Glasgow’s Labour Administration are proposing to scrap 4 of Glasgow’s current Local Regeneration Agencies and merge them into the unnamed remaining 5th LRA to create one new agency controlling the entire regeneration budget for Glasgow.

Glasgow’s 5 LRAs currently employ 800 staff who must now wait while the Council decides on the scale of ‘efficiency savings’ that a single Local Regeneration Company can deliver.

There may be a sound business case for a single strategic body to oversee local regeneration in the city but the report before the Council’s Executive Committee today was only given to opposition Councillors less than 48 hours before the meeting and there are significant questions unanswered in the report. How many staff will be lost? how many local offices will close? how will this impact on the people who use the services?

North LRA has managed to get almost 900 unemployed people into work this year, helped local organisations to recruit staff and establish new businesses in Maryhill Kelvin. It has been at the heart of the business plans to save Ledgowan and Cadder Community Halls. It has also secured apprenticeships for young people in partnership with housing associations as well as helping youngsters in our area gain Commonwealth apprenticeships, it has also helped people back into further education and secured multi-million pound investment in the new Saracen Exchange project.

Labour want to scrap the  current network of Local Regeneration Agencies and have a new single company in place by 31st March 2011. The timetable looks impossible and the information to justify this is lacking in detail. Rest assured, as your Liberal Democrat Councillors, Mary Paris and I will want to ensure that any changes pushed through by Labour protect staff and enhance the ongoing work to create badly needed jobs and businesses in Maryhill Kelvin.