A popular Lanarkshire community centre is to remain mostly closed to public use for at least another three months.
Frustrated locals in Rutherglen have called on the NHS to provide more guidance on when they might be able to use the building again.
The centre has been used by NHS Lanarkshire for vaccines throughout the pandemic, and health chiefs have now extended their usage of the facility until the end of June, when they will “review” the situation.
One pensioners group is currently able to meet in a back room at the facility, but none of the other groups who previously met there have been able to resume.
That situation is having a devastating effect on the community, say organisers.
Davy O’ Neill runs a soccer school that meet outdoors every Sunday, but are unable to use the building for any indoor work.
He told us: “This is killing the community. It has become ridiculous, and it’s horrendous for the Fernhill area.
“Nearly every group is being blocked from the centre, and it was somewhere that was a meeting place for everybody.
“You hear people talking about it now and there’s actually anger at the NHS - people are saying ‘are they still in there?’
“Everyone totally understood why they used the centre for vaccines when they were needing to do huge numbers of people and many of them couldn’t travel.
“But so many people have had their vaccines and boosters now, and there is no way it’s being used that often. They’ve said they’ll look at it again in June, but some of these groups won’t come back.”
Rutherglen South councillor Margaret Cowie has called on the NHS to provide an exit strategy.
She said: “No-one in Fernhill has had an issue with the centre being used for vaccines - and I know that if there was a need for another massive vaccination programme, no-one would complain if it was used in the same way again.
“But there now needs to be a proper strategy in place for when this will go back to the people of Fernhill.
“We need to be looking at community programmes, especially for all the youth in the area.
“We’ve lost people to other halls, we can’t hold community events and we can’t even do things like fix the parking spaces outside the building.
“For the community to recover from the past two years they need to look at bringing it back into full community use."
NHS Lanarkshire stated that they were currently looking at future plans for the building.
Frances Brownlie, planning and development team manager, said: “We have been working in Fernhill community centre since September jointly with a number of community groups having recommenced on the site and this has worked well for both the local community and our vaccination programme.
“We are currently planning what vaccination centre capacity we will need going forward and are in discussions with South and North Lanarkshire Councils on the continued use of Fernhill community centre and other council sites across Lanarkshire.”
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