Great fun up in Shawlands for today’s Olympic Torch Relay and the rain just about held off.
Here’s the first runner kicking off the stretch down Pollokshaws Rd into the wilds of East Renfrewshire.
Seemed very well organised and what an entourage of buses, vans and police! Lots of excited children waving homemade torches and a lucky few who came home with LOCOG-approved-sponsor-branded drums, flags and ribbon sticks.
Glasgow City Council’s Executive Committee has officially approved the Shawlands Town Centre Action Plan. Capital funding of £3.3million will be available to support the action plan over the next five years.
Shawlands Town Centre supports a community of over 21,000 people. The town centre is a shopping and leisure destination for many, with a vibrant selection of bars, restaurants, specialist shops and the biggest concentration of legal and financial services in the south side of the city.
In 2009, Glasgow City Council carried out a major public consultation asking people who use Shawlands Town Centre for their thoughts on how the area could be improved in order to retain its position in the area – a consultation many residents and the Strathbungo Society contributed to. The findings of this consultation generated over 1200 responses.
These findings, as well as discussions with businesses in the area, informed the creation of the Shawlands Town Centre Action Plan. This document will be used as a tool in efforts to ensure that Shawlands continues to be a place where people choose to live and invest and addresses ways in which the town centre can be positioned to become a successful, thriving destination.
The Plan also recommends a number of improvements to place management, public spaces, streets, buildings and the role of business and customers in making Shawlands more successful.
As well as brightening the Bungo through clean-up days and events, the Society is interested in physically improving the green spaces used by all the community. We’ve had a one-man hedge-cutting team operating for a while and keeping hedges in check does make a massive difference to narrow streets but we’d like to do more.
This is one job the committee can’t do alone, however getting involved doesn’t need to be a big commitment.
Here’s some of the things the Society are considering:
We can’t embark on any of this without knowing we have a team of interested volunteers, so what do you think? Fancy spending a few evenings weeding and planting over the next few months? Get in touch via the comments, the contact us form or email chair@strathbungo.co.uk
Hot off the press (well, actually, not quite on the press) a sneak preview of our new-look poster for this year’s Bungo In The Back Lanes.
The posters will be popping up on lamp posts and in shops shortly – get in touch if you want to help distribute them. We love the redesign, thanks to local resident and Society member Niall Walker.
The flyers will be printed this week and it would be great to have extra help to get the word out, especially as the newsletter has already been delivered. Get in touch via the BITBL volunteers page, the comments thread, the contact us page or email chair@strathbungo.co.uk
We’ve had two extra stalls confirmed today – one in our new lane between Vennard and Marywood, selling art by Sarah Barr, and one cosmetics stall , location TBC. Keep an eye on the Bungo In The Back Lanes pages and map for updates.
The more stalls the merrier, so let us know what you’re planning. The Society are still on the hunt for a small freezer we can borrow for the Big Bungo tea garden and also a face painter for the children’s garden.
We’ve had a few false dawns but finally the engineers have packed up their makeshift building site and headed to pastures new.
The clean-up began in earnest on Friday but today the containers went, the piles of building materials and, to sighs of relief all round, the generator – the noise from which has proved a nuisance to many residents, particularly at night time.
We’re hoping that a good clean will follow the tidying away as there’s a lot of dust and accumulated rubbish but it is great to be able to see both sides of the street again and doesn’t the space at the end of the street look huge?!
Concerned residents and the Society will be meeting with Councillors and representatives of LES on Wednesday 6th June to walk the area and discuss the recurring problems with refuse collection.
The aim is to look at some pf the physical problems posed by the built environment and to agree a plan of action with the council to improve the situation. Before the meeting, the Society would like to put together a document which briefly covers the key problems raised with us, together with photographs if possible.
Issues already raised with us which we will include:
Please get in touch via the comments section, contact us, or chair@strathbungo.co.uk. If you have photos that illustrate any of the above that would also be very helpful.
FUNDRAISING BAKE SALE
Rainbow Pre-school
180 Queens Drive
Come along on the 29th of May between 11.30am and 1pm to enjoy and buy our delicious home-made cakes and biscuits.
Tea and coffee, soup and sandwiches will also be served.
Please help us keep our waste to a minimum and bring along your own containers to take any cakes home with you.
This is a fund raising event, so all the money collected will go towards our nursery to help provide fruits, outings and new toys.
This weekend sees the return of Glasgow’s Southside Film Festival from Thursday 17th May – Sunday 20th. There’s a packed list of events and you can get full details and download a copy of the programme on their blog.
Some great events are happening on our doorstep, including a Quiz night at The Bungo to kick things off on Thursday, Peter Mullan’s NEDS screening at The Shed on Friday night and a looped screening at 2, 3 and 4pm of Shipyards, Parks and Greek Thompson at the Queens Park Boat Shed.
There’s tonnes more including discussion groups, workshops, children’s activities and, of course, film screenings – surely something for everyone and a lot of it is free.
What a gorgeous morning for our community clean-up!
A thousand thanks to the many volunteers who turned up to help. This was definitely the first clear-up where we had to ask people to come back later as all our litter-pickers were in use. Over a couple of hours a team of 30-40 people cleaned:
We had to leave some items that were too bulky or had clearly been left for a planned bulk uplift but among the rubbish was:
a mattress, two vacuum cleaners, a TV, a garden’s worth of fencing, an ironing board, a plastic car and at least 40 bin bags or litter. We also gave away 8 window boxes and 15 packets of wildlife-friendly wildflower seeds as well as discussing plans to create more green space along Nithsdale Road and improve what’s already there.
Couldn’t make it but like what you hear? We’re trying to get a crew together of green-fingered or at least green-minded enthusiasts to help bring some of our gardening projects to life. If you’re interested, just comment below or email chair@strathbungo.co.uk
This Thursday is polling day for the local elections. If you are on the electoral register you should have received a polling card which will tell you where to go to vote. Most addresses in Strathbungo vote at Queens Park Parish Church, 170 Queens Drive. The polls are open from 7am-10pm but given the debacle of the general election, it might be wise to try to exercise your democratic right before 9.59pm!
The election is taking place under the Single Tranferable Vote system. The bottom line is that, rather than marking an X next to the candidate of your choice, you list your preferences in numerical order of preference.
Three councillors will be elected for our ward using this system. David Meikle and Khalil Malik are standing for re-election. The candidates for our ward (6 – Pollokshields) are as follows:
FRASER Bill, Scottish Liberal Democrats
KHAN Akhtar, Scottish Anti-Cuts Coalition
MACLEOD Norman, Scottish National Party (SNP)
MALIK Khalil, Scottish National Party (SNP)
MCALEER Patrick, Scottish Green Party
MEIKLE David, Scottish Conservative and Unionist
MORRISON Andrina, Glasgow First
RAJA Hanif, Scottish Labour Party
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