Newly-opened play centre shut for month
A PUBLICLY-funded play centre, which opened in central Sutherland only three months ago, has been temporarily closed down.
The reason for the closure of the Wee Beasties Play Centre in Lairg Community Centre has been officially glossed over as "unforeseen circumstances".
However, it is understood there has been friction between the play centre and other hall users and also between hall managers.
A notice on the community hall’s web site states: "Due to unforeseen circumstances Wee Beasties Play Centre will be closed for the month of February."
The play centre opened its doors two days a week in early October, funded by a £20,000 grant from Awards for All and the Achany Windfarm Community Benefit Fund.
Some of the money, which is being paid in stages, was used to outfit the centre with play equipment, including a bouncy castle and climbing frame. An alarm system to alert staff if children tried to get out of the building was also purchased.
At the official opening were North, West and Central Sutherland councillor Linda Munro and Fiona Morrison, the Highland Council child care and family resource officer for the north.
The play centre was well supported at first with parents and children travelling from as far afield as Dornoch and Bonar Bridge, according to a local mother who did not want to be named.
However, attendance then began to fall off to the extent that the centre was losing money.
Some parents are understood to have been annoyed that they were not allowed to give their children a packed lunch but had to buy food provided by the play centre.
It is understood parents posted derogatory comments on Facebook sites highlighting their dissatisfaction.
Meanwhile, other hall users apparently also resented the hall kitchen being taken over by the play centre.
Similar difficulty was experienced with the centre’s bulky play equipment, which also took up much of the storage space available.
A request for the play centre organisers to leave the play equipment up overnight between the two days it operated, is understood to have been refused.
An emergency meeting took place recently at which the hall committee took the decision to close Wee Beasties down for a month to see if issues could be resolved.
The mum added: "It’s crucial that the play centre re-opens because it has been publicly funded. If it stays shut, they will probably have to re-pay the funders and they can’t because the money has all been spent."
Managers were this week reticent about why, just three months after opening, the centre is now closed.
Hall administrator Michelle Grover Smith, who runs the centre with a team of volunteers, made it clear that she did not want to comment when contacted by the Northern Times.
Christian Goskirk, chairman of Lairg Community Association, which runs the hall, declined to respond to the claims of strife between hall users.
She said: "The play centre hasn’t closed down, it has just been suspended to give us a bit of time to review the service we are providing and ensure that it is appropriate and meets the needs of everyone."
But John Quinn, vice-chair of the community association, said: "I believe we didn’t have full control of what was happening with Wee Beasties.
"We did not feel we were being fully consulted."
Centre gets renewed licence
LAIRG Community Centre has had its public entertainment licence renewed.The Lairg Community Association sought the renewal in August last year from the Highland Licensing Committee because the venue hosts events like exhibitions, discos and dances, musical performances, lectures and concerts.However, the application had been held up because Highland Council’s environmental health department asked for a fresh electrical inspection to be carried out in the venue, after noting it was last done in 2005.The department advises that the electrics are checked every five years, so an inspection was carried out last month.Senior licensing officer Michael Elsey told the committee which met Inverness on Tuesday the outstanding issues had been satisfied and the licence had been granted under delegated powers.
