Published: Wednesday, 21st May, 2008 16:30
Lifeline centre faces axe
By Lorraine Tinney
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END OF A LIFELINE: Jim Gallacher, from Langbank, says the Riverview Resource Centre in Port Glagow will be badly missed by the community.
Pic by: Kris Cairns
ANGRY protesters have hit out over the closure of a lifeline service in Port Glasgow.
The axe is expected to fall on Riverview + Centre when funding runs out next month.
Around 200 people flock to the centre in Mansion Avenue every week to do anything from training for a new job and computing, to keeping fit and using the launderette.
Board member Katrina Brown said: “I feel it’s a lifeline to the whole community and it will be a loss when it closes. People from other parts of Port Glasgow and Greenock use it and it will be heartbreaking and devastating for local people.
“There are no guarantees we will get funding for another centre, but over the next three years during the regeneration we need something here for local people.
“People come to the centre for all sorts of things: computing, art and photography classes, the women’s group, the men from Jericho House learn literacy and numeracy skills and James Watt College run classroom assistant courses.”
Helen Lang, 60, who has lived in Brightside Avenue for 40 years, said: “We’ll have nothing, no houses, nothing and they’re trying to take the centre away from us as well.
“I was looking after my granddaughter and I had to learn how to use computers to help with her homework. I couldn’t have done it without Riverview.”
A board member, who didn’t want to be named, confirmed the centre is 50 per cent funded from the CRF Fund, which has now been replaced by the Fairer Scotland Fund, then match-funded by European money. The board member claimed they were told during a meeting with council leader Stephen McCabe the ‘non-core’ project wouldn’t qualify as Inverclyde Council is on the Inverclyde Alliance Board, which recommends who gets funding.
They were told the building wasn’t sustainable as it would have to be demolished with surrounding homes in Brightside Avenue and, if they wanted a new one, they would have to find the money for it.
Councillor McCabe told the Tele: “Every service’s European funding is coming to an end as well as community regeneration funding.
“We have to assess the best place now to deliver these services in Port Glasgow. Clune Park Resource Centre has similar services and there is St Stephen’s Enterprise Centre in upper Port Glasgow.
“The building has no long-term future. A new Riverview Centre would cost an awful lot of money. Where is the money coming from?”
But he was swift to praise the centre’s achievements, saying: “They have done an excellent job and a lot of people have benefited over the years and they should celebrate that.”
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