WHY are so many community facilities being closed or threatened with closure across Scotland? 

Many local community services were closed during the pandemic and never reopened. Voluntary community centres were – and are – particularly vulnerable. That was bad enough but we’re now seeing public and statutory services being closed.

Public libraries, swimming pools, gyms, sport pavilions, concert halls and cultural centres are all under threat of closure. It happened in Glasgow and is now taking place in Falkirk, Aberdeen, West Lothian and many other local authority areas.

Under section 163 of the 1973 Local Government (Scotland) Act, councils have a duty to “secure the provision of adequate library facilities for all persons resident in their area”. 
That’s a general duty which is hard to enforce in any meaningful way.

A council is also a “library authority” for the purpose of the 1887 Public Libraries Consolidation (Scotland) Act, however, most of that act was repealed. In reality, there is scant protection for local community services.

One presumes the rationale of past legislators was no-one thought local councillors would close down hundreds of public services, yet that is what we are faced with. 

Excuses are aplenty and to be fair there is a grain of truth here and there. 

Climate change targets have an adverse impact on the cost of making older buildings energy efficient; we have rising costs with inflation in double digits and Brexit has harmed our economy and created a whole host of regressive price hikes.
Ultimately, we’ve had the salami slicing of funding to Scottish local authorities for a decade. 

Last year, the Accounts Commission found that Scottish Government funding to councils had fallen, in real terms, by 4.2% between 2013/14 and 2020/21 (excluding Covid funding). Funding to the rest of the Scottish Government budget had increased in real terms over this period.

We seem able to find vast sums of money for various follies. For example, the proposed National Care Service would see a couple of billion pounds spent on a new system of unelected quangos. 

No investment in actual care services; no honouring the promise to abolish charges for non-residential care services for disabled people. The proposal has been semi-parked and no-one quite knows the cost of this folly. 

If we have a postcode lottery when it comes to social care then raise the minimum standards across Scotland and fund better care services – don’t blow hundreds of millions of pounds on inventing square wheels.

The same can be said for the Deposit Return Scheme – a ginormous white elephant of a policy that is largely unworkable and exceedingly expensive. It’s the equivalent of insisting on 24 carat gold pipes for a sewerage system. 

For me some of our politicians have got their priorities so wrong. People need local services. Kids need swimming pools and sports centres. Local folk need public libraries. 

One of the most egregious aspects of our current merry-go-round of closures is the lack of consultation with service users and local communities on closure – or the failure to undertake proper assessments on the impact of closure for particular groups of people. 

The 2010 Equality Act and regulations require councils to undertake equality assessments on the impact of policy changes or closures of public services. 

The courts in Scotland have held that this process cannot be a paper-based, tick box exercise and should generally involve meaningful engagement with people who use the service under threat. 

In McHattie v South Ayrshire Council [2020] CSOH 4 a council was found to have acted unlawfully in closing an adult day care centre.  

The court held the council failed to consult with the petitioner and other users, carers and guardians of users of the centre who had a legitimate expectation to be consulted.

The council also failed in its duties under the Equality Act to have regard to the need to advance equality of opportunity between persons who were disabled and persons who were not.

Similarly, in AB v Scottish Borders Council [2022] CSOH 68 a council was found to have acted unlawfully in closing a day care centre and was ordered to reconsider its decision. 

There was a failure to undertake a proper equality impact assessment and a failure to consult with those affected by the closure.

Although there is no requirement at Scots common law for a council to consult with local people, a legitimate expectation to be consulted may arise from an interest which is held to be sufficient to found an expectation. 

Local people may have more rights than they think to have their say on the proposed loss of local facilities. And those rights must be put into play before closure – ideally at an early stage where options are available other than the loss of a service.