A ROW has broken out over the future of a centre for deaf people in Glasgow.

A retiring city councillor claims Hayfield Support Services with Deaf People in the Gorbals would be better used as a site for housing or for community groups.

And he says if it's not redeveloped it will become a "blight on the area."

James Mutter managed to get enough support on the city council to block the go-ahead for the centre's bid to get a 10-year lease. Instead the centre was given a one-year extension.

Reader Poll Should Hayfield deaf unit in the Gorbals be moved? Yes 14.0% No 73.7% Don't know 12.3%

But bosses at the facility - which also caters for people suffering other disabilities including cerebral palsy and epilepsy - say they need a long-term lease to access lottery funding to improve their services.

The 100-year-old former school building in Moffat Street houses day care for 37 people and is the only place of its kind in Britain.

Mr Mutter said: "It should be looking for something more appropriate. The Gorbals has been undergoing major regeneration for the last 15 years.

"That site is going to be one of the last left, and it could lie there for another 10 years. It has a lot of potential.

"It could be housing or a mixed development with facilities for Hayfield and the community. It's going to be a blight eventually."

Day care manager Robert Reid, 57, said it wanted the money to install a lift and disabled toilet, and to clean the outside and create a garden.

He said: "To be able to apply for lottery funding or other grants we need to have a decent enough lease to be able to improve the building."

He hit back at claims the building - which it has used for 24 years - is not suitable.

He said it had been adapted for the deaf with visual fire alarms, a special computer system, a dining hall and a games room.

It's also available to community groups in evenings and at the weekends.