If you wish to comment on this planning application and did not receive a neighbour notification from the Council, you must do so by tomorrow – Friday 19th October. You can send your comments by email.
Read more about the application and how to comment (plus a lively debate about the application in the comments section) on the blog post further down the page: https://bungoblog.com/general/backpackers-hostel-on-marywood-square/
The issue has also been added to the agenda for the AGM on Tuesday. Residents who received a notification letter have until Tuesday 30th October to comment.
I hope that the negative comments made by the owner re buying drugs at the property being a positive thing in his eyes were minuted and will be passed on with the society’s objections he obviously meant this as a joke but it seems to sum up his and his accompanying friends attitude to our objections which had nothing to do with homeless or drug takers in the property.
I think backpacker owners should always sue for libel especially when willsmith appears to quite thick (mince) and unable to follow a basic thread?
After reading the posts so far feel I need to take a breath before writing lol. Firstly before I make my points I would like to say I feel some peoples figures are getting a bit carried away, some of the comments I have read are a bit much/rude. I don’t think people would be talking to each other face to face quiet the same way, though a good debate is needed on this matter. I have been living in strathbungo for the past 25 years as much as I love the sound of a nice clean friendly backpackers (as someone who uses them myself) I really do not see this being the right type of property/area for a backpackers at all.
1) The Parking Argument – I really don’t see what that has to do with anything, or really anyone, being able or not being able to park directly outside your house is just a bit controlling for my liking, having to walk a bit up or down the street or even to another street to your car or home, though it may be annoying(especially in the winter months) is still far more comfortable than getting a bus or train. A road is for anyone to use from anywhere and feel we have to stop this type of debate and keep to the debate of building use.
2) Noise Level – Lets say Alison that your Backpackers is opened and attracts the type of backpackers you say you will be wanting to stay this still does little to nothing to stop the type of noise level that will be made by 20 od people. Since the smoking ban is now in place in public areas there will be a high number of people smoking out the front or back, as with most bars,club, backpackers ect. This is a good place to have a chat and get to know each other, the problem is that this type of noise on a very quiet street at say 12 am or 2 am is amplified and travels up or down the street by the echo on the buildings, Anyone who has had neighbours have a garden party or been making any loud noises will vouch for this. The idea of this type of noise in a residential area like strathbungo on most evenings (not occasional like a garden party) throughout the year and more so in the summer months when there is no cold to bare is just a horrible thought. If you have or have had young children yourself am sure you would hate the idea of having to keep putting your children to bed again and again due to the noise, and how the most placid person would be pushed to breaking point. Also keeping with noise level, people heading back from a night out. Say for example with the Shed just 10 mins walking distance away the noise of a few large groups or all of the backpackers coming back at that same time (in my experience people tend to share a room in a backpackers with a good few people they know or rent the whole room out) would cause a massive noise problem for neighbours on the quiet street not to say other streets that they may pass through. Even the quietest people can loss sense of how loud they are being with a good few drinks and company around them. As someone who lived on Minard RD beside the Shed for a few years I know this sadly all to well, also lets remember (in the summer months especially) people don’t tend to be in a rush to head home. Now this behaviour is perfectly normal and healthy and have done it myself many many times but once again it comes back to where it will be happing, the number of people doing it and that it wont be occasional noise but a potentially frequent problem of high noise level as the Shed is opened till 2 am Thursday to Sundays. This is just one idea of what could happen. I am of course not saying there would only be problems if people went to the Shed, but you get the idea.
3) After 12 years/Alison/the owner of the building – Most of us are planning to live here for many years to come. Lets say in 12 years or until Alison leaves the bushiness then what will be left will be a ready to go backpackers/cheap accommodation guest house. This is when things could go very down hill no matter what good ideas were put in place to start with. Am sure the person who first opened up the Queens Park Hotel didn’t see it becoming the type of Hotel it turned into by the end. Although this could be said for any bushiness but once again it comes down to the area and the neighbourhood feeling that is much loved by all who live here and like myself are only to aware of the decline of much of the other parts of Shawlands. The people that the Queens park hotel attracted were intimidating. Many who were recovering or none recovering junkies and alcoholics, which had nothing to do with an organisation putting them their (as was brought up in the last meeting) but my word of month knowing they would get a cheap bed for the night and not be bothered. It also was a place where vulnerably people who were trying to sort there life’s were dragged back into their old ways of living. Many of these places still exist in the city and the idea of one opening up in Strathbungo (if not for years to come) fills me with dread and sadness. My friend worked as a housekeeper for a while in the QP Hotel so I know its not just gossip.
4) The Last meeting – I was at the Strathbungo meeting last week and and have two points to make about it. Firstly, I think the way that the owner of the property did not make clear who they were and instead commented on support of the backpackers (till all was made clearer by the gentleman) was a bit of an under handed way of conducting things and didn’t do anything to ease the other people in anyway. Secondly, maybe more importantly the gentleman did actually not have to be there nor did he have to say who he was and I do think his heart was in the right place. Maybe he really does think It would be a good idea for the area to have a backpackers though living next to it is a different story.
5) To Alison – After all that has been said by myself and many others who you have message back to you would you not find it a horrible and uncomfortable place to live and work knowing that so many people in the area are totally against the idea of the backpackers at No. 23. I understand its a life dream and sound like maybe even one of the ways I would spend my retirement but not at the expense of a nice quiet street with many people who have lived here for many years and people who wish to live here for many years to come. From what I understand from what the owner was saying at the meeting he feels his hands are tied and must go ahead with the plans due to being bad business eutectic other wise. I totally understand his position, but he will not be living, working and putting (as far as I know) his cash into this you will.
To finish please may I ask for you to re think your proposal and to save the stress and efforts that the Strathbungo residents will go through to stopping No. 23 becoming a backpackers.
I don’t really think that the debacle in relation to the backpackers hostel reflects well on the spirt outlined below. I will follow this with a new vision of the place we live and it is not quite so nice. Please contribute if you wish!!
But to residents, Strathbungo is not simply a few streets containing houses of historical and architectural interest to passing architectural students and affectionardos. It is a healthy, vibrant, safe and stunningly beautiful place to live and for some, to work.
Strathbungo plays host to our families, our friends and our community. It is where we live, where we eat, where we shop and where we socialize. It is where we take our dogs for walks, where we garden and where we relax.
Strathbungo is home to students and university professors; to medics and firefighters; to entrepreneurs and to civil servants; artists and craftsmen. It is home to Scottish, English, Welsh, Irish, American, Italian, Lao, Thai and Indonesian and others. It is home to Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Bahai’s.
It is a microcosm of much of what we find interesting and delightful in the world.
Strathbungo belongs collectively to the residents and the Strathbungo Society attempts to promote a community spirit and a community cohesiveness that will distinguish Strathbungo from other areas in Glasgow and Scotland not just in its architectural significance, but also in its strong community spirit. The Bungo Blog is the official website of the Strathbungo
HOWEVER WE DON’T WANT ANY BACKPACKERS OR ANYONE WITH SOCIAL PROBLEMS!!!
Social problems are everywhere and come in all sorts of forms the idea that there will be none due to a backpackers not being built is simply not the case.
Backpackers are adventurers who want to try and break away from the stagnant feel a traditionalist holiday can sometimes have. It is a good way of travelling on a budget with your friends around you.
However a backpacker has no roots or concerns (for the most part) about the area or people of the area they are staying in, and really why should they. However though the list you made above (“students and university professors; to medics and fire-fighters; to entrepreneurs and to civil servants; artists and craftsmen”) have made this there home and do care about the area and people around them! Backpackers,or the potential other people that could stay that I mentioned in my last comment do not (for the most part again) have ” family or friends in the community” nor is it where they ” live”, socialize”, take their dogs for walks”, have “gardens” or “relax”.
Their is nothing that will changed my mind to thinking that this is the right use for this building, and will never understand why you think so strongly that this is the right use for the property.
and so the effects are being felt already, i heard today that one of the properties which has been up for sale for ages in Marywood Square has had a conditional offer of sale, the conditional offer being that they will only complete the sale if the Hostel does not go ahead.
So there you have it, the first implication of this i’ll founded idea and a negative effect even before the planning appplication is declined.