Small business fears for the future

May 4 2011 by Kenny Smith, Rutherglen Reformer

A HIGHLY REGARDED Rutherglen out of school care club fear they could be forced out of business due to escalating council hall rates.

Cathkin Out of School Care say they have been hit by dramatic increases in the cost of hiring the Cathkin Community Hall over the past year.

And the club – which was given an excellent report by the Care Commission in July 2010 – now fear they could go to the wall unless something is done about their ever-increasing costs.

Janice McCrohon, who runs the club with Pauline Mulhearn, said: “The council keep putting their hall rates up at a time the government are talking about helping small businesses.

“We had a 30 per cent increase one year, followed by a 25 per cent increase the next.

“When we started off, it was £12.45 to hire the full hall, but now the hall has been split in two and we’re having to pay £17.70 to use just half of that.

“The hall isn’t in use that often – surely they could speak to some people on an individual basis, when it’s something small like ourselves?

“Myself and Pauline are putting in something like 50 hours a week, and we’re only taking home £300 in wages each month, so we’re hardly making a fortune.

“When we started out we based our business plan on the hall let figures from before, but the more they increase, the harder it becomes for us to keep running, and now there’s no more room for manoeuvre.

“A lot of the parents whose children we look after come to us because we’re affordable, and if we can’t continue there’s nowhere else they can go.

“We’re a small business but we’re going to go out of business if it goes on much longer. It’s crazy, but we won’t take it lying down.”

Rutherglen South SNP councillor Anne Higgins has taken up the group’s case, and has spoken to council officials with a view to trying to help the out of school care group.

She said: “I’m spoken with officials who have said they would have a look into trying to see if they can do something to help Mrs McCrohon.

“I know they take in several autistic children, which not a lot of care clubs do, and one of the children even comes from Hamilton because there is nothing similar there.

“Hopefully something can be done.”

A South Lanarkshire Council spokesman said: “The council agreed to implement a new scale of charges for community letting taking effect from April 1 2010. These new charges standardise letting prices across the authority and are based on the size of the area used and the type of letting activity taking place.

“Where halls are used for business purposes these are considered to be commercial ventures and are charged at the fixed commercial rate for the accommodation used.”