An arm's-length company set up by Glasgow City Council has been accused of crushing ambitions for a self-built community centre in one of the city's most deprived areas.
LoveMilton has 250 members and employs four staff in the housing scheme, where NHS figures show 99 per cent of the population live within 500 metres of a derelict site. However when the charity's plans to establish a community centre were backed by the Scottish Government's Climate Challenge Fund, members say City Property, a Glasgow City Council arm's length company, blocked the plan by demanding the full market value of £350,000 for the gap site.
When an alternative site was found, which merely needed an access route across three metres of City Property land, the group claims an official from the company threatened to put up a fence to prevent it.
Reverend Christopher Rowe, Church of Scotland minister for Milton and chair of LoveMilton said: "I am raging and I am gutted and cannot understand why City Property cannot see the benefit, not just to the community but even to their own land values, in supporting this project."
Local community member David Murray said: "City Property are totally unaccountable and their greed is killing this deprived community.
However City Property, said talks with the charity were ongoing. A spokesman said: "Negotiations are ongoing - there has been no decision to block access or erect a fence. There is a formal process in place to deal with these types of requests."
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