Community Centre’s Reopening On Hold After Attacks

A series of break-ins and vandal attacks has indefinitely delayed the reopening of a controversial community centre shut after a fatal shooting.

The incidents, at the former Chirnsyde Initiative in the north of Glasgow, have raised major security concerns and now put a question mark over whether the centre will ever re-open for community use.

The publicly funded centre, which had been the subject of allegations of major criminality for years, was badly damaged last month in two separate break-ins. Windows, floors and doors were smashed and equipment stolen.

The attacks were carried out the day after the city council started a £50,000 programme of essential repair and maintenance, ahead of the reopening and renaming as the Ashgill Centre, with control handed over to the new Culture and Sport Glasgow organisation.

Additional security measures, including steel shuttering, have been put in place.

Now a report says that the centre may not reopen as promised.

The report, by the authority’s director of regeneration, Steve Inch, says: “Given the recent break-ins, vandalism and theft, there remain serious concerns regarding security at the building. It is considered inappropriate to reopen the centre at this time.

“The situation will be kept under review and a report will be brought back to the committee within three months detailing options either to re-establish a community facility within the building, in line with the committee’s previous recommendations, or to find a suitable alternative use.”

Chirnsyde, in the Milton area, was closed in December less than 24 hours after the shooting in nearby Lambhill.

Three men were shot, and Michael Lyons, the nephew of centre co-ordinator Eddie Lyons who had been the subject of complaints and criminal allegations since 2001, was wounded fatally.

A report by Bridget McConnell, executive director of Culture and Sport Glasgow, said Mr Lyons was related to a “notorious criminal family in the Milton area” and noted allegations of drug dealing and violence.

She recommended the temporary closure of Chirnsyde four months before the shooting but was over-ruled and a committee was set up to investigate the centre.

No-one has been arrested for the break-ins.