costs and rising utility costs, these have led to a significant shortfall in the funding required to maintain these facilities. This means difficult choices are required. As a consequence, to alleviate these pressures, South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture services were withdrawn from 23 facilities across South Lanarkshire in March 2023. This included Hareleeshill Sports Barn and Hareleeshill Community Wing. However, both could be of interest to local groups for their use following community asset transfer.

With respect to Larkhall Community Centre, this was closed in November 2022 for health and safety reasons. Works are required to be undertaken before this building can safely re-open.

The community centre and Larkhall Leisure Centre are part of a wider review of all of the council’s leisure and culture facilities, which is being undertaken in order to address the pressures highlighted above. Future investment in Larkhall will be considered as part of that exercise, and arrangements have been made for the Hamilton/Larkhall locality to be the first area of review.