Edinburgh community centres could start reopening soon

First stage: access for groups running crisis support schemes

Vandals trashed storage tents and tool food and equipment at Magdalene Community Centre

EDINBURGH’S libraries and community centres could reopen soon under a phased programme, the city council has announced.

As part of the first stage of the plans, groups wanting access to community centres to run community-based services like crisis support and local food banks could be allowed into the buidlings “in the coming days”, subject to health and safety assessments.

And a report will be submitted to councillors on August 6 outlining the second stage, which is expected to include the first phase of library openings to ensure limited city-wide access, as well as the reopening of specific community centres to support the wider opening of schools and provision of out-of-school care.

A third stage, which will also require approval by councillors, scheduled for Monday September 14, will see further libraries and community centres re-open based on latest public health guidance.

Council officials had previously said community centres in Edinburgh were likely to stay shut until at least October because of the precautions required due to Covid-19.

Earlier this month councillors appealed for community groups to be given accesss to buildings so they could run food supply and anti-poverty programmes during the pandemic. It followed an incident in May when food and equipment was taken from temporary storage tents being used at Magdalene Community Centre, in the grounds of Brunstane Primary School, because there was no access to the centre itself.

Today council leader Adam McVey said: “We all appreciate our community centres and libraries and we’re keen to get them open for our communities again. However we’re still in the midst of a global pandemic and need to make sure that any buildings we do open is carried out in a consistent and safe way.

“We have a three-stage approach to the reopening of libraries and community centres prioritising safety and we look forward to announcing more details in the coming weeks.

“It will be great to see libraries open again but it’s also been heartening to see such a positive response to our digital service which has remained in operation throughout lockdown. We’ve seen the number of downloads of e-books, e-magazines and e-newspapers continue to increase with over 1.5 million downloads in 2019/20 and in April we saw an increase of 64 per cent (ebooks), 67 per cent (eaudio books) and 118 per cent (emagazines and enewspapers) on the same month last year. We hope that this expansion of use of digital services helps more people in our communities continue to access these services going forward.”

Depute council leader Cammy Day added: “As with all our buildings, reopening them during the Covid-19 pandemic requires additional considerations to make sure they are safe for all to use including additional cleaning and reorganising the space.

“Each building has its own specific considerations which means that some buildings will be able to open sooner than others. Right now we are focussed on getting our schools open for the first day of term and a number of other buildings, including community centres, will be a key part of this work.

“We know how important our services and spaces are to the entire community and, subject to Government guidelines, we will be opening additional buildings over the coming months.“We appreciate the patience and support from residents while we work to restart our services and we look forward to welcoming them back.”

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