Ending the week on a positive story, though one constituents should not have faced. Yesterday I was contacted by parents at Summerston Child Care which is based within Bellcraig Community Centre which is managed by Glasgow Life (formerly Glasgow Culture and Sport). Earlier this year a fight between a group of young adults, involving knives, a machete and a hammer, spilled into the Centre. All too easily these people could have walked straight into the nursery as there was no security system to stop them. Fortunately, though not for staff, the fight stayed in the main reception.

Strathclyde Police subsequently carried out a full safety assessment at the Centre which resulted in the installation of a controlled entry system to the nursery area. Yesterday parents and staff at Summerston Child Care were told that Glasgow Life’s Health & Safety Officer had instructed that the system be removed as a Health & Safety issue. Yes, the same organisation that runs the Centre, and installed the security system, had now removed it.

Needless to say parents quickly contacted their Councillors to voice their concerns and I contacted Glasgow Life who advised that as the system wasn’t hard wired into the fire alarm system it posed an unacceptable risk to users of the Centre. Now you might think that Glasgow Life should have thought of this before they installed it, however to add insult to injury they then raised the prospect that Summerston Child Care might have to pay for any new system!

After several e-mails and phone calls, commonsense seems to have prevailed and Glasgow Life promise me that the original system will now be reinstalled on Monday morning, following this Glasgow Life will now review all of the recommendations in the original Police report and agree an action plan with the users of the Centre. Parents are obviously relieved by the news and hopefully Glasgow Life have taken some lessons on board.