Meadow carrots: the Council plans to give them the chop - and we're not talking about julienning
The North Kelvin Meadow Campaign has learnt that Glasgow City Council has made plans to destroy the Meadow without informing the campaign group. Destructive actions could be taken as early as Monday, 21 September 2009.
After the Council’s legal action against the campaign group in July resulted only in two named individuals – Douglas Peacock, Campaign chair, and Karen Chung, treasurer – being prevented from putting up bat boxes and installing raised beds, it seems the Council went back to the courts in order to obtain a ‘decree of ejection’ – but didn’t tell us.
Wrongly addressed
The matter has been handled most peculiarly. Although Karen is appealing the interdict against her, and the Council obviously has her and Douglas’ contact details, papers relating to the ‘decree of ejection’ were not sent to them, but were instead addressed to ‘North Kelvinside Green Space, Clouston Street, Glasgow G20’ by the Sheriff Court – presumably the address given to the Court by the Council. Had it not been for the good offices of the enterprising Clouston Street postie – who delivered the papers to a well-known local personality, who passed them on to the campaign group – we might have known nothing about it.
Something is rotten in those marble-lined City Chambers, wethinks – unless we are to assume there is no one at Glasgow City Council who knows how to address an envelope properly. And it all doesn’t seem quite in order from a legal point of view. Ms Chung’s lawyer has therefore contacted the Council asking for clarification and that no eviction take place until a meeting can be arranged between the campaign group and the Council.
Watch this space!
To read the press release click here
For an object lesson in how NOT to address and envelope, click here.
North Kelvin Meadow 
The phrase “you couldn’t make it up” springs to mind.
If the council have indeed obtained a writ against the “North Kelvinside Green Space” I wish them well in tracking that group down – whoever they may be.
I assume since they have a writ against someone else, the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign, and its followers can carry on as normal (apart from the issue of the two named members and the bat boxes)
The Evening Times has reported on the threat to the meadow:
http://tinyurl.com/mml55k
“Now campaigners say the council wants to bulldoze the land today, a charge which council bosses have denied.”
I am truly disgusted with the appaling actions of the council. Their own website declares their desire for local communities to “take ownership” of local spaces and make an effort to clean up their area – http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/3947ABFA-D2E5-4C5C-97E2-7D676352E771/0/KelvindaleKelvinside.pdf
The map of the meadow on the gcc website even lists the ground as a recreational area. Their bullying tactics and heavy-handed approach are totally against their own policies. I hope the local community continue to stand up for what they believe in and win the right to a safer and more attractive community environment.
At the risk of sounding pedantic, Patrick Harvie’s comment on the BBC website that this site has lain derelict for decades is not true – I was still playing football on that site in the early 1990s (floodlights and all) and it was my playground, and that of my brothers and friends from the early 70s. In an ideal world I would have liked the site to have been returned to its original use as a sporting facility for the youth of North Kelvinside, Maryhill, Ruchill, etc. as it was back then. However, the last thing i would want to see is commercial development on the old ‘pitchies’. Interestingly, I don’t believe there have ever been buildings on this site (aside from the old pavillion).