PLANS for a £6.5million music therapy centre in a Glasgow park have been scrapped.
Two years ago Nordoff Robbins unveiled plans to open the first centre of its kind in Scotland, in Ruchill Park.
However, the charity has pulled out amid funding difficulties and opposition from some local residents about the loss of green space.
The 21,000sq ft building would have included a public cafe and toilets.
Glasgow Life, the group which runs the city's museums and parks, backed the plan when it was unveiled, claiming it would bring extra visitors to Ruchill Park from across Scotland.
The charity looked at several locations before deciding on Ruchill, but admitted at the time that the park location was a "sensitive" issue.
The proposals were abandoned before they reached the planning stage.
However, a spokeswoman for the charity said it remained an "aspiration" to build a centre in Glasgow.
Nordoff Robbins is the largest charity in the UK specialising in the use of music to transform lives and improve communication, and its celebrity backers include singers KT Tunstall and Annie Lennox.
The service uses music therapy to help children and adults suffering from a range of problems such as mental or physical disability, brain damage, Down's Syndrome, autism, depression, dementia, physical, sexual or emotional abuse, terminal illness or bereavement.
The charity runs a Glasgow clinic in Maryhill Community Centre with a team of five music therapists.
A spokewoman for Nordoff Robbins said the decision to drop the Ruchill plan was partly due to funding and partly down to local opposition.
She said: "We are looking at our options. We have always had an aspirations to have something in Glasgow.
"Hopefully, in the next year or two we, will have something in Glasgow."
caroline.wilson@ eveningtimes.co.uk