HELENSBURGH'S MSP has hit out at the "short-sighted" decision to close an outdoor centre near the town as part of a £42 million programme of budget cuts.

The Blairvadach Outdoor Resource Centre in Shandon, run by Glasgow City Council, will shut for good later this year after the city authority's spending plans were backed by SNP and Green councillors.

The move is expected to result in the loss of the full-time equivalent (FTE) of 16 jobs.

The facility – one of the largest outdoor education centres in Scotland – has been operating for 45 years, and has provided outdoor education opportunities for generations of Glasgow's schoolchildren.

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The city's education convener, Chris Cunningham, said: "The closure of Blairvadach is deeply regrettable but we will create a number of outdoor learning activities."

Writing on Twitter, the Helensburgh and Lomond area's MSP, Jackie Baillie, said: "A shortsighted decision by @theSNP controlled @GlasgowCC. Generations of children will lose out on a fantastic service."

Labour councillor Frank McAveety said: “All parties have arrived at a budget which has tried to budget the books.

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"I do know that after years of proposing budgets we never closed Blairvadach – one of the major institutions in the history of Glaswegian childhoods.

“It is sad we will lose this facility which has benefitted so many Glasgow school children.”

Prior to its use as an outdoor centre, the Blairvadach site was home to one of three camps which housed German and Italian prisoners of war during and after the Second World War.

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