LAWYERS in wigs are tailgating cars to get free parking in a council gym it has been claimed.

The solicitors are among many people trying to avoid city street parking charges by leaving their cars in Gorbals Leisure Centre car park according to Glasgow Life.

NHS staff and students have also been accused of chasing down gym members to get free parking in the car park.

Bill Hayburn, Glasgow Life area manager made the claim as he spoke about new parking restrictions at the Gorbals Leisure Centre.

The Glasgow Club facility re-opened in January after undergoing a £1.5million refurbishment, which included installing barriers in the car park to exclude non-members.

Despite that, Mr Hayburn claimed medical staff, visitors to the City of Glasgow College and lawyers going to the Sheriff and High Courts nearby are still sneaking in.

Speaking to members of the Southside Central Area Partnership, he said: “We’d like the car park to be available for everyone using the centre. You can get in the car park now, but you can’t get out unless you have a code.

“A lot of people are still slipstreaming, and we’ve had NHS employees and people from the City of Glasgow College accosting members demanding the number.

“We’ve had many years of irate members who can’t get into the car park. We’re still working on identifying from City of Glasgow College, the NHS building and we’ve had solicitors in their wigs coming over and parking there.”

Mr Hayburn also spoke about the new features of the leisure club, which was transformed as part of a £7.7m programme which included Tollcross and Scotstoun.

He continued: “We didn’t previously have enough fitness provision, the changing rooms were poor, the health suite was located on the first floor which nobody could understand.

“On January 13 this year we reopened the venue which has fantastic new showers and toilets, a stunning spin studio, holistic studio and functional studio. It has an improved fitness hall and gym.

“Our membership sales have more than doubled, usage visits have more than doubled and we do employ mystery visitors to undertake visitors to all our Glasgow Clubs. In 2017 Gorbals was twelfth in satisfaction but in March this year we had moved up to second.”