It’s Recycle Week (20th – 26th June) and the community is letting us all down with empty blue recycling bins and overflowing green general waste bins. Please, please, please use the blue bins!

Although cardboard waste cannot be presently disposed of in the blue bins, it is anticipated that by the end of July this year we will be able to put cardboard into the blue bins. Keep an eye out for publicity leaflets from the council for when you can start doing this as it will help us to drastically cut down on the volume of waste in the green bins.

Stef Meens, a journalism student at Glasgow Caledonian University has written this article about the community’s concerns over the traffic issues with the new school

With the new Hillhead primary school set to open in August, residents, parents, councillors and teaching staff are concerned about the children’s safety and the area’s traffic flow.

Hillhead community council member Eric Kay said: “the new school will have more than 600 children; the traffic this generates can easily congest the busy area around Gibson Street and Westbank Quadrant.”

David McEwen, site manager for City Building said: “The main school entrance will be on Kelvin Way so most school traffic won’t pass Gibson Street area. However, the entrance of the community centre, which is part of the school, will be located on the Westbank.”

Local councillor for the SNP, George Roberts, said parents fear the drop off zone on Kelvin Way this will cause a tremendous bottleneck.

Mr Roberts said City council’s education department has emphasized the use of walking routes to reduce the amount of parent traffic both at the drop off zone on Kelvin Way as well as school traffic in the Gibson and Otago Street area.

“In many ways this line of thought has to be praised and encouraged, also from an environmental point of view. However the parents, teachers, residents and retailers, all realise that it’s a very short-sighted view of modern life. The car is far too much something people here depend on“, said Mr Kay, a founding member of the Gibson Street, Otago Street and Westbank Quadrant Triangle community (GOW).

Mr Roberts said the parents’ objection to the walking routes is that they are not deemed safe enough. “Especially in winter time, walkway through the park is not lit enough. Also, the walking routes will involve crossing busy roads.”

He added: “Children have to travel a distance along busy roads. When parents escort them it won’t be that much of a problem but when they get slightly older and travel alone the busy roads can prove very dangerous.”

Jean Charsley, Chair of the Hillhead community council, said: “Parents ideally want to use the main entrance on the Westbank, reserved for teachers and staff.”

However, residents and retailers are concerned that the drop off point at Kelvin Way will not be used and most of the school traffic will congest Gibson Street and Otago Street.

Sandra Graham, member of GOW, said: “People are not used to driving down such a narrow road in the city and …especially with children about ….the potential for an accident is very high if the one way system round Westbank Quadrant is reinstated”.

Mrs Graham, who lives on Westbank Quadrant, added: “My main worry is the vulnerable edge of the infilled land…along Westbank Quadrant. The road was built for horses and carts and constant traffic including heavy vehicles could destabilise the buildings once again.”

To prevent damage to Westbank Quadrant City Building opted for a temporary traffic order to take the strain off the area while the school was being built.

“At the moment there is a temporary two way system for easier access to the school’s building site. This resulted in a faster traffic flow, which is a must with over 700 children attending the school”, Mr Kay said.

Martha Wardop, local councillor and member of the Scottish Green Party, said: “The access route via Westbank Quadrant cannot take the strain from traffic. Residents worry about damage to the riverbank wall or railing. The two way system should therefore be made permanent.”

However, with the school being nearly finished, City council wants to impose the original one-way system.

Mrs Charsley said: “Although a two way system benefits the flow, parking spaces will be lost. Shop owners are worried they will lose customers, especially as community centre visitors will need parking space.”

Mr Kay said the danger of all the conflicting interests is that one group could be set up against another. “Change is never easy for an area, but we are in this together and we need to strive for a good compromise because a solution that makes everybody happy is doubtful at this stage.

The difficulty all along has been the official bodies have never really tried to bring people together. Numerous meetings between parents council, residents have been organised but the roads department have never been present at any consultation.”

Mr Roberts said the road engineers have indeed been conservative in their approach, mainly due to financial pressure.

He added: “I suppose it is never too late to change things, there are still a few months till the opening of the school and a meeting with Jean McFadden, the executive member for education, with local councillors is on the cards.”

Mr Kay said: “Even if we can’t change things over the summer it will be vital to liaise and monitor the situation on a day to day basis so we can identify the problems and find solutions and maintain and improve the community’s harmony.”

You can read more on the School in the Park website.

On Monday 3rd January on Westbank Quadrant a male student (not a GOW resident) was assaulted and had several items including his mobile phone stolen. It was about 3AM when it happened and he was approached from behind.

On Saturday 15th January a young woman reported that she was threatened by a hand gun and had her handbag stolen. It was at 7pm on the corner of Bank Street and Gibson Street, as described in this Evening Times article.

Enquiries and investigations by the specialist police street crime unit are currently on-going and there is not a suggestion that they are linked but residents should be vigilant.

The hardware store on Park Road supplies shovels, brooms and grit, or you can ask the residents of number 5 to borrow their equipment. The council has a grit bin just outside the entrance to the Kelvinbridge Subway car park that is available on a self-service basis for communal streets. There is a map of the council’s priority routes for gritting on their website (select Maps Data, Roads, Winter Maintenance Priority Gritting Roads & Footways & Grit Bins), which reveals that Woodlands Road and Gibson Street are both high priority including the footpaths on either side of Gibson Street.

Please Recycle!!

In the past few months the bins have been overflowing
each week and the bin areas are in danger of becoming
messy and a haven for vermin. It is the volume of
rubbish, which is causing the problem. If more items were
recycled it would help.

• Glass to bins in Gibson street bottle bank
  in front of the new school
• All paper plastic bottles and cans into the
  BLUE bins – and if you put beer cans into
  the can crusher even better as it helps fund the GOW community

Even if recycling builds up it is less problem as it is not a
health hazard or smelly.

A few neighbours have been trying to keep things clean
and tidy by sweeping up and but we need help. We have
taken bottles up to the bottle bank for people who are not
able to do so.

Thank you

Please help!!!!!!!!!!

More info in our recycling pages

Their new aquisition is 15-17 Gibson St, in Glasgow. This was the unit that housed iCafe, before the fire and their relocation to Woodlands Rd.
Say hi to a new neighbour.

No news as yet what will happen to the Chicken Cottage, still shut (reportedly) following a staff fracas.