A popular Cambuslang boxing club are looking to take over the delapidated Westburn Community Hall.
O'Neil's ABC Boxing Club, who currently train from within Priestfield Boxing Club in Blantyre, are proposing a plan to secure a community asset lease or transfer from South Lanarkshire Council for the building that would allow them to return to their hometown.
The club were previously based within the hall but along with community groups such as Westburn Youth Club, and the local mother and toddler group they were all displaced and unable to carry out their activies at the hall due its state of disrepair.
Now, following a community meeting last week plans are afoot, with backing from locals, for the club to apply to takeover the running of the building for the "good of the community."
A spokesman for O'Neil's told Lanarkshire Live : "We are hoping to get the hall for the use of not only the boxing club but for the whole community.
"That was the purpose of the hall when it was built and we are hoping it can continue for that purpose and not just as a Boxing Club.
"There are other community groups interested in using the hall so if all things go to plan the hall should hopefully thrive again and help out Cambuslang as a whole for the good of the community."
Joanne Forbes, Head of Property Services at South Lanarkshire Council, said: “We are happy to work alongside the Boxing Club and the local community to assist them in developing their proposals.”
In February of 2020, Westburn Hall was closed by the council due to health and safety reasons with O'Neil's ABC temporarily moving training to St Bride’s Primary School.
But in July of that year, while South Lanarkshire Council carried out repair work on water damage to the roof at the club’s Westburn community centre home, footage then emerged on social media of the gym equipment within being destroyed after a break-in at the centre in a further huge blow to the club.
Following on from this they were forced to seek refuge at the Priestfield's Boxing Club site at Knightwood Terrace, Blantyre, on a Monday and Wednesday between 6pm and 7.30pm.
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