Malcolm Cunning: Glasgow is indebted to campaign groups

There was a round of applause and some cheering as, on the stroke of one, the doors to the library were flung open for the first time in almost two years.

The Couper was among a number of libraries which did not reopen earlier last year. Local activists came together to create ‘Save the Couper’ and organised Read-Ins outside the library every single Saturday for ten months straight. They turned up regularly in rain, hail and sunshine with a single simple demand that our local library reopen.

Similar local campaigns grew up in support of other libraries, Maryhill and Whiteinch, where local activists organised events, petitions and read-ins highlighting the importance of local libraries.

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It was only the perseverance and enthusiasm of these groups that eventually led to GCC and a reluctant Scottish government to find the cash to allow these libraries to open for the remainder of this financial year.

The whole of Glasgow is hugely indebted to these campaign groups.

However, while we rightly celebrate this success, we cannot forget the dozens of cultural and sporting facilities across the city where the doors remain firmly locked.

The Couper Library is part of a larger complex gifted to the people of Cathcart well over a century ago and includes the Couper Institute Hall. The Couper along with Woodside Hall and Langside Hall have no scheduled reopening date.

Twenty seven sports venues from Bellahouston to Victoria Park, Castlemilk to Easterhouse are unlikely to reopen anytime soon. A further three sporting facilities in Ibrox. Lister Street is the subject of ongoing discussions with third parties who may be willing to take on the burden which Glasgow Life and GCC can no longer afford.

St Mungo Museum and Provands Lordship are similarly silent, their doors having been closed to citizens, tourists and visitors for almost two years. A total of fifteen community centres are locked and bolted and are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.

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Twelve Glasgow Life sites are still, in whole or in part, being used as Covid test or vaccination centres. Nobody would deny the continuing necessity and importance of these services. What we must be assured of is that when that temporary use is no longer required, these sites return as quickly as possible to their original purpose.

The prominence of the library campaigns over the past year has, to some extent, masked the deeper problems facing GCC and Glasgow Life.

Next month, councils across Scotland will be setting their annual budgets. Every single council faces the horrendous consequences of a £371 million cut in resources to local government.

Here in Glasgow on February 17th councillors will be asked to agree a budget which effectively cuts the thick end of £40 million from our facilities and services. It does not take a financial genius or qualified accountant to predict that there will be no good news.

Doubtless they would deny it, but since the SNP came to power at Holyrood in 2007 they have done everything in their power to give the impression that they hate local government. Year following year they have cut our budgets and robbed us of powers and responsibilities. What finances they do provide are ringed by caveats and conditions that mean real local decisions are almost impossible. They do not even trust or value their own SNP councillors.

Enough is enough; Glasgow and indeed Scotland deserves better.