East End Councillor and SNP Group Leader John Mason opposed this move.   He said, “Obviously the developers could make more money from shops than from a leisure facility.   That is why the requirement was deliberately built in to the sale agreement and planning permission.   A huge commercial facility like this would be well able to subsidise a facility for the benefit of the local community.

My understanding is that this decision is purely on commercial grounds.   The developers will make more profit and the Council gets extra cash as compensation.

It had not been decided what kind of leisure facility should be put in place.   We probably do have enough cinemas in Glasgow, but an ice rink or something else that we don’t currently have in the City would have been good.   My feeling is that neither the developers nor the Council put much effort into this.”