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!

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