General Meeting 3rd June 2024
GOVAN COMMUNITY COUNCIL
GENERAL MEETING MONDAY 3 JUNE 2024
Held in the Board Room, Elderpark Workspace at 7 p.m.
Present: Esme Clark, Danny O’Neill, Hannah Salome, Reinhild Gorniack, John Foster, Marie Davidson, Robert Preston, Gina Preston, Gordon MacKay, Annie Morgan, Andre Videla, Cllr Imran Alam, Cllr Dornan,
Apologies:, Marie Davidson, Betty Ross, Ruby Kelly, Cllr Ricky Bell, Cllr Dan Hutchison, Chris Stephens, Humza Yusaf MSP (who has not attended since November 2016)
Minute taker: John Foster
- MINUTES OF THE MAY MEETING
These were moved as correct by Hannah Salome and Gordon Mackay.
2 MATTERS ARISING
a) Cleansing, environment, litter crisis and drains crisis
Issues were raised in particular by our Secretary and by Annie Morgan. Esme reported receiving as a householder a letter from Cleansing indicating the new bin colours and content regulations and the instruction that householders themselves must affix labels of the appropriate colour (black for paper; grey for plastics and cans (with a wider range of plastic types allowed than before); and blue for food waste. It was noted there would be a four week wait for grey stickers. Esme felt that this introduced quite unnecessary levels of complication which would militate against widespread response. Cllr Alam said he would investigate and indicated that as far he knew there had been no consultation with councillors. Annie Morgan reported problems of misuse accompanying the introduction of street based black bins in parts of Elderpark – exampling babies’ used nappies lying open in one of the bins outside the soon-to-be opened community grocers shop. She voiced fears about the introduction of ‘hubs’ in terms of potentially similar misuse and stressed that full community consultation would be essential. Annie also suggested that the Community Council invite a representative from the community-based partnership responsible for cleansing in Renfrewshire.
It was NOTED that letters to the two Housing Association Executives, as agreed at the last meeting, had been written but the relevant correspondence with our Secretary had been delayed in the post, despite first class stamps, by over six days. Once we had a response we would also write to relevant officials in the City Council. Councillors were ASKED to identify how far additional staff had been recruited to Cleansing over the past six months.
b) Closure of Bank of Scotland: loss of cash machine
Gordon Mackay reported on actions taken since the last meeting
i) A letter to the Financial Conduct Authority had been sent on 23 May describing the lack of any access to cash machines outside shop hours and proposing the Underground site as appropriate for an accessible replacement
ii) Arranging a meeting with a campaigning journalist, as agreed at the last meeting, for the coming Wednesday to brief them on our campaign and its legal basis.
iii) Identifying an official government paper issued in February this year entitled "The Future of Banking Services and access to cash’ that was highly relevant to our claims (in this connection Gordon had counted the number of shops in the relevant area of Govan as 121)
iv) Identified a statement issued by the Link Financial Group in 2021 on the right to access to cash.
Gordon was congratulated on his work. Cllr Alam said he would seek a letter of support from our four City councillors once Gordon had drafted further letters to Link and in response to our appeal to the FCA. We should also ask our late MP Chris Stephens to retain all his campaigning notes on this subject.
c) Elder Park Library: Reopening and Provision of Café
A letter had been written indicating our concern at the lack of a café and the fact that the decision appeared to have been taken at the last minute and without wider consultation. It was also indicated by Councillors present that the library would not now open in June as a result of snagging work. No new date had been set, possibly the end of June, but the Community Council would be informed. It was also indicated as likely that the Café space would be operated by the vol. org. Craft Café.
d) Community Notice Board in the Shopping Centre
It was reported that the existing notice board was largely obscured. It was AGREED to raise with Ms McAlinden, the area manager, a) the Community’s need for an effective notice board b) the willingness of the Community Council to meet the financial costs of increasing the size of the existing noticeboard and to provide adequate lighting in a more accessible position.
e) £1 million Infrastructure Improvement Fund
A special meeting of the Area Committee will be held the following week to decide on allocations.
f) Show People’s access to their site
Little additional information was available as the issue was now before the courts.
g) Council cuts to services
It was AGREED that councillors should seek to identify where cuts had been made across the Council services and supply the next meeting with details of the number of jobs lost
3. BUS TRANSPORT
Agreed to comeback to this issue. The submission on franchising had been sent to a consultant and no response was yet available.
4. REPORTS ON CITY COUNCIL CUTS
It was AGREED that councillors should seek to identify where cuts had been made across the Council services and supply the next meeting with details of the number of jobs lost
5. COMMUNITY COUNCIL PUBLIC MEETINGS
It was agreed to seek a further public meeting in later September. Betty Ross was currently away but once she had returned the Minute Secretary would seek to identify a date for the café in the Pearce Institute.
6. GOVAN FAIR FRIDAY 7 JUNE
Members were asked to win support for attendance at the event. Some fears expressed at how far adequate resources were available. It was noted that some aspects (such as the schools football tournament) remained very popular but in general the support from the remaining shops and businesses in Govan was lower. It was AGREED to seek dialogue with the Committee.
7. SECRETARY’S REPORT
Future of the Lyceum
No further progress to report.
Mary Barbour statue
It was felt that some of the ideas expressed at the previous meeting on further raising the profile of Mary Barbour might be achieved through Glasgow’s 850^th^ anniversary celebration fund in 2025 – with bids being agreed this coming autumn. We should continue with the proposal to name the new bridge, ‘the Mary Barbour bridge’.
8. CHAIR’S REPORT: THE NEW SUBWAY CARRIAGES
Our Chair had provided a detailed report on the problems with the new carriages. Councillor Dornan acknowledged some of the difficulties and announced that dampers would be retrofitted this autumn to better balance the carriages and reduce bouncing. The electronic signage indicating train arrival times was also now (mainly) in operation. Questions were, however, raised as to why – three years after the delivery of the new trains – these problems had no been identified earlier and why more appropriate technologies had not been employed to overcome the 1890 track problems. Andre Vidola gave examples of refurbished subways systems and some of the technologies that might have been available to improve suspension. He also suggested that a published timetable might eliminate some of the problems about informing passengers of when trains were due.
It was AGREED to invite a representative of STP after the summer.
9. TREASURER’S REPORT
Reinhild reported that there was currently £5863.21p in the Council’s account – with most of the expenses from the public meeting met. Reinhild was thanked for her work.
10. COMMUNITY COUNCIL ORGANISATION
a) Website
Andre Vidola volunteered to take over the Council’s now derelict website from the Minute Secretary who would provide whatever technical detail he still had.
b) Membership
It was noted that we had at least two active attenders who were by residence eligible for membership and that we should seek to hold by-elections in September or October. We should also actively avail ourselves of the category of ‘Associate Member’ for those who lived outside the area but contributed to the work of the Council. Again this should be taken formally at an Autumn meeting.
c) Venue for meetings
Betty had been away and the Minute Secretary had not been able to confirm availability of the PI café. He would do so in the next fortnight.
d) Next issue of the Govan Letter
it was agreed that we should seek to issue this in September ahead of our Autumn public meeting.
11. COUNCILLOR’S REPORTS
Councillor Dornan reported on the success of Park Villa’s Festival of Football over the previous weekend. He also indicated that the Café space in the Library would be occupied, through Elderpark Housing, by the Craft Café.
Councillor Alam reported he was in touch with the Director of Libraries, Andrew Olney, about the reopening of the Library. He also reported the final repair of the roundabout on Edmiston Road.
Councillor Hutchison had sent a note reporting a) a consultative meeting on the Fire and Rescue Service in September and on the SPT in October.
12. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
a) Survey on the use of the Pearce Institute: Copies available from Ruby at Maslows
13. NEXT MEETING MONDAY 8 JULY at 7 p.m. in Elderpark Workspace