SNP’s ‘shameful legacy’ as Glasgow sports hubs lie padlocked, neglected and covered in rubbish – The Sun

PUBLIC sports facilities lie padlocked or neglected in Scotland’s biggest city – just years after Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games and its much-touted “legacy” for grassroots physical activity.

The Scottish Sun visited sports courts and pitches on a list of venues the city’s SNP-run council wants to offload amid a cash crisis following the pandemic.

And what we found was tonight branded a “shameful legacy” amid a furious election rammy over the fate of dozens of facilities on Nicola Sturgeon’s home patch.

Despite a crucial need for citizens to keep fit and healthy to fend off Covid and following lockdown, we told last week how the local authority’s arms-length leisure trust has listed nearly 60 community venues that are not currently expected to reopen.

As part of the controversial plan, several historic library buildings are under threat – sparkling anger among locals.

A list of community halls are also expected to remain closed – at least for now – and Glasgow City Council has effectively advertised for outside groups or the public to potentially take over facilities, in order to save cash.

Many of the sports and community sites that council offshoot Glasgow Life say are not currently due to reopen serve some of the city’s most-deprived communities.

In Victoria Park, Whiteinch, tennis and basketball courts have remained padlocked despite lockdown being over.

Football goalposts are piled up next to an abandoned pavilion where locals say bored teenagers have been hanging around boozing.

Rubbish is strewn on previously-maintained bowling greens in the park, in scenes echoed in other parks including Bellahouston Park, a couple of miles away over the Clyde.