As revealed in last week’s Reporter, an online campaign to save Ardlui Outdoor Centre has attracted thousands of supporters since West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) announced the centre will shut in June. But council leader Martin Rooney told the Reporter yesterday the closure would not be reversed. The closure is part of £17million budget cuts and is expected to save £110,000-a-year, but those opposing the decision have questioned the council’s claim that the centre – which provides outdoor activities such as mountain biking, abseiling and canoeing to schoolchildren in the area and elsewhere – is making a loss and has to close. Members of the Save Ardlui Outdoor Centre campaign page – which has more than 2,000 supporters – have criticised the council’s Labour administration. A campaign spokesperson said in a statement posted online: “We hope that everyone has been busy over the weekend getting the children to write letters to the council. If not, don’t worry, we suspect this fight will go on for a while yet but the sooner they are bombarded with mail from disappointed children, the better. “We have 1,839 names on the petition now which is amazing. We suspect that this makes not a blind bit of difference to the Labour councillors since not one of them has responded (well apart from Mr Rooney who not only writes his own hype – in the third person – but believes it too. ) One would think that for a part time wage of £33,000 a year he should be accountable and at least answer direct questions from the electorate. Instead he continues to cut and paste nugatory drivel relating to the former SNP council and Messrs Black and Bollan, who at least had the humility to admit they made mistakes. “Even though this campaign in nothing to do with politics, we will take support from whoever is willing to give it and thank the local SNP councillor Johnathan McColl for putting this issue on the agenda for tonight’s [Monday] SNP meeting.” Cllr Rooney blamed the centre closure on the former SNP administration, which he said signed up to a 25-year lease for the facility at £65,000-a-year in 2010 with expectation of attracting hundreds of additional paying customers which was ‘overly ambitious but simply failed to deliver the benefits set out in the business case’. He said he had responded to campaigners but ‘the trouble was they don’t like the answer’ that the centre is going to close following a budget decision in February. He argued this is ‘quite positive’ as it would save the council money, with the council guaranteeing pupils would have the same or better levels of outdoor education – including the possibility of using Ardlui under a new provider. Cllr Rooney added: “We’re quite clear about this and we’ve been quite open, frank and honest with people. The decision isn’t going to change and in a sense it’s irrelevant whether the petition has 1,000 or 10,000 signatures. The decision has been taken that it is not a sustainable model, we’ve set the course and the director is going to get on with the plan of disposing of liabilities.” He said he understood the campaigners’ emotional attachment to the centre and in ideal world it would be kept open, but this was not possible at a time when budgets are being squeezed and the council still has £7million of savings to find. Campaigners claim pupil numbers centre have increased since it was taken over by the council in 2009 and in May and June the Outdoor Education Service at the centre will hit its highest recorded pupil numbers. They have questioned why a council document examining any equalities impact of the ‘closure’ was completed on January 13, before the end of the council’s consultation on budget cuts and the budget decision on February 4 – despite council papers making no mention of a closure, only a ‘review’ of the service. “In response, a WDC spokeswoman said: “The loss-making Ardlui Outdoor Education Centre has been a drain on taxpayers’ money in West Dunbartonshire with losses since 2010 of more than £1.5m. “Those are the facts and that is why the council must stop running the centre. “It is quite possible that another organisation will take over the lease on the centre, and that would still allow P6 and P7 pupils to use the facilities in future. Whatever happens pupils in West Dunbartonshire will still be able to access high-quality outdoor education from a number of other centres in the west of Scotland.” She added that a rise in pupil numbers did not balance out the high costs of renting and maintaining staff at the centre buildings, paying staff, covering insurance and utilities, and upgrading equipment. She said after Ardlui closed, head teachers would continue to independently plan outdoor education for their school and were trusted to be as ‘inclusive as possible’. The council said equalities impact assessments were carried out on all budget options in advance.