Warnings over potential impact of proposed cuts to West Dunbartonshire Leisure

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Proposed cuts to staffing at West Dunbartonshire Leisure will have a “significant impact” on services, a whistleblower has warned.However the trust, have said that any changes won’t limit sporting opportunities within the area.Planned cuts to West Dunbartonshire Leisure would see 5.5 full time equivalent (FTE) staff cut, however a spokesperson told the Lennox that this is offset by current vacancies - reducing the impact to 2.6FTE staff.A new ‘sport and activity team’ will be formed to take on the running of local projects, including the Loch Lomond 10k and sport holiday camps.An employee, who asked to remain anonymous, contacted the Lennox and warned of the potential impact the cuts could have.They said: “There will be a significant reduction in the number of staff employed to develop sport in West Dunbartonshire.“The claim that everything will still be delivered by the new sport and physical activity team is ridiculous.“How can five posts be deleted without having any impact on services for the community?“Big events such as the 10K and school cross countries cannot be delivered without a decent sized team and the specific expertise and knowledge that these current individuals have.“Under this current proposal there will be no future development of sport in the area.

This will result in a reduction of funding and support from national governing bodies.“The new structure is totally unachievable, and this means that there will be a significant reduction in the sports provision in West Dunbartonshire.”They claim that sports facility development would suffer – with no-one to develop or support projects like Posties Park, Argyll Park Tennis Courts, Dumbarton Gymnastics Centre or the current proposal to create a mountain bike