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Spartinios

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Public facilities update

#UnlockTheLets

A factual public update on pitch access, unused capacity, and fair use of council-operated sports facilities in East Renfrewshire.

Why this matters

This is about community access, not just one club's frustration

Spartinios, like many small clubs in East Renfrewshire, has struggled to secure reliable pitch letting within facilities provided by East Renfrewshire Council and operated by East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure Trust.

The recurring concern is simple: some facilities appear fully booked on paper yet are left unused in practice. We have asked both the Council and the Trust to record utilisation properly and enforce their own conditions of let, which say that pitches left unused on consecutive occasions should be released to other teams.

To date, we have seen very little visible progress. Because these are public assets, we believe access, utilisation, and allocation decisions should stand up to scrutiny and be applied consistently across the whole estate.

How bookings work

Pitchbooking

Ad-hoc bookings using whatever is available.

Regular lets

Allocations made through a ballot process for recurring use.

What happened at St Luke's

  1. During autumn and winter, Spartinios booked St Luke's on Mondays from 8 to 9pm through Pitchbooking and paid the full pitch rate, including £35.58 on 12 January 2026.
  2. ERCL then moved the slot into Regular Lets and split the pitch into two half-pitch allocations.
  3. Spartinios entered the ballot and was awarded Half A from 9 February 2026.
  4. Half B was repeatedly not used by the successful club and kept reappearing on Pitchbooking, so Spartinios booked it to ensure the pitch was actually used. Since then, the Trust has been charging two halves at £29.13 x 2 rather than the previous full-pitch let of £35.58.
  5. The Monday 9 to 10pm slot at St Luke's has also not been used from January 2026 up to 31 March 2026, despite not being available to let to other users.

Where things are now

We raised a formal complaint with ERCL. The final response said that Half B's regular let had not yet begun, that utilisation rules did not apply during that period, and that there were no plans to change pricing.

That response also closed the complaints process and directed us to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. We have now taken the matter to the SPSO.

We will continue to share factual updates as the process moves forward. This page is intended to keep the public record in one place.

What we are asking for

  • Transparency on pitch utilisation and no-shows across the estate.
  • Consistent enforcement of utilisation and return rules wherever lets are repeatedly left unused.
  • A fair and efficient allocation process that makes the best use of public sports facilities.

Civic context

Scotland's next local council elections are scheduled for 6 May 2027. Long before that date arrives, communities should be able to see that public sports facilities are being managed fairly, efficiently, and transparently.

Correspondence and evidence

The document trail behind the issue

The correspondence below is shown in order. Document 5 is featured inline, and every document can also be opened fullscreen or in a new tab.

Document 1

St Luke's Monday 8 to 9 booking correspondence

4 pages

Email correspondence covering the original Monday evening access to St Luke's and the practical booking position around that slot.

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Document 2

Formal complaint submission

7 pages

The complaint raised about utilisation, allocation, and the impact that unused public bookings have on clubs trying to secure reliable space.

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Document 3

Stage 1 response from ERCL

1 page

The Stage 1 response provided by ERCL to Spartinios' formal complaint before the matter was escalated further.

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Document 4

Stage 2 escalation submission

2 pages

The Stage 2 escalation submitted to challenge the handling of unused lets, pricing consistency, and transparency around allocation decisions.

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Document 5

Stage 2 response from ERCL

2 pages

The final complaint response from East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure Trust, after which the matter was taken to the SPSO.

This response was provided by a senior officer responding on behalf of a public body

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How you can help

Ask your councillors to push for a fairer system

If you support fair access to public sports facilities, use WriteToThem to contact your local councillors. Ask them to seek transparency on utilisation, consistent enforcement of return rules, and a fair allocation process across ERCL's estate.

Write to your councillorsOpen WriteToThemShare this section

#UnlockTheLets @ERCL

Suggested message

I'm writing to ask you to look into how East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure Trust monitors and manages pitch utilisation across publicly provided sports facilities. In a period of high demand, communities need confidence that unused lets are reclaimed consistently, that pricing is fair when the same full pitch is effectively being used, and that anonymised utilisation data is published so the public can see whether facilities are being managed efficiently. Please ask for transparency on utilisation, consistent enforcement of return rules across the estate, and a fair allocation process. For further details, please see https://spartinios.co.uk/unlock-the-lets

Adapt the wording in your own voice. The strongest messages are calm, factual, and focused on the wider community impact.

Glasgow Times front page featuring Spartinios and the headline 'Our Club Might Fold'
A reminder that pressure on access to facilities has real consequences for community clubs and the families they serve.
Glasgow Times article page covering Spartinios' concerns about access to local facilities
Glasgow Times continuation page showing further coverage of Spartinios and facility access

Appendix

FOI booking data from 2024 to 2025

We have also added historic booking information for 1 August 2024 to 10 June 2025 that was previously obtained under a Freedom of Information request.

The dataset was provided with very little context. That means it should be read carefully, but it still raises important questions about concentration of access, how cancellations are recorded, and how payment status is being used in system reports.

Download the appendix

What the data shows

Access is concentrated

Access appears to be heavily concentrated in a relatively small number of clubs.

By booking count, the top clubs are:

  • St Cadocs Youth Club: 1,077 bookings
  • Carolside Sports Club: 717
  • Busby AFC: 693
  • Giffnock Soccer Centre: 592
  • Stamperland FC: 549
  • ERSDA: 516

By total hours booked, the top are:

  • St Cadocs Youth Club: about 2,159 hours
  • ERSDA: about 2,060 hours
  • Busby AFC: about 1,820 hours
  • Giffnock Soccer Centre: about 1,381 hours
  • Carolside Sports Club: about 1,192 hours

Cancellations are barely visible

Only 10 rows are marked cancelled or inactive in the system record, and all 10 are OLM FC.

That strongly suggests either cancellations are not being recorded consistently, the system relies on no-show reporting rather than cancellations, or the export logic does not surface cancellation markers reliably.

Unpaid status needs explaining

The payment-status breakdown in the export is surprisingly high for unpaid-type records:

  • Paid - Stripe: 4,728
  • Unpaid: 792
  • Unpaid - Invoiced: 145
  • Unpaid - Missed payment: 5
  • Not Charged: 262

Looking only at bookings up to 10 June 2025, there are 695 unpaid-type bookings, which is about 11.7 percent of all bookings in that period.

That may not mean debt. It may simply reflect billing in arrears or consolidated invoicing, but it absolutely needs explaining.