Blairvadach (see here), Glasgow City Council’s last outdoor centre, is threatened with closure (see here) as a result of cuts agreed by the SNP run Council, which ultimately result from budget allocations made by the Scottish Government . Located 1km north of Rhu on the Gare Loch, just outwith the National Park boundary, for many Glasgow school children its the one opportunity they get to experience outdoor education and the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, where many of the activities take place.
Blairvadach is different from other Outdoor Centres run by the private and voluntary centre. Its been properly resourced, has considerable expertise (being recognised as a course provider by the Royal Yachting Association, Scottish Canoe Association, Mountain Training, Cycling Scotland, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, National Indoor Climbing Award Scheme and the John Muir Trust) and gives children from Glasgow the opportunity to experience really challenging outdoor experiences (rather than the anodyne taster offerings which are offered by much of the private sector – not always their fault, they don’t have the money).
The quote from National (see here) from the Glasgow Education Convener, Chris Cunningham, shows just how out of touch some local councillors are:
The closure of Blairvadach is deeply regrettable but we will create a number of outdoor learning activities. Improving attainment must remain our highest priority
What outdoor learning activities and how can they adequately replace what is offered by Blairvadach? And how does this fit with the SNP’s commitment to close the attainment gap? Its worth repeating…………..the ONLY time in their childhoods that some of Glasgow’s poorest children ever get to experience the countryside is on trips to Blairvadach.
16 jobs are to go to save a reported £218k (see here). How many £millions is Glasgow and the Scottish Government going to spend to subsidise the rich and famous to attend the Climate Change summit in November? .
Under Strathclyde Regional Council, young people in Glasgow and its conurbation got the opportunity to experience what was possibly the finest outdoor education system in the world. Strathclyde’s commitment was every child would get a week away in a centre at both primary and secondary school.
Before its creation in 2003, when I was on the Board of SNH, we had discussions about what success for the new National Park Authority would look like. A key idea was that every child from the Glasgow conurbation would get to spend a week in the National Park at some point in their schooling. There has never been any attempt to implement that. Instead, twenty-five years after Strathclyde was abolished, Scotland is a much richer country but the public is being told we cannot afford outdoor education for children in state schools. Neo-liberal ideology has resulted in a situation where those running the state no longer believe it should pay for children to have such experiences.
Instead, its being left to charitable trusts to offer a few lucky children to have these experiences. Ardroy, at Lochgoilhead in the National Park, is doing its best but will never be able to pick up the slack and is at present appealing for funding for a new accommodation block (see here). Dounans in Aberfoyle is sadly down at heal – I was there in September for the Reforesting Scotland Gathering – and was kept going in part with Leader funding from the EU. And so, the unjust story continues………
Meantime, Scotland’s policy making elite produce policies and plans which trumpet at great length about the importance of equal access to the outdoors for all, equal education attainment etc but do nothing to make this happen. The latest such document is the LLTNPA’s draft Outdoor Recreation Plan, the consultation on which ended in January, which makes not a single mention of Outdoor Education nor of all the centres that have closed since Strathclyde days (see here). If Blairvadach closes, all the worthy intentions set out in that plan will have been undermined before it even starts. I have written to the LLTNPA Convener, James Stuart, today asking that that the Park makes a stand and objects to this closure. Its actions, not words that count.
Coincidentally, the day before Glasgow’s announcement, I happened to be out ice climbing, in a rare weather window, and stopped off on way back in afternoon at “McGregor’s Landing”, the former West Dunbartonshire Outdoor Education and Conference Centre at Ardlui.
The abandoned centre is slowly being reclaimed by nature but is meantime blighting the area.
The litter at the entrance was far worse when I was last here. This is in a camping management zone and clearly has nothing to do with campers! The camping management zones have achieved almost nothing.
The litter and fly tipping does tell us something, however, about what’s happening to the National Park.
What a contrast between this blight and the failure of McGregor’s Landing to deliver something special for the people of West Dunbartonshire and Tom Hunter’s plans for a bright new shiny Leadership Centre on the unspoiled South West corner of Loch Lomond which is inside the West Dunbarton Council boundary (see here).
Tom Hunter is one of Scotland’s richest men and, if he and his ilk were paying more tax, our councils might also have had the money to pay for outdoor education centres for all across Scotland. Perhaps Sir Tom can prove me wrong and fork out the £218k that is apparently needed to save Blairvadach for another year while Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government get their act together and and work out how they can once again provide outdoor education for all?
The experiences that outdoor education centres promote, testing yourself in new situations (also known as building resilience), learning new skills, working as a team, being connected to nature are, to my mind, just as important as a group of elite people being able to gaze out over Loch Lomond while they deliberate the fate of Scotland as Tom Hunter is proposing.
One could comment ad-finitum on the hyprocisy of the Scottish establishment, for example:
- The proposed closure of Blairvadach is, in policy terms, yet another blow against the Curriculum for Excellence, which was supposed to deliver a broad based education for children.
- 2019 was the Year of Young People, where Scotland was supposed to put the needs of young people first – has the SNP administration in Glasgow asked any young people what they thought about their experiences at Blairvadach?
- This year is Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Water. While Visit Scotland promotes the experience, Blairvadach arguably did more than any other organisation to enable Glasgow children to participate in watersports. Yet its to be closed for want of £218k.
The stated good intentions of the Scottish Government and our public authorities are constantly undermined by their actions. Their priorities are all wrong. I hope people will protest against this obscene cut.
A small part of the huge amount of public money currently being wasted on the camping byelaws should be diverted to save this outdoor centre. For the national park rangers an opportunity to work with the young people staying at this centre will be a far more rewarding experience than spending so much of their time administering the camping permit system and pretending that they are a quasi police force. No wonder so many of the Park’s rangers are applying for posts well away from this cess pit of a national park! Scotland aspires to be like our Scandinavian neighbours, encouraging young people to stay out of doors from the youngest age – see how many prams are parked outside at a Norwegian ski resort! By comparison, Scotland is a total embarrassment, a country slowly losing its way as the richest and most powerful put more feathers in their own nests, with an endless stream of planning applications in the national park. Meanwhile the poorest of our young people have less and less opportunity to escape the urban deprivation that is their daily fare.
Scotland is a embarrassment councilers and MP s have being hiding behind Europe regulations for years shocking and disgusting SNP ministers hang your heads in shame
This situation has been a long time coming. Since the 1970’s this has been all rather predictable. Inquests into some serious accidents during adventure training some 30-40 years ago spawned this perfectly safe outcome. Coroners recommendations asked for proper certification of instructors and premises, even boats and other recreational equipment. This was to be the new norm. Resultant legislation had enormous cost implications for anyone who attempted to run any outdoor adventurous pursuits . A whole new “training industry” sprang up to furnish potential instructors with the necessary paperwork. Part time regional and seasonal operators could not sustain their businesses in the face of training costs for temporary staff, who could then take their certificates elsewhere all too easily. In face of H&S concerns school recreation departments found they could no longer recruit academic staff who were also prepared to self-certify to work after school hours to the required standards. Insurance premiums became a huge burden.
Eventually it was left to local authorities to become the providers. Only they had access to sufficient funds. To ensure oversight various by-law licencing regimes set an ever higher standard for many independent operators.
With growing H&S concerns, fire and hygene restrictions on buildings and courses were applied . Volunteer and student vacation instructors found themselves victims of intrusive personality checks. As an older generation with years of knowledge have retired, and no new qualified staff appear , the circle has closed.
A perfect circle of bureaucracy has destroyed most adventure training facilities. Bureaucrats have unwitting conspired with legislators to deny today’s children the very opportunities they themselves enjoyed when growing up.
Of course local authorities will always deplore the aimless – some would say mindless – vandalism council staff are compelled to ‘clear up’ because youth are bored and have no sporting or countryside interests. The daily clean up in urban Scotland costs society dearly.
Never mind. Regional Councillors have duty to oversee identifiable expense. So its easy: outdoor leisure training and sport fields produce no identifiable statistical benefits. Costly leisure training facilities can be hived off – perhaps to be paid for by those who wish to do that. In truth overbearing bureaucracy now ensures this cannot happen for all the reasons highlighted above. With annual contingency budgets set to cope with urban efforts at clean up, the NHS and Police service budgets will deal with any casualities of urban misrule.( For councils another £1/4 million comes off the staff balance sheet “Tick”.)
Scotland’s youth deserve infrastructural support from our National park authorities .These several derelict facilities Nick highlights were earnestly established for leisure training and recreation to replace those bankrupted by well intentioned legislation. The screw of impractical regulation must now be loosened.
So your solution is no health & safety? Hand young people over to incompetent individuals, sexual predators and place them in accomodation that is downright dangerous? Sounds like a sensible plan. Every industry requires certification of some sort (construction, transport, health etc). Not every industry is in the same state as the Outdoor Industry. You are however, correct about perceived value and priorities. Local authorities and others make poor spending choices and have a very short term view (which ignores local and national government guidance – CfE, Health & Wellbeing etc).
Gordon not at all. Your words speak of a denial concept I would never support. However. we do live in a very restrictive age, where all aspects of modern life that can be “controlled” very nearly have been. Never-the -less it is impossible to deny the final freedom for any individual or group to head off into “wild places”. So a method to educate the young about the measures they should adopt to stay safe and have fun is essential. No one really knows how vast the sums drawn annually from local authority contingency budgets across Scotland have been. The coordination and mounting of search and recovery rescue missions on Scotland’s hills are a local authority and Police Scotland expense . No one figure is ever put in place,(even region by region,)to identify how much Maritime Coastguard Agency and RNLI rescue services cost each season. The current focus on closure of one more centre concerns a small Regional budget being trimmed yet further to deliver just one identifiable cost saving. Part of a wider trend, this identifiable cost is the consequence of a well intentioned burden of ‘broad brush’ bye-law, regulatory and quality standards created over 40 years. What I attempted briefly to suggest in these boards is that the expenses of ‘Outdoor challenge education for all’ do have to be balanced against the national expenditure figures. Vandalism, inner city gang culture and substance abuse all come into this. The Costs incurred for rescue and policing, for NHS treatment for those who ignore recreational guidelines through ignorance are not yet fully understood. Raising the spectre of child abuse, poor leadership, and poor equipment once again to clamp down on outdoor centre training has left a whole generation without clear role models. Primary schools now have a record low of male teachers and some organisations like the Scout movement report being seriously short of Male volunteers. This lack of volunteer provision is a direct consequence of the present regulatory approach where every perceived risk is required to be outlined by ‘decree’. The current perception of residential outdoor education as inherently risky hardly equips the young to explore and develop their character and full potential at all. Adventure under experienced supervision is so vital..
Nick,
So sad to hear the news about the plans to close Blairvadach as a City Council budget saving at a time when more needs to be done to introduce youngsters to the great outdoors. We were faced with the same situation at Ardroy back in 2011 when Fife Council decided to close the outdoor centre there as a budget saving. Fortunately a small group of determined individuals led by George Bruce managed to save the centre and reopened it under the umbrella of a charity. The number of youngsters enjoying outdoor experiences and learning new skills at Ardroy has risen from 2,000/year in Fife Council’s time to around 3,000/year under the umbrella of the charity with the support of a very dedicated and professional group of staff. The Centre also generates modest annual surpluses which are ploughed back into much needed property improvements. The Centre is increasingly hosting groups of youngsters from disadvantaged background who thoroughly enjoy for what for many are life changing experiences which are worth their weight in gold.
You are right though Ardroy , which is working at almost full capacity, cannot pick up the slack if Blaivadach closes and concerted efforts require to be made to persuade the Council to reverse the closure decision.