I believe I was born in 1949 in a maternity home in Marywood Square. Does anyone have any information as to its location?
Category: Uncategorised (Page 1 of 4)
Crime in Queen Square
The Society has been made aware of a recent spate of criminal acts in and around Queen Square, mostly car break-ins, but also an episode of serious fire-raising behind the tenements.
Queen Square residents report several car break-ins in the last month. These are seemingly without violence, suggesting the use of unlocking devices, although surprisingly without much being taken, and no thefts of cars themselves. Several incidents have been reported to the police. We are unsure if other streets have been affected also.
Furthermore, this week someone set fire to bins behind both Pollokshaws tenements at the entrance to Queen Square, requiring prompt action from the fire brigade to prevent a more serious incident. We are also grateful to the council for prompt action in replacing the bins.
As a result, Strathbungo resident (and former councillor) Rhiannon Spear has requested a meeting with councillor Zen Ghani and a police representative to discuss the issue. The meeting is on Saturday 1st October 2022 at 11am in the den at The Bungo, Nithsdale Road. If you have similar experiences, you are welcome to attend. This is not a Society meeting, but we hope to report any outcome.
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Please do your bit to ensure the lanes are in good nick for Bungo in the Back Lanes by coming along for a half hour on Sunday 12th June between 11 and 1. Litter pickers, bin bags and high viz vests will be available outside Zinfandel on Nithsdale Road. Hope to see you there, but if you can’t make it could you have a look at your own stretch and spruce it up for the occasion?
It is no longer acceptable to have the Council spraying chemicals to kill the vegetation along the lanes, but we do need enough clear space for our stalls and our visitors. If you are willing to help with a more natural approach to a little vegetation control, we would love to hear from you. Contact Imelda Devlin on 07598 941168 or email: brighterbungo@strathbungo.co.uk
New residents begin here …….or if you need a reminder …..
Bungo in the Back Lanes will finally be returning to Strathbungo after a 2 year hiatus. This year’s event will be Saturday 18th June, 1-5pm.
BitBL began in 2000 with the aim to bring our lanes to life. We don’t have community facilities within our boundaries but there are almost two acres of back lanes there for us to play with or play on, two acres of performance area, music venues, playground, exhibition space and dance floor! Bungo in the Back Lanes encourages everyone to open up their back gates, set out their stall and sell their wares – whether it’s home baking, barbecued burgers, craft goods, or junk from their attics (which becomes someone else’s treasure). Just set up your own table and get going. Or, if you don’t set up your own stall, take a wander round the lanes yourself and enjoy the variety that will be on offer.
The Strathbungo Society is responsible for the organisation, and arranges for two bars to be run (one in Marywood/Queen, the other in Queen/Regent Park, though the latter may not happen this year due to garden alterations) plus courtesy of Southside Sessions, a live music venue giving a wide variety of local performers a platform for entertainment. This has in the past been supplemented by local residents who have hosted their own live events. The Society also organises a Tombola where you can try your luck and win from a host of prizes, a community zone with local voluntary organisations, and its own stall with Society merchandising.
Visitors – BitBL is a major community event which welcomes people from outwith Strathbungo. If you have not visited before, the Strathbungo back lanes are mainly cobbled, with generally uneven surfaces and contain many potholes. While people walk along them the whole time, there are many potential hazards in terms of tripping and stumbling, so you need to have suitable footwear and look where you put your feet. It is stallholders who are responsible for ensuring that any products they sell meet Health and Safety requirements, especially if providing food.
But Bungo in the Back Lanes is primarily about having fun and getting to know your neighbours and your neighbourhood. Come rain or hopefully shine, take part and have fun!
Can I help?
Absolutely. You might not want to run your own stall but you can still be part of the day. The event is run by a small team of volunteers, and we are grateful for all the help we can get, especially on the day.
Early on Saturday, there’s a team (no, “The A-Team” [Ed]) involved in doing the set up, sorting out gazebos, society stalls, and other infrastructure needed. By early, we are talking 9am, usually starting on the Marywood/Queen lane at the Pollokshaws Road end.
There’s always need for help staffing society stalls. Can you sell a raffle ticket? Then you could be a volunteer on the Tombola. Sell a ticket, give out a prize. There will always be someone to show you the system. Or you could help sell Society merchandise. Or if you have unwanted christmas presents, bottles of drink or other bric-a-brac you could donate it as prizes.
We also need stewards, to help with enquiries and assist people to enjoy the day or direct them to other services if needed (like our first aiders). Again, you will be briefed and have a hi-viz vest so that people know who you are, but it doesn’t stop you walking and enjoying the lanes yourself.
And at the end, there’s the take down. That’s the opposite of set up, when the event has ended. How quick can you dismantle a gazebo, without breaking it of course? Contact bitbl@strathbungo.co.uk if you want to help out.
Whose permission do I need to set up a table?
No-one’s, if it’s in or behind your back garden. It doesn’t cost anything. We are very grateful for core grant support from Glasgow City Council, to meet essentials costs like insurance without which the event could not run. But we ask stallholders, except for children or charities, to contribute 10% of their earnings on the day as a donation to the Strathbungo Society (the Society is a registered charity).
Stewards will issue an envelope for donations to all stallholders which they will collect at the end of the afternoon, or they can be returned to the Strathbungo Society – receipts will be issued on request.
If you are setting up a stall this year, please email us at bitbl@strathbungo.co.uk so we can update the map for the event.
Eating
Residents selling home-made produce (e.g. curries, cakes or biscuits, whatever your secret recipe is) also need to be aware of basic hygiene and food safety.
The most important rules are:
- you must advise people of possible allergens in your food, perhaps with a sign or chalkboard on your stall
- you must have suitable facilities for hand washing and for washing equipment between uses (for residents, these can be in your house)
- you should have a sanitiser spray available for disinfecting your food surfaces; hand sanitisers are also a good idea
- where appropriate, you need to be able to store food at low temperature (e.g. if you are cooking pizzas using fresh toppings) – cool boxes are allowed but you must ensure they are kept cold enough
- for hot food, you must cook or reheat food at the correct temperature
To find out more about what is needed, please refer to the following documents provided by Glasgow City Council online:-
- New Food Business Pack or Allergen chart – although written for food businesses, the principles remain sound for residents selling home-made food
We notify the Environmental Health team at the Council of the event so it is possible that they will inspect food stalls at some point during the afternoon.
See our food safety page.
And drinking..
As noted, the Society runs two bar areas, hosted by local businesses. Laws on the sale of alcohol insist that every bar has to apply to the Council licensing court for a licence for the day. There is no general licence for the event and anyone wanting to sell alcohol would need to go through Council for their own licence. Licences are required to be displayed in all bar areas, and it is a condition of the licence that the bar area requires to be fenced and stewarded to ensure the boundaries are respected and ensure that people are not going beyond the bar area with alcohol. And as a customer, please help by sticking to the licencing rules.
More info
There’s more on our dedicated BitBL pages.
Festive Bungo Greetings.
A 20% discount and free delivery for all residents on locally designed and produced cards. Simply enter the code BUNGO1 when prompted in the check out to receive your discount!
Regards,
Brian
Queen Square
With gas prices hitting £4 a therm and the price cap at 70p a therm you might be wondering how you can improve the insulation of your home in Strathbungo. Loco Home Retrofit CIC is a new local community benefit co-op who are trying to help communities insulate.
Their launch event is at 19:30 on Wednesday 1st December https://bit.ly/loco_launch
The Strathbungo Eco Group is excited about working with Loco Home Retrofit to achieve transformative improvements in insulation and energy in Strathbungo while preserving and maintaining our wonderful architecture.
Disclaimer: In their formative stages Loco Home Retrofit have helped Strathbungo Eco Group with information events and informal advice. Various Eco Group members have benefited from professional advice (sometimes at a discount). Tom Nockolds, a Director of Loco Home Retrofit, is also a Strathbungo Eco Group and Strathbungo Society Committee member.
As many of you will know, Brighter Bungo is our quarterly clean-up by residents of the lanes in the Bungo. It has taken place for many years, organised by the Society in cooperation with Cleansing officers from Glasgow City Council. Our aim is to keep the environment in Strathbungo cleaner, brighter and enjoyable for all.
One crucial element has been that volunteers are covered by the Council’s Public Liability Insurance (PLI). Public liability insurance protects the Society against compensation claims and legal costs if volunteers are injured or property is damaged. In all our efforts over the years, we have never needed to use it, thankfully. But like all insurance, it needs to be there.
Now we have been informed that the Council will not provide this back up. We think their position is contradictory. They want volunteers to play their part to “Make Glasgow Greener”. But as an organisation that has played this role for years, our hands are now tied by the Council withdrawing the insurance that makes it possible. We are not alone, as community groups all over the city are finding that they are in the same position.
The irony is that, as community groups now needing to take out PLI policies, we would do so by applying to the Council for grants to pay the premiums! Will we all be financed to make the payments? And will that be more that the Council would pay for an overall policy?
We are in correspondence with the Council about this.
You are invited to join a meeting of the Strathbungo Eco-Group: Connecting and Protecting. Examples of existing wildlife and habitats in Strathbungo and a discussion of what we can do to make them even better.
The meeting will be on Zoom.
When: Jun 8, 2021 20:00 Glasgow
Register in advance for the meeting:
Register here
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Here’s an update on plans to replace the shopping centre.
If you want to join the live interactive online event to discuss the plans, it’s on 9th June 2021 at 7pm. You need to register to attend, at www.shawlandsarcade.com
You can contact them at enquiries@shawlandsarcade.com or on 08009875990.
And if you were curious what it used to look like in days past, over to PastGlasgow on Twitter:
There is also something of what might have been had the expressway been built down Kilmarnock Road on BygoneBungo. There were even plans to put Kimarnock Road into a tunnel.
For those who read about the idea of a walking and cycling path behind the Crossmyloof Resource Centre, to provide a direct route from Moray Place to Crossmyloof Station, here is the response from the relevant Council department.
The original proposal and comments from the community are in the earlier post, Active Travel in Strathbungo – The Crossmyloof Resource Centre path
OFFICIAL
MESSAGE SENT ON BEHALF OF
PROPERTY & LAND SERVICESDear Councillor
I refer to the enquiry received regarding the creation of an active travel path along the route of the rail line at Crossmyloof and traversing across the north of the site of the former care home (please refer to the attached plans).
On the face of it, the proposal would appear to have some merit. While there is existing access for pedestrian and cycles from Moray Place to the intersection of Titwood Road and Minard Road by means of turning left into Carswell Gardens and then turning right into Titwood Road, a path across the back of the care home site would be more direct and would shorten the journey. It would also be in line with Council policy on promoting Active Travel. However it would also inevitably mean a reduction in the likely capital receipt for the sale of the former care home and the investigation into the planning and viability of the path would also likely cause delay in securing a sale. While it is not possible to quantify how much the reduction might be, or what delay may occur, I think it fair to say that there would undoubtedly be some reduction in the capital receipt.
In addition, the proposed route of the path uses the lane to the north of 45 Carswell Gardens. This lane is in private ownership and is not adopted. Therefore in order to use the section of lane to the north of 45 Carswell Gardens for the Active Travel Route we would need to obtain permission of the owner of the land including permission to remove the section of wall. It is also very likely that the owners of the houses on the western side of Carswell Gardens that back on to the lane will have vehicular access rights to use the lane including the section to the north of 45 Carswell Gardens. If we were looking to restrict cars from using that section of the lane then agreement would need to be reached with each of the individual house owners on that point. Such a restriction would make it awkward for vehicles to get in and out and would likely lead to cars reversing onto Titwood Road. If a restriction on cars wasn’t required we would need to consider a path design that would accommodate both pedestrian and car users.
Clearly there are a number of issues that would need to be addressed in order to make the proposed Active Travel Route a reality. In addressing those issues there are no guarantees that agreement could be reached with either the landowner of the lane or the individual house owners, or that the terms, if offered, by the different parties would be acceptable to the Council. I would also add that the Council is committed to the development of a city-wide Active Travel Strategy which will deliver a strategic plan for Glasgow. A recruitment process is currently underway to undertake the development of this plan over the next 12 months. In advance of this, it may be premature to deliver stand-alone projects which may not necessarily fit with this city-wide strategy.
In conclusion, while recognising that the proposal has some merit, on balance we do not feel that this option should be pursued given the reduced capital receipt for the sale of the former care home; the cost of reaching agreement with the lane owner and possibly the housed holders; the amount of officers time required to negotiate and reach agreement with the various parties; the possibility that such work would be abortive should no agreement be reached; and also the development of the city-wide Active Travel Strategy may identify an alternative or more strategic active travel proposal for this locality which could negate the need for this proposed intervention.
Yours sincerely
Council map of Crossmyloof Resource Centre Site with path overlaid in blue
The response included these maps. The blue line is an exact reproduction from my sketch, and was apparently initially taken literally by the officers, who objected to it bisecting the site.
Cllr Jon Molyneux plans to go back to the council officer for clarification of some of the points raised. He, like I, feels this reads like a contrived excuse to do nothing.
What do you think? Feel free to add your comments on the council response, and in favour or against the idea of a path.
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