A leisure centre and derelict changing rooms will be taken over by two community organisations after council approval was secured.
Park Villa Football Development will manage Glasgow Club Drumoyne on a 25-year lease, paying £750 per year to the council.
And environmental group South Seeds will rent old changing rooms at Queen’s Park recreation ground on the same terms.
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Councillors approved both deals, which will be carried out under the People Make Glasgow Communities programme, at a meeting on Thursday.
The programme allows community groups and third sector organisations to enquire about managing council venues.
Pre-pandemic, Glasgow Club Drumoyne, built in 2010 as part of the Drumoyne Campus which includes Pirie Park Primary School and Govan High School, was run by Glasgow Life, the council’s culture and leisure arm.
Park Villa has been managing the facility under a licence to occupy since July 2022, with 17 organisations using the hub. It has outdoor, floodlit 3G and 2G pitches, a grass football pitch, a grass rugby pitch, a four-court sports hall, gym and dance/fitness studios and changing facilities.
Cllr Ruairi Kelly, the council’s convener for neighbourhood services and assets, said: “The successful running of Glasgow Club Drumoyne by Park Villa Football Development is another example of what is being achieved through the People Make Glasgow Communities programme.
“Park Villa is a fantastic local organisation doing tremendous work to widen sports participation in the areas served by this facility. The improvements they have planned will be a great addition to a community facility they are really getting the best out of.”
Park Villa has secured over £200,000 to improve the sports centre, with funds going towards new equipment, website creation, hub logo and signs, employing local people and a new footpath to the 3G pitch.
South Seeds, which aims to help people live more sustainable lives, wants to open a community garden on the old changing rooms site at Queen’s Park recreation ground.
It intends to create a fenced garden and provide skills workshops, exercise classes and gardening activities from the building, which has been empty for over 20 years.
As well as redeveloping the building, which will require partial demolition, the group will have an option to sub-let a takeaway kiosk within the former pavilion. Space may be rented out on an hourly basis to the community.
Cllr Kelly said South Seeds has “been doing amazing community work and are now looking to bring new life to a building that has been unused”.
“The People Make Glasgow Communities programme is all about putting control in the hands of local people and this is just another example of how a dedicated group of people in a local neighbourhood can really make the most of a community asset.”
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