The opening hours of North Lanarkshire leisure venues will be reduced by a third due to financial cutbacks.

Kilsyth Swimming Pool and John Smith Pool in Airdrie will continue to open seven days a week but staff will only work single shifts, resulting in  Kilsyth’s hours falling from 90 hours a week to  59 and John Smith’s hours will drop from 88 to 54.

A similar reduction has also affected the Iain Nicolson Centre in Chryston  (66 hours to 56) and Keir Hardie Sports Centre in Holytown  (80 to 53).

The new hours for Kilsyth, to be introduced in November, will be Monday-Friday, 11am-8pm and 9.30-4.30pm at weekends. John Smith Pool will be open 8am-noon and 4pm-8pm on weekdays and 9.30am-4.30pm at weekends.

Trade unions are being consulted to help ensure as many staff as possible can be redeployed elsewhere in the trust where necessary.

The Labour minority administration say they have no choice but to make the reduction in order to ensure the facility stays open – and highlighted that the SNP’s budget proposals last year would have seen the pool face closure.

Council leader Jim Logue (Labour,  Airdrie Central) said: “This is a perfect example of the difficult decisions faced by this Labour administration on a regular basis as a result of continued austerity from the SNP Government in Holyrood.

“A reduction in hours will allow us to sustain the facility for the community in face of the significant cuts to the council’s budget in recent years, with a further cut of £20 million forecast for next year.

“As part of their proposed budget last year, the SNP proposed an even greater reduction in the management fee paid to NLL. Had their budget been passed, these pools would have been facing closure.

“We will continue to do all we can to protect vital local services in the face of continued cuts to our budget by the SNP Government.”

A spokesperson for North Lanarkshire Leisure said: “We are faced with unprecedented financial pressures due to the increasingly difficult marketplace in which we operate along with a reduction in our management fee.

“As a result we have been forced to explore all options to ensure the future financial sustainability of the organisation.

“We have reviewed the opening hours of Kilsyth Swimming Pool and John Smith Pool. 

“Following this review it is proposed that, from November, Kilsyth Swimming Pool will reduce its opening hours from 90hrs a week to 59hrs and John Smith Pool from 88hrs a week to 54hrs.

“The pools will continue to be open seven days a week.

“We will carry out a consultation exercise with the Joint Trade Unions, employee representatives and affected staff to ensure that, where possible, staff are relocated to other NLL venues or redeployed to suitable alternative employment within the Trust.

“We appreciate the impact that these changes will have on our customers and staff but unfortunately we have no other choice.”

Councillor Trevor Douglas (Cons, Airdrie Central) said: “I am not impressed at all with this decision. What they should be doing is opening more often to increase the revenue that is being generated by facilities like swimming pools.”

Councillor Michael Coyle (SNP, Airdrie South), said: “Many of my constitutents are elderly or disabled and use John Smith Pool for its health and social benefits, often outside peak times.

“We are always being told to do more exercise so reducing the hours of facilities like this makes no sense.”

SNP group leader David Stocks (Airdrie Central) said: “I am obviously disappointed by this decision which was made at budget time. We will be discussing this further at our group meeting on Monday night.”