NORTH KELVIN MEADOW CAMPAIGN

The NVA Glasgow Harvest is a celebration of local food being hosted by community gardens in the South, East, North and West of the city this autumn. An irreverent homage to the village fête – centred on the Harvest Meal – each celebration will feature live music, communal cooking, food sharing, workshops and competitions. New work by visual artists will draw inspiration from the people and garden spaces that make urban growing in Glasgow so unique.

The next and final Harvest event of 2011 will be hosted by Woodlands Community Garden on West Princes Street, on Saturday October 8th between 12 and 4pm.

A free escorted bike ride supported by Free Wheel North will set off from North Kelvin Meadow (Clouston Street end) at 12pm on the day and we’d like to encourage as many Northkelvinites and friends of the campaign to take part as possible. If you don’t have a bike and would like to borrow one, let us know and we’ll try to arrange it for you (call Michelle Letowska on 07951 969394 or email michelleletowska@freewheelnorth.org.uk).

We’re looking forward to seeing as many cyclists there as possible.

More about the Harvest Event (via NVA):

How to Join In?

We’d like you to bring some things with you…

Donate surplus produce you have grown

Got any spare fruit or veggies? Bring them along so they can be turned into puddings, soups, pakora or other delights by a team of local cooks

Make food to share in a huge open air meal

Bring a vegetarian dish to share, featuring at least one locally grown ingredient.

Design and plant up a Creative Container

Choose an unusual object to grow something in and enter it in the competition.

Bring a jar to the tasting station

Make your own jam, chutney, pickles or preserves and bring a jar, along with the recipe, for a mass tasting. Oatcakes, crackers and cheese provided!

There will be workshops showing you how to make your own jams, chutneys and preserves, and creative container planting sessions at different locations in the lead up to Glasgow Harvest.

Further information from NVA and Woodlands Community Garden

The developers, New City Vision Ltd, have been very quiet during the summer months and despite previously stating their intention to submit an application for planning permission in the spring, no such application has been made to date.

Test drilling on the Meadow

Last week however we received an email from New City Vision Ltd (NCV) informing us that they intend to submit their application in the “coming weeks.”  They also indicate that they intend to arrange for some test drilling to occur on the land:

“As part of our requirements we will be carrying out some investigation works on site to determine the condition of the soil, trial pits will be dug so that soil samples can be analysed.

We are keen to meet with the Meadow group in advance of these works so we can clearly identify the areas we will be working in.”

NCV have also updated their Clouston Street site with this information.

We have replied and confirmed that we would like to meet with them soon.

During this meeting we intend to confirm the following issues:

• That all drilling works carried out on the land should be the minimum necessary to acquire the data needed.
• That all disruption to the land caused by drilling works and associated access vehicles be returned to its previous state.
• That all efforts be made to avoid any cutting down of trees or disruption to root structures.
• That all efforts be made to avoid disruption to raised beds but where this is not possible, fair prior notice is given and all moved raised beds returned to their original position and state.
• Any fencing removed to gain access to the land is replaced once the survey is completed.

Additionally we intend to find out more about any changes NCV may have been made to the plans revealed to the public at the beginning of this year during their pre-planning consultation process.

If you have any questions you’d like us to put to NCV please do get in touch in the next few days. We may not have much time with them but we are happy to raise issues on your behalf and report back.

Preparing for the Planning Application

A number of volunteers met during the summer to prepare our arguments against the NCV plans. This mainly involved trawling through Glasgow City Council’s enormous City Plan document and noting relevant issues. We expect to use the results of this research to form the core of our argument against the development. Also, since 9 August the Meadow is now officially part of the Glasgow West Conservation Area. This means that NCV will now have to fall in line with the more stringent rules that apply to building in a conservation area. Clearly this also helps our case greatly.

Once the Planning Application is submitted by NCV we will be encouraging everyone to write letters of objection. The research we have undertaken will be available for all to refer to.

Meanwhile, we will report back as soon as we have met with NCV.

It looks like we might have a busy winter.

Meadow Flowers

It might not have been a perfect summer but the Meadow still looked great.  Here’s a short film of some of the flowers we’ve seen on the Meadow over the summer.