Willie Haughey, Chairman of Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, has promised the people of Gorbals ‘a community centre they can be proud of.’

He told a public meeting in the St Francis Centre, a £1.3 million conversion from a historic church into a public and community venue, that he would be ‘quite happy’ to buy the nearby Blessed John Duns Scotus church to create a community centre there, should the St Francis Centre become a chapel again.

The Archdiocese of Glasgow are privately considering moving the church congregation back into the St Francis building, currently the community’s only public venue. If that happened, Mr Haughey said, the Duns Scotus church hall would become the basis of the new community centre. 

Gorbals-born Mr Haughey, whose new business HQ is being built in the area, said, ‘It is far from a done deal. A lot of people must be made happy first. I would be delighted to see St Francis open as a chapel again, but not at the expense of the community.’ He also expressed doubts about whether the Archdiocese would decide that it wanted the building, calling maintenance ‘cost-prohibitive’ and ’scary’.

He added, ‘We may be talking about this for nothing.’

The Franciscans sold St Francis to Glasgow City Council (GCC) in 1991 for £1 because they could no longer afford to maintain the imposing listed building, built in 1871.

Hutchesontown City Councillor James Mutter told the meeting that nothing would happen until the Archdiocese had made their decision. He said, ‘It’s up to them. If it is decided that they want St Francis, I think that we will have a better facility in John Duns Scotus.’

He added, ‘St Francis has a tremendous history dating back to the 1860s. It’s a monument to the people of the Gorbals and a part of our heritage.’ 

Councillor Mutter said that he expected the Archdiocese to make a decision within the next fortnight and that if they didn’t want the St Francis building the ’status quo’ would remain.

GCC currently owns and manages the St Francis Centre. Local groups hire it for regular meetings and events.

A spokesperson for GCC said, ‘The Council has been approached by the Catholic Church asking us to consider handing them back the St Francis Centre. We are currently in the middle of looking at all the options within the Gorbals area. At this stage, should we eventually decide to hand back the centre to the church, we believe that the majority of the community groups will easily be accommodated elsewhere in the area. However, we must stress this is all at the discussion stage and nothing concrete has been approved by the Council. Any change will be community driven and community led.’