WORK has started on a new East End community hall which is being billed as another legacy of the Commonwealth Games.

The all-purpose hall, which will stand next to the Emirates Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, will include facilities which were lost when bulldozers flattened tenements and commercial units to make way for the huge sports complex.

The multi-million pound centre, which is due to open in January 2015, will include a GP surgery, cafe, children's nursery, chemist and a convenience store.

The facilities and services were all on a wish list drawn up by locals and will include social, recreational and educational activities.

Commonwealth Games Minister Shona Robison was joined by local school children at a ground breaking ceremony.

She said: "The impact of the Commonwealth Games will reach across Scotland but the epicentre is here in Glasgow's East End.

"Alongside the world class sporting facilities, this new building will ensure that legacy is felt in the very communities at the heart of the Commonwealth Games bid, providing new community facilities people of all ages can benefit from.

"It will create jobs, growth and services to benefit the whole of area and the investment in the Dalmarnock Legacy Hub will be felt for a generation."

The Scottish Government is providing £2.05million of funding for the centre, with another £1.23m coming from regeneration chiefs at Clyde Gateway.

The land was valued at almost £200,000 but Glasgow City Council sold it for just £1 to the local People's Development Trust which has driven the project forward.

The trust's regeneration manager is community activist and local councillor Yvonne Kucuk.

She said: "The legacy hub will be our first community asset wholly owned and operated by local people.

"I am hopeful that this project will inspire neighbouring organisations to become the catalyst for change in their own communities."

Neil MacDonald, chairman of Clyde Gateway, believes the hub will also act as "a beacon" for the new residents who will move permanently into the nearby Athletes' Village once the Games are over.

Council leader Gordon Matheson added: "I am delighted to see the beginning of work on the Dalmarnock Legacy Hub, a building that will deliver real benefits to everyone in the area after 2014.

"The city council has been working with all our project partners to progress this project, one that provides an emblem of the great economic and social benefits that preparing for - and hosting - the Games have brought and will bring to us.

"I look forward to the Dalmarnock Community Hub being a fantastic community asset for decades to come."

Building work will safeguard more than 60 construction jobs and provide four apprenticeships.

The new hub will also generate 55 new long-term posts.

gordon.thomson@ eveningtimes.co.uk