TODAY I will be at Blairvadach Outdoor Learning Centre along with a number of my colleagues from the Labour group.

We want to listen to the staff who have provided an incredible service to thousands of Glasgow’s schoolchildren over the years. We want to understand how the city can develop such an asset for future generations and to ensure that recent uncertainty can never be repeated.

I mentioned last week that the annual rigmarole of financial hokey-cokey was no way to conduct the serious business of how your city council is funded. I argued that the last-minute recalculations, orchestrated by the Scottish Government’s finance minister, meant that Glasgow’s councillors were constructing budgets in the dark. In spite of that, the proposal to close Blairvadach was short sighted and a great loss for our city’s children.

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Unfortunately, the SNP administration ignored our advice and were supported by the Greens. We were told, only a few weeks ago, that the budget agreed was the best that could be done under the circumstances.

The reaction to the news of closure was immediate. The @SaveBlairvadach campaign was geared up; along with staff, trade unions and young people, armed with the stories of what Blairvadach had done for them. All Glasgow councillors were soon made aware of how valued the facility is for so many people.

My call last week for the retention of Blairvadach seems to have struck a chord. Following on from an enquiry by this newspaper about the future of the facility, a swift U-turn was enacted by the SNP administration.

I will park my astonishment at the lack of consultation with our councillors – but I guess “openness and transparency” on how decisions are made in the council are now “old-fashioned” concepts.

But the biggest U-turn of all was from the Green councillor Jon Molyneux who popped up to Blairvadach earlier this week. I understand a sudden redness swelled the sky at the Gare Loch mainly from the brass neck of Councillor Molyneux, as he proclaimed about the “saving of Blairvadach”!

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Will the real Councillor Molyneux stand up, as I am sure he is on the roll call vote for councillors who had voted to close the facility only a few weeks ago.

But I was brought up in the belief that the mighty Lord welcomes the repentant and I hope that the facility will now have a much more secure future. I will listen carefully to staff today and I am keen to explore how partnerships can be built, and the role that the city council will need to play in providing long-term security and stability.

So, rather than grandstanding, why don’t city councillors all work together to deliver a Blairvadach that will benefit all our young people, and the incredible staff who support them, and put an end to the uncertainty and rumour, hanging over it in the annual budget rigmarole.