Council-run leisure services across Scotland could be axed as local authorities deal with budget cuts and rising costs, MSPs have been warned.
Cultural facilities like museums and libraries are "hanging on by their finger nails" after visitor numbers evaporated during repeated lockdowns over the last two years.
Many of Scotland's local authorities have handed the operation of their leisure facilities to arms-length charitable organisations but councillors still have the ultimate say on where funding should be spent.
The Record has reported how local government is at "breaking point" over the funding deal it receives from the Scottish Government.
We previously told how dozens of libraries have closed over the last decade.
Duncan Dornan, head of museums at Glasgow Life, said today the number of visitors to the city's iconic attractions had increased by 50 per cent over the last 10 years while budgets had declined in real terms.
"The budget impact is on-going and we are now at the stage where we seriously risk the loss of professional skills and infrastructure capacity to sustain these services in the longer term," he told members of Holyrood's constitution, external affairs and culture committee.
"I think that's particularly problematic given the substantial impact we know that services have on health and wellbeing - and that's even more the case post-pandemic."
He added: "We're in the situation now after 10 years of steady reductions in funding where services are hanging on by their finger nails."
Kirsty Cumming, chief executive of Community Leisure UK, told MSPs cultural services could be doing "much more" to support health and wellbeing if they were properly funded.
"But it's absolutely stretched at the moment," she said.
"We are seeing changes in customer behaviour and we are seeing extreme financial pressures.
"What we want to avoid is short-term decision making that saves money one year but may lose services in the long-term."
Angus Robertson, the cabinet secretary for the constitution and culture, said the Scottish Government faced "difficult choices to live within total resources without borrowing powers at our disposal".
He added: "We are agreed how vital the role of culture is to our shared goals.
"Everyone in Scotland has a right to a cultural life no matter where they live."
All 32 council leaders united before Christmas to blast the SNP -Green Government over what they said was a £371m cut to their budget.
A showdown with Nicola Sturgeon led to more money - but a double whammy of council tax rises and service cuts is still on the way.
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