Fight the cut!
South Lanarkshire Council has extended the
deadline for submissions until midnight on 19
January - more time to make your views known!
South Lanarkshire Council intends to cut LEAP’s
core funding by 50 per cent as part of its 2024/25
budget proposals.
That amounts to more than £27,000 and such a cut
will decimate our befriending, handyperson and
learning and leisure services across South
Lanarkshire.
The befriending service would have to remove
services to between 50 and 60 isolated and
vulnerable clients. In addition, 30 to 40 volunteers
will lose their volunteering role within the organisation. This could have a serious impact on our clients’ mental health and ability to remain at home, forcing them into supported living earlier than anticipated.
We would need to cut our handyperson jobs from 1,500 per annum to around 800 per annum, losing this vital contribution to the wellbeing and independence of older people, and again reducing the possibility of them remaining in their own homes for longer before entering full time nursing or residential care.
Our classes and activities would most likely be cut, severely impacting the social contact and learning they provide to the 1,000 plus people who currently attend every month.
LEAP had also been in negotiation with SLC to take over the Tollpitch Pavilion in Cambuslang and the Spittal Hall in Rutherglen to operate them to the benefit of local communities following the closure of these facilities earlier this year. Such a significant cut in income means we could not move forward with this proposal.
You can help us fight this cut by taking part in the consultation online or by emailing savings@southlanarkshire.gov.uk to say you disagree with this cut to LEAP’s - and other charities and voluntary sector organisations’ - funding. You can also raise this issue with your local councillors and ask them to help you fight this cut, as well as asking friends, family and neighbours to make their views known.
We urgently need your support with this. Please help LEAP.
To get help completing the consultation, or to find out more about the impact of the cut, call 0141 641 5169.
