A memorial mass will be held for William McKeeney at 9.30am this Saturday 21st January at St Albert’s Church on Albert Drive.
William was killed last Sunday morning close to his home on Melville Street after a night out in Strathbungo.
The memorial service is open to all who wish to pay their respects and express their condolences to his partner and family.
A number of residents have been waiting to hear the plans for improving the back lanes as part of the reinstatement work once the mine workings have been filled in. Unfortunately there have been no sweeping developments since Christmas so the current situation is:
The council and representatives from heritage bodies have seen the lanes and met with the Society. We have handed over all our research, costings and survey information. We are now awaiting costs for several refurbishment options to be carried out once the works are completed. These include:
As soon as we have the costs, we will be writing to all the residents who share ownership of the back lanes affected to ask them which option they prefer and outlining the advantages and disadvantages of each option. Of course, the Council are not obliged to carry out this work and the funds are only available in this tax year.
Work has begun again in earnest after the Christmas break. As before, we urge residents to be considerate when parking and using the back lanes. In particular, as residents are using the back lanes for vehicular access, do bear this in mind when putting out bins and bulk uplift and, for those driving in the back lanes, be aware of pedestrians and pets who are not used to dodging cars on the cobbles!
The next Society meeting is this Monday, 16th January, in the front dining room at The Bungo on Nithsdale Road, 7.30pm. Do come along if you have any questions, concerns or would like to find out more.
Please note that, due to the festive working arrangements, some days that bins are due to be emptied will change over the Christmas and New Year holiday period.
Bin Colour Date Shown On Calendar New Day & Date
Blue or Green Sunday 25 December Tuesday 27 December
Blue or Green Monday 26 December Wednesday 28 December
Blue or Green Sunday 1 January 2012 Tuesday 3 January 2012
Blue or Green Monday 2 January 2012 Wednesday 4 January 2012
Purple Monday 26 December Saturday 24 December
Purple Monday 2 January 2012 Saturday 31 December
Visit www.glasgow.gov.uk/recycling or Phone 0141 287 9700 for more information.
We’re also in touch with the council to get Nithsdale Road litter bins emptied and fly-tipping picked up.
Southside Film Festival is back to celebrate Christmas with the Muppets! Don’t miss The Muppets Christmas Carol this coming Sunday 18 December at 5.30pm in The Shed, fun for kids and grown up kids alike.
After the success of Southside’s first ever zombie walk, we were going to have a muppet walk but decided there were enough people in fancy dress at this time of year. So dressing as a muppet to the screening is encouraged but optional!
Get your tickets now from Youngs’ Interesting Books, Skirving St, Shawlands or online at Tickets Scotland for some good old fashioned Muppet Christmas fun
The Muppet Christmas Carol (U), 1992, 85 mins
The Shed
Sunday 18 December, 5:30pm
Doors will open at 4.45pm with the screening at 5.30pm.
Ticket Prices:
Glasgow City Council last year carried out a major public consultation asking people who use Shawlands Town Centre for their thoughts on how the area could be improved. The findings of this consultation, which generated 1240 responses, are published in the report below.
Link:
Following on from the consultation a Draft Shawlands Town Centre Action Plan was developed.
The Plan is intended to:
The Council invites you to support the Town Centre Action Plan and become involved. Please follow the link to the Draft Action Plan and its supporting documents and tell us what you think.
You can comment by:-
Phone 0141 287 6094 / 6097
Post to Shawlands Town Centre Action Plan , DRS, Glasgow City Council, FREEPOST SC05293 Glasgow G2 1BR.
If you would like to chat about the issues of the Town Centre with other Shawlands customers, businesses and residents you can also do this via our partners at Shawlands Business Association Facebook.
A drop-in event at Langside Hall has been organised from 10.00am to 9.00pm on January 23rd to discuss the plan. Feel free to drop in and have a chat.
The Christmas lights are lit, advent calendars open and we’re enjoying the first snow of the winter. Christmas in a big, Victorian city always has a magical feeling and this time of year really gives Glasgow a chance to show off. It’s amazing what’s going on on our doorstep – you could easily attend a festive event every day between now and Christmas Day!
One of my favourite events last year was the intimate one-man performance of A Christmas Carol at Gusto And Relish. Atmospheric, cosy and mesmerising. Iain Smith, artist & actor, will be performing at the cafe on the evening of Thursday 15th December. Tickets are £6.00. They will be serving coffee, teas, hot chocolate, homemade sausage rolls and mince pies. You can buy tickets at the cafe. If you missed it last year, I’d urge you to go along this year.
Looking for family-friendly events? There’s a Santa’s grotto on the next few weekends in Shawlands Arcade and a Victorian Christmas event a little further afield at Holmwood House this and next weekend. Pollok House has its now traditional teddy bear’s Christmas and children can make an appointment to discuss that all important list with Mrs Claus.
And there’s fun for all the family at local pantos, including Snow White at Queens Park Church (7th-10th Dec 7pm. Tickets £6/£7 423 6037) and Hansel and Gretel and Little Ulla at the Citizens. The Southside Film Festival makes a seasonal return with a special screening of The Muppets’ Christmas Carol on Sunday 18th December at 3pm at The Shed. If you can’t make Gusto’s A Christmas Carol you could try the National Theatre of Scotland’s puppetry version at Film City in Govan. 
Throughout the Festive season, The Burrell Collection is extending its free family film screenings. Every day the museum is open they will be showing a family film, for free, from 2-4pm. They kick things off on December 18th with It’s A Wonderful Life and end on January 8th with The Sword In The Stone but there’s also a chance to see The Wizard Of Oz on the 30th and a whole host of other festive favourites. Space is limited but there is no advance ticketing, just pick up a ticket at the info desk.
There’s also an intriguing event taking place on Albert Drive on Sunday 11th. The Albert Drive Project has been developed with contemporary performance students from The Conservatoire of Scotland (formerly RSAMD). The event starts at Tramway at 1pm and the audience can view and participate in various events staged along the length of Albert Drive. It’s a free event, will last about two hours and aims to include all the community in a unique arts event.
And what about all that Christmas shopping? There’s a great choice of local shops and, as we’ve seen with Lady Drawers, if you don’t use them you will lose them. An afternoon in Shawlands got most of my shopping polished off last week but there’s more opportunities to shop at The Shed’s special Christmas Afternoon Twee events tomorrow and Sunday 11th December.
Two Strathbungo Society events on the horizon, first our informal December meeting and Christmas gathering is going to take place on the 12th. We’re planning on convening at the new Bungo bar/restaurant on Nithsdale Road which is scheduled to open next Saturday. They are cracking on apace so fingers crossed! And, of course, there’s the annual Bungo At The Bells Hogmanay event. Once again it’s outside 52 Marywood Square. We’ll be carrying out the usual procession beforehand, kicking off at 11.30, before congregating at the end of Marywood and Moray Place at 11.45. There’ll be mulled wine, mince pies, a big countdown and mu
sic to bring in 2012.
Let us know if you know of any local events we’ve missed. Any carol concerts, Christmas fairs or fundraisers going on on our doorstep? And if you go to any of the shows and events, tell us what you think.
I know we’ve already posted once about the Council’s consultations on the new city plan and open spaces but here’s a reminder that you’ve got just a couple of weeks to send in your views. The local libraries all have postcard packs that can be picked up for free, filled in and sent back with your views. As ever with these things, if you don’t contribute now, don’t complain later! A few of the issues got me thinking:
Plans to expand conservation areas and create new ones. Nice idea in principle but when enforcement of the existing rules is almost non-existent due to staff shortages and cutbacks and the plans contained in conservation area appraisals aren’t been carried through, wouldn’t it be better to concentrate on existing areas before expanding?
New high-speed rail link on Airdrie-Bathgate line. If there’s money for this, why not use it to complete the mothballed airport rail link project? Or how about the long-discussed crossrail scheme? It’s already easy to get in and out of the centre of Glasgow, what’s not so good is getting across town, from south to east or from east to west.
Cycle routes. Plans to extend them along green corridors are great but what about the not-so-green and all the cycle routes that stop dead for no apparent reason? Why not make use of areas like back lanes as pleasant walking/cycling routes?
And as for green spaces, can we look beyond our fantastic parks? What about greening up residential areas, particularly those with wide pavements and tenement properties without gardens. More trees on streets like Nithsdale Road and small green spaces on under-utilised ground such as the area around Sammy Dow’s and on Nithsdale St would really help to make the area more visually appealing and healthier.
But what do you think? It couldn’t be easier to respond. Get along to the library if you can, or read the documents online. The closing date for responses is December 12th. You’ll find all the documents here: http://www.glasgowconsult.co.uk/glasgow/KMS/dmart.aspx?strTab=PublicDMartCurrent&NoIP=1
Not quite feeling festive yet? Well, we can’t magic up snow or a Christmas tree to rival the local monkey puzzle, but why not head down to your local Christmas lights switch-on?
It takes place this Friday, 2nd December on Abbot St outside the Co-op from 6pm. There’s festive music, mince pies and usually a special visit from a certain someone.
Why not combine it with an afternoon of local Christmas shopping and a meal out, all within easy reach of Strathbungo?
STOP PRESS. A little bird tells me this Saturday is Shawland’s Primary’s Christmas Fair. Not sure of timings but events like this are normally 10-2 at the school. Hopefully they’ll have signs out on the day, or if you’re a Shalwands parent, post a comment on this thread and let us know!
Representatives from The Strathbungo Society, Shawlands and Strathbungo Community Council and one of our city councillors, Irfan Rabbani, had their second site meeting with Donald Linn today to discuss the plans for repair and reinstatement of the back lanes after the ground consolidation works are complete.
As the lanes are privately owned any decision must be agreed upon by residents. This is a very rare opportunity to get a substantial improvement to a publicly-accessible part of the area without residents incurring significant costs. The Society is doing all it can to represent your concerns and find some resolution to an issue residents have been trying to resolve for nearly 25 years.
There is, as many of you will have heard, some money set aside for repairing damage and £200,000 from the Council to improve the condition of the back lanes. This money is dependent upon the work being complete by the spring. This gives us quite a tight deadline to work towards. So, what is happening?
Donald Linn and the council are now getting cost estimates for four different methods of improving the back lanes. Once we have costs, the Society will put all the options and pros and cons into a letter to be sent to all residents affected by any potential upgrading works. The costs will be per square metre and the focus is on the back lanes that have been worked on or used as routes for machinery – i.e. Regent Park/Nithsdale and Regent Park/Queen Square plus the perpendicular lanes running behind Pollokshaws Rd and Moray Place between Nithsdale Rd and Queen Square. Getting costs per square metre means we can also look at the feasibility of improving other sections of back lanes.
The aim is to have costings within two weeks, send out letters to residents by Christmas and, having received their responses, begin the tendering process for the preferred option and arrange planning applications if necessary by mid-January. The work should be completed by April and we can celebrate a Bungo In The Back Lanes on June the 23rd with repaired, easier to use and accessible lanes!
Your comments and questions are very much appreciated. Get in touch via the contact form on the blog, or just post a comment here.
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