Top speakers at CND social

 

Glasgow West CND Social

Friday 15th April

7.30pm till late

McPhabbs

23 Sandyford Place (Sauchiehall St).

Speakers include Bruce Kent and David Hayman

Readings from Tom Leonard and Chris Dolan

Songs from Mick West and Maeve Mackinnon.

Tickets £6/£4.

contact: Alan Mackinnon

G52 Churches will walk to witness

 

A long established ecumenical group of Churches on Glasgow’s Southside, plans to make a Walk of Witness on Good Friday – 22 April – to declare their Christian faith.  An annual event from Our Lady and  St George’s  Church, 50 Sandwood Road, Penilee to Hillington Park Church of Scotland in Berryknowes Road, the followers carry a wooden cross to acknowledge the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Operating as G52 Churches, the congregations are: four Church of Scotland – Cardonald, Hillington Park, St Andrew’s Penilee and St Nicolas’ Cardonald plus two RC – Our Lady and St George and Our Lady of Lourdes and the Scottish Episcopal congregation from the Church of the Good Shepherd.

A service will be held at the start at 10.30am. Midway, an open air act of worship will be held at the end of Traquair Drive and the Walk of Witness will conclude with a short ecumenical  service in Hillington Park Church in Berryknowes Road followed by tea and hot cross buns in the hall in true church style. ‘Anyone who would like to walk with us to honour the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our salvation, is invited,’ said the Rev Calum MacLeod of Cardonald Parish Church. ‘This year we anticipate an increase in the number of people supporting the Walk of Witness because we have sent a mail drop to homes throughout the G52 postcode area,’ he  added.

Tweekender success for Labour

Through social networking site Twitter, more than 60 Labour activists from across Scotland campaigned in Glasgow Southside last weekend. They turned out to support Stephen Curran who is challenging Nicola Sturgeon (SNP) for the Glasgow Southside seat.
Stephen was joined on the campaign trail by Labour activist Sally Bercow. Local Westminster MP, Anas Sarwar, invited the Speaker’s wife to the city for an event dubbed ‘Southside Tweekender’.
The team took to the streets in scorching temperatures and spoke to hundreds of voters about Stephen’s local campaign.
Sally, Stephen, Anas and the activists all enjoyed an ice cream from Queen’s Cafe in Victoria Road.
Sally said: “It was great to be out and about in the Southside. The people are really friendly.
“Stephen is a great local candidate. Everyone seems to know him.”
Stephen said: “It was fantastic to be joined by Sally. She’s well known among Labour activists as a hardworking campaigner and she certainly proved that at the weekend.”
Glasgow Central MP and Twitter user Anas Sarwar, who came up with the idea of a ‘Southside Tweekender’, said: “Sally was keen to campaign in the Southside because she knows the last thing David Cameron wants is a Labour victory in Scotland.”
You can follow Stephen, Sally and Anas on Twitter by searching on @curranstephen, @sallybercow and @anassarwar.

Business Association launched in Shawlands

A Business Association has been launched in Shawlands with the aim of improving the area as a place to shop and to do business. Around 50 people packed into a classroom at Shawlands Academy on Thursday 31 March and agreed a constitution for Shawlands Business Association. The intrim chair is Barry Young of Young’s Interesting Books in Skirving Street and vice chair is Irene Fletcher of Martin Fletcher Opticians on Kilmarnock Road.
‘The Association can be a voice to be heard in the corridors of power,’ said Barry. ‘we need movers and shakers, doers and diplomats with enthusiasm and drive.
‘If an individual moans or complains – nothing happens. If that individual joins this Association, it can make a difference as the Association will be a collective voice.’
A survey carried out by the Glasgow City Council’s DRS department, attracted more than 1200 responses. It showed that the condition of Shawlands Arcade, vacant shops, parking provision and antisocial behaviour were high priority concerns, locally. Coupled with this, was the economic slowdown.
In an address of welcome, Barry said: ‘Customers are saying they are not getting a credible offering in Shawlands and the result is we are haemorrhaging business. The Shawlands Business Association aims to create one voice for local business owners and managers and provide a platform for them to meet and share ideas. We can also be a truly representative and strong lobby in discussions with Glasgow City Council, community groups and organisations.’
Glasgow City Council planner, Tim Mitchell added that a formal Association would be able to support and promote the development of the Shawlands Town Centre Action Plan. Such support would enable the Council to attract matched funding from other bodies and Government sources.
A lot of issues were discussed in the open meeting – from parking to litter, from signage to lack of public toilets. The idea to run a schools competition to design a logo for the new Shawlands Business Association, was universally approved.
Evelyn McQuarrie, manager of Ladbrokes seemed to voice everyone’s thoughts: ‘I care about Shawlands. Anything we can do has got to be good or the place will die a death.’
Afterwards Barry told the LOCAL NEWS: ‘People are doing something to help. I’m enthused by the attendance and the good ideas at this meeting. We’ve taken some small steps towards our goals and have realistic expectations.’ He said if the Association lobbied, the Town Centre Action Plan would materialise.
David Dunlop of the city’s DRS department who has provided professional back-up to the formation of the Association said: ‘the whole process has been a bit like trying to get a restored old Lancaster Bomber off the runway. At the meeting finally, we had all four engines bursting noisily into life and the plane rolling forward!’

Redcoats in Partick

Partick was awash with redcoats on  Thursday 7 April , as Labour Party supporters were out in force to support Pauline McNeill who aims to continue to serve Glasgow Kelvin constituency. While Harriet Harman, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party wore a warm, navy woollen coat, Pauline and several members of her team, were wearing bright red raincoats. With the threat of rain, the coats gave sensible protection as well as high visibility.

Said Pauline: ‘It is good to have someone like Harriet Harman with us today. People recognise these leaders. I had David Miliband here recently and it was lovely seeing people’s faces when they opened their doors.’ The main challenge she sees in the constituency – which has been extended to include homes around St George’s Cross – is dealing with people’s concerns about the rise in the cost of living. ‘I’m confident we as a Party can grow the economy to benefit the whole country,’ said Pauline. She added: ‘Locally, the big challenge is the lack of social housing and the quality of life in the West End.’

 

Arcade parking problems accelerate loss of business

Car parking has become a concern at  Shawlands Arcade car parks because Euro Car Parks now operates the space charging up to £2 a day.  Previously parking was free. As several workers in nearby shops and businesses said: ‘This costs me £40 a month now to park. I can’t afford that.’

Peter Clark, Shawlands Arcade Centre Manager said: ‘We listened to tenants’ complaints that their customers couldn’t get into the car park because it was filled with vehicles of people who didn’t shop in Shawlands but parked there all day and commuted into town. Pay and display addressed the problem.’

He added that Euro Car Parks had been carefully selected because they had signed up to a British Car Park Operators’ approved code of practice which means their activities could be audited.

‘People only get a penalty notice if they park in a disabled car space or overstay the time they’ve paid for or don’t display a valid ticket,’ he said.

Charges are 50p for up to 1 hour, £1 for up to 2 hours, £1.50 up to 3 hours and £2 for all day.

But that cut no ice with many traders in the Shawlands Arcade and beyond.

The general opinion was that paying for parking had put a lot of people off coming into the Arcade and doing business in the area.  Several shopkeepers told of regular customers very distressed because they’d been given a £70 fine. Mark Bishop who runs ‘Whale of a Time’ a children’s play centre on Pollokshaws Road at the back of the Arcade and adjacent to the car park there, said: ‘Paid parking has killed my business. People come into the Centre because there is good child care here. But when parents add the cost of parking to the cost of the child care and the dilapidated state of the car parking facilities, they are going elsewhere. Everyone is tightening their belt just now so it was insensitive to do something like this without consultation. It has also caused a huge amount of aggro.’

The LOCAL NEWS attempted to contact Euro Car Parks but they refused to communicate unless the questions were faxed to them and this business hasn’t used a fax for several years.

 

 

EDITOR’S OVERVIEW

Welcome to the lovely NEW LOOK for LOCAL NEWS in the CITY of GLASGOW. And a big thank you to the techno team at THIN DENIM for achieving this.

This website will keep you updated with stories from around the city.  So keep in touch, especially if you have a story to tell.

Since the sad demise of the LOCAL NEWS GLASGOW monthly, community newspaper – after 14 years of independent publishing – this website is your way to connect to what is going on.  There is also the glossy magazine NEWS in the CITY which is being published by former LOCAL NEWS right hand person,  Jo Anne Kessler. While we are mutually supportive of each other’s ventures we are independent of each other’s business.

At this exciting time when an election is under way, this website aims to cover as many hustings as we can. If you are running an election event, let us know pronto! email : franklinfeatures@gmail.com

Anti-Cuts Coalition launched

In the warm and peaceful setting of the Winter Gardens at the People’s Palace, George Galloway and his Coalition Against Cuts set out their campaign on Wednesday 6 April before an audience of more than 100 people.

‘We are exactly that,’ said George who was a Glasgow MP at Westminster for 18 years, ‘We are fighting against the savage cuts. The SNP and New Labour are all different cheeks of the same backside and I’d be surprised if any Labour Councillor or MSP who walked into this room tonight could be named by anyone here. They are not even legends in their own street!’
Explaining that his Coalition Against cuts had eight people on the Regional list, but three front runners: himself, Angela McCormick a college lecturer and long-time campaigner and Brian Smith a local government worker and trade unionist, he said: ‘We only need 12,000 votes to get one person elected and 30,000 would get all three elected. That is possible out of half a million people eligible to vote. It is more like a Ben Nevis than a Mount Everest of a climb.  But we must get people out there and casting their votes.’ He promised: ‘If we get all three of the Coalition into the Scottish Parliament it will never be the same again.’
Angela, who is a member of the national executive of EIS/FELA teachers and lecturers trade union and a member of Solidarity and the Socialist Workers Party, told the attentive audience: ‘I am a single parent and 20 years ago I went to university. I was the last generation to receive the full grant and that is why I’m standing for election. I want the students who come after me to have the same opportunities.’ She instanced the head of a Glasgow college who recently retired receiving a package of £384,000 and compared that to the fact that 1000 college lecturers and support staff  are facing redundancy. ‘Those who are left are being told to work harder. These cuts are idealogical. If we – the people in the majority who are suffering the cuts – come together, we can win.’
Turning to big business, she claimed that companies like Boots – registered in Zug – a known low-tax region of Switzerland and Vodaphone – dodged paying millions of pounds of tax. ‘I don’t want my money paying for trident and bombs for Libya,’ said Angela. ‘I want it paying for my son to get the same free university education I had.’
Brian Smith is the branch secretary of the 11,000 strong Glasgow City Unison Branch and co-ordinator of the Defend Glasgow Services Campaign. He is a member of Solidarity and the Socialist Party Scotland. He said that the cuts would take away 10,000 jobs in Glasgow in two years. ‘One in two youngsters will have no work. The reduction in services will be serious as people go out the door. I am surprised that public anger is not greater.’
Advocating a general strike he said: ‘There is a community campaign, an industry campaign and the Coalition is the political campaign against these savage cuts. But we need to get everyone affected by the cuts, actively involved and out, casting their vote.’  To great applause he added: ‘If George Galloway is the only one of us elected to the Scottish Parliament that will shake it up.’
In his turn, George referred to the last time he had been in the People’s Palace. ‘Oliver Tambo, the African National Congress leader in exile during the apartheid years was speaking here. We, the believers that apartheid could be and would be ended in South Africa, were listening. We believed then, that the seemingly impossible would happen and it did. Today, we see how one young man in Tunisia who set himself alight because of his bitter frustration with that country’s secret police, has spread flames which have ignited so many Arab nations. People are standing up to take action in these countries. We in Scotland have never been on our knees before those who appear to be great. We can fight the cuts. And if we believe – we can win!’

concert

CONCERT

Tuesday 12 April

7.30 pm

Renfield St Stephen’s Church

260 Bath Street, Glasgow

(opposite King’s Theatre)

Sandie Bishop: violin

Flora Tzanetaki: piano

Emily Walker: cello

Beethoven Violin sonata No 8 in G major – Champagne

Brahms Cello Sonata No 2 in F major Op.99

Brahms Piano Trio in C minor Op. 101

Tickets £7 at the door- includes refreshments

Under 16s free

Understanding Glasgow’s own Stone Circle.

The Friends of Sighthill Stone Circle

will host a talk on Sighthill Stone Circle by Duncan Lunan

in The Ogilvie Centre,

25 Rose Street

Glasgow G3 6RE

Wednesday 22 June 2011 at 7.30pm

This will be followed by Sun Set at the Stone Circle.

website for further information: www.sighthillstonecircle.net

« Previous Page — Next Page »