New £9 Million Hamilton Community Centre

Councillor Gerry Convery has officially opened the new community centre in Hamilton. The new £9 million Fairhill Civic Centre and Library replaces the old centre which was demolished almost two years ago to make way for the new high quality community, sports, daycare centre and library.

The new complex on Neilsland Road houses a variety of community uses, including gym, hall/dance studio, a library with 10 PCs, credit union office, social work facilities, youth room, community cafe and internal community garden.

Councillor Convery, chairman of South Lanarkshire Council’s Community Resources Committee and South Lanarkshire Leisure Ltd told the Hamilton Advertiser: “This is a fantastic facility for the people of Fairhill and beyond.

“The variety of services and partnerships involved in the Life Centre reflect the collaborative approach that has taken place between the council’s community resources and its partner agencies to provide an all-round facility responding to the needs of the whole community.”

To build this new complex the council received a grant of £850,000 from the Community Regeneration Partnership and £816,000 from the European Regional Development Fund with the local authority providing the remainder.

Gerry Campbell, general manager of South Lanarkshire Leisure Ltd, said: “Putting this mixture of services and facilities under one roof will raise awareness and have a `spin-off’ in terms of cross usage.

“The practical nature of these partnerships will maximise the way the facilities are used and sharing costs is an obvious benefit for everyone.”