A group of volunteers at the North Kelvin Meadow Clean-Up

Many thanks to everyone who turned out on Saturday, 15 November for the North Kelvin Meadow Clean-Up. We counted 28 adults plus numerous younger volunteers.

Some sixty bags of rubbish were collected in one and a half hours – which just goes to show what can be achieved by a group effort – and the Meadow is now looking a lot cleaner and tidier. Happily, it was a sunny morning and only started to rain towards the end of the clean-up, whereupon a rainbow appeared, which, as local resident Karen Chung noted, is sure to be “a good sign for the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign”.

One of our younger volunteers

We hope the tea, coffee and biscuits kindly provided by Karen and Douglas will encourage you to join us again for further work on the Meadow. Next steps including cleaning out and renovating the brick outbuilding at the Clouston Street side of the Meadow and clearing paths in the woodland area.

We are also planning to turn the North Kelvinside Green Space Community Initiative into an association in order to take the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign forward.

We’ll keep you posted!

The Evening Times has written a story about our newly launched campaign to turn the disused land between Clouston Street and Kelbourne Street into a community-run, multi-use green space. The North Kelvin Meadow Campaign was launched after the Council rejected out-of-hand the results of a survey conducted by local resident Douglas Peacock which revealed that local people overwhelmingly supported the creation of a community green space on the land. (Click here to read the Evening Times article.)

A campaign has been launched to turn the disused land between Clouston Street and Kelbourne Street in Glasgow’s Maryhill area into a community-run, multi-use green space to be called the North Kelvin Meadow. The campaign was launched after Glasgow City Council rejected out-of-hand the results of a survey, conducted by local resident Douglas Peacock, which revealed that local people overwhelming supported the creation on a green space on the land.

Glasgow City Council wants to sell the land to a property developer for the building of 115 flats. However, 100% of local residents responding to the community survey said they would prefer a green space.

This area Glasgow is already densely populated because most of the housing is flats. A community-run green space as proposed by the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign would allow local people to have access to allotments, a small wood and a wild meadow area.

The Scottish Government recently indicated that it wanted more space to be made available for allotments and there is a long waiting list for allotments in Glasgow. The local authority umbrella body Colsa has said that it agrees with the Scottish Government’s view.

“We are happy to see the Scottish Government taking an interest in promoting the provision of allotments. We look forward to working in partnership with the government to consider how best this can be achieved,” a spokesman said. (Click here to read the story from the BBC.)

It’s hard, therefore, to understand why Glasgow City Council is opposing a proposal that has generated so much enthusiasm among local residents.