Games routes being sorted

Detailed plans to improve the river bank at Lancefield Quay and Anderston Quay have been drafted in preparation for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Consultation with elected members is underway although most community councils will not meet between now and the Friday 29 July deadline.

‘I have asked for the times to be extended to take this into account,’ said Bailie Nina Baker of Anderston Ward.

According to George Gillespie, Assistant Director of Land and Environmental Services, the aim of the plan is to improve, significantly, pedestrian and cyclist provision. ‘We also wish to incorporate permanent flood prevention measures between the Kingston Bridge and Clyde Arc bridge,’ he said.

This route will be a main spectator corridor between the city centre and venues at the SECC complex in 2014. It will also help access to Ibrox and Kelvingrove games venues and the Riverside Museum.

Following the comments of elected representatives, the plans will be revised and a one day “pre-planning” consultation event is anticipated in early August when City Council officers will explain the proposals in more detail to Councillors. This will be followed by the public at large and other interest groups having the chance to comment through the statutory planning process in September 2011 when the revised plan will be submitted. Currently a contractor is likely to be appointed in December 2011 and work should be carried out between January and June next year.

* If you have ideas to improve the Lancefield Quay or Anderston Quay embankments for pedestrians or cyclists send them to us at: franklinfeatures@gmail.com and we’ll publish them and pass them on.

Plaudits for unique youth scheme

A youth programme which helps reduce anti-social behaviour in the North and West of Glasgow has been hailed as a success by former Rangers captain Barry Ferguson.
The former Scotland International captain was among special guests at the annual awards and dance shows run by A&M Training – a programme which is part funded by Glasgow Housing Association (GHA).
Run by ex-Dundee United winger Andy McLaren, the A&M Training scheme tackles youth disorder, racism and gang violence. Founded on his own hard experiences, the scheme encourages youngsters to keep fit through football and dance classes.
Around 2000 youngsters have already signed up for Operation Reclaim in the North of the city and also the West End Diversionary Project.
Birmingham City star Barry Ferguson presented trophies at the Operation Reclaim awards night at the Mitchell Theatre recently.
Barry said: “I’m delighted to support A&M Training which delivers top-quality diversionary coaching activities across Glasgow. Each week around 2000 young people benefit from these services – and they are free.
“I attended the dance and awards show and was blown away by the numbers involved, the talent on show and the quality of the coaching.”
GHA and the Scottish Government fund the West End Diversionary Project, which covers areas including Drumchapel, Yoker, Scotstoun and Anderston. Operation Reclaim is funded by GHA and North Glasgow Community Planning Partnership and runs in areas including Sighthill, Springburn, Milton and Royston.
GHA’s Executive Director of Development and Regeneration, Alex McGuire, said: “Projects such as Operation Reclaim and the West End Diversionary Project are making a real difference to young people in the North and West of the city.
Former Scotland footballers Robbie Winters, Charlie Miller and Gary McSwegan are also lending their support to programme.
Andy McLaren, founder of A&M Training, said: “We’re the only sports coaching charity in Scotland providing free coaching services delivered by professional footballers and dancers.
“The programme has had a tremendous benefit in reducing youth crime and disorder and improving the health and well-being of large numbers of young people.”

Haggis Rules OK!

Glasgow will host this year’s Haggis Cup at Scotstoun Stadium on Saturday 9 April.

The Australian Rules Football tournament will be a one day ‘express’ event.

Said spokesman Darren Chadwick of the Glasgow Sharks Club: ‘This will be the biggest tournament we will have held to date. We have eight teams confirmed with a possible three others interested. Teams will be coming from Ireland, England, Sweden and Italy to take part.’

The website for the tournament is http://www.sarfl.org.uk/sarfl2010/haggiscup so keep an eye on it all Australian Rules Footie fans.

Added Darren: ‘We want to expand the game in Glasgow and Scotland as a whole. Our season starts on the Saturday 26 March away to Aberdeen. We are also travelling to Hartlepool on the Saturday 12 March to play a friendly against a mixed North East England League team.’  From Melbourne, Darren says there is a pool of 29 players for the Glasgow Sharks. ‘There are Scots, Australians and even a Frenchman,’ he said.

The Scotland national team which played in the European Cup in Italy last year and was placed 9th out of 16, came mostly from the Glasgow Sharks.

The Club’s website is http://www.glasgowsharks.co.uk and they meet up at the Walkabout pub.

Jo Love signs for Glasgow City

by Laura Montgomery
Glasgow City are delighted to announce the signing of Scotland midfielder Jo Love.
Previously at Celtic, Jo is City’s second key signing of the pre-season, suggesting some exciting times ahead for the Scottish Champions.
Announcing the signing, City Head Coach Eddie Wolecki Black said: “Jo put pen to paper today and took part in our match against Chelsea. Everybody knows what a fantastic player she is – 98 Scotland caps for a player not long turned 25, speaks for itself. I am thrilled to have her at the club. We have an outstanding crop of players here and I am more than confident that Jo will blossom at this club and will hopefully help us to pick up more honours along the way.”
Jo, follows ex-team mate, Christie Murray, in the close season move from Celtic to City and has no regrets about leaving her former club. She said, “Like Christie, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Celtic and I have nothing but praise for the club. However, I felt it was time to move on and while it was a very difficult decision, it is most definitely the right one. I have played against City a number of times and everyone can see what a fantastic side they are. I cannot wait to get a number of training sessions under my belt and look forward to the upcoming exciting matches against the English Super League teams.”
www.glasgowcityladiesfc.co.uk

Laura nets a well-deserved award

BY LYNSAY KEOUGH
Women’s football stalwart, Laura Montgomery won a top honour at the McDonald’s / Sunday Mail Grassroots Awards, in partnership with the Scottish FA.
Laura was named Best Volunteer in Women’s/Girl’s Football at the awards ceremony held at Hampden Park on the Thursday 3 February. The awards celebrate the tireless efforts of volunteers who keep football flourishing in communities across Scotland.
Laura co-founded Glasgow City Ladies Football Club in 1998. It has gone on to become the most successful Scottish women’s team, winning the last four Premier League titles in a row and being the first Scottish team to qualify for the Women’s UEFA Champions League.
An unprecedented achievement, Glasgow City Ladies was the only amateur team to get to this stage of the tournament.
Scotland legend and McDonald’s Head of Scottish Football, Kenny Dalglish, praised Laura’s work and encouraged more women and girls to take up the game. Speaking at the awards ceremony, Kenny said: ‘Football in communities is built on the sheer hard work of individuals like Laura. Laura’s dedication over the past 13 years has seen Glasgow City Ladies become the most successful women’s team in the country, and to advance into the last-16 of the UEFA Champions League as an amateur team, is a remarkable achievement which is yet to be matched. As a long-term supporter of grassroots football in Scottish communities, McDonald’s is proud to honour Laura and her team’s achievements.’
Laura added: ‘Winning this award is a wonderful honour. When we founded the club, we never imagined we’d end up winning the Premier League – let alone four times in a row. Alongside playing, I’ve also been responsible for our sponsorship, accounts, marketing and the website. While I always say I’ve got two full time jobs – my day job and my work for Glasgow City – I wouldn’t change a thing.’
The eighth McDonald’s / Sunday Mail Grassroots event covered ten categories including Best Volunteer in Youth Football, Grassroots Community Club and McDonald’s Community Champion Award.
Over the last eight years, McDonald’s has helped to improve football in Scotland, significantly. The scheme has created more than 2,000 new community coaches and 1,800 new football teams. And it has worked with a network of McDonald’s restaurant franchisees to provide kit and equipment to clubs through the club twinning programme.
Last year alone, McDonald’s helped to create over 700 new boys’ and girls’ teams in the local community.
For more information on McDonald’s coaching programme, please go to www.mcdonalds.co.uk

Clouston Street – the past 70 years

CLOUSTON STREET TIME LINE

by Erik Geddes

Pre-1939 - Records show there were never any buildings on this land.  Clouston Street was then called Montgomerie Street.

1939 (1st March) – Glasgow City Council buys both pieces of land using the powers of the Education Act for £4,800.

For decades the football pitches and a tennis court are used and enjoyed by schools, boys clubs, local students and Scouts.

1990s - Changing rooms vandalised and pitches fall into state of decay.
1996   - Clouston Street pitches offered for sale for housing development.
1997   – Miller Homes proposal is refused planning permission.
1998   - North Kelvin Community Council (NKCC) holds a workshop sponsored by 1999 Year of Architecture. Attended by Maria Fyffe MP, councillors, planners and architects. Decided that 20% set aside for housing 80% for community use.
1999    - Decision is taken by NKCC to pursue sports and housing development for Clouston Street site.
2000/1 – NKCC produces 12,000 copies of 3 issues of INK newspaper. Leases shop in Queen Margaret Drive. Published local survey.
2002 - Compendium Trust is formed as a registered charity to facilitate sports development.
2003 - Partnership agreed between The Compendium Trust, Glasgow City Council and Queens Cross Housing. SportsScotland decides any loss of the site to sport would require a compensation payment of, allegedly, £650,000.
2005 - Agreement reached with SportsScotland which grants the Trust £195,000 towards sports development on site.
2006 - Public meeting in Scout Hall. Planning Application for 81 flats and the mixed sports field proposals. Trust is promised £1.2 million towards the development.
2007 - Development proposals fail planning criteria and the application is withdrawn.
2008 - Compendium Trust is abandoned.

2008 (March) Glasgow City Council organised a competition to appoint a developer to design and build housing on the site at Clouston Street. Winning designs come from New City Vision (NCV).

2008 (October) North Kelvin Meadow Campaign was formed to lobby for the land to become a community green space. Local residents started by clearing the land of litter, installing a litter bin, planting flowers, bulbs and installing raised beds.

2009 – Local resident Luca Lazzaroni is inspired by Clouston Street and writes song which becomes YouTube sensation . Love it or loath it http://tinyurl.com/n3e7mp you can’t ignore it.

2009 (July) Two residents taken to court by the Council in order to prevent them putting up communal raised beds and bat boxes.

2009 (Dec) New City Vision Ltd signs the missives with the Council for the sale of land. Sale will be completed if planning permission is granted.

Famous East End photographer Tom Fitzpatrick dies aged 76

Tom Fitzpatrick
Press photographer
Born April 5, 1934
Died November 24, 2010

Proud Garngad man, Tom Fitzpatrick, who died aged 76, was an intrepid press photographer during Scotland’s golden age of journalism in the 1960s and 70s. Then the country’s leading newspapers sold in excess of 700,000 copies a day and competition for exclusive stories and pictures was at its fiercest. The Scottish Daily Express and the Daily Record, both edited and printed in Glasgow, battled headline to headline and picture to picture for the coveted title of Scotland’s best-selling popular newspaper. Photographers, like Tom, fought for the “scoops” that would propel their title to the top of the circulation league table.
Working for the Express, Tom twice won the title Press Photographer of the Year and also Sports Photographer of the Year in the Scottish Press Awards.
Born at 487 Garngad Road, his house is still standing despite major redevelopment around it.
He was the youngest of three sons and attended St Philomena’s primary school where he excelled academically before going on to St Mungo’s Academy. He was also an altar boy at nearby St Roch’s Church in Garngad.
Aged 15, he started as a lift boy in the Daily Express building in 1949. He moved on to be a copy boy in the darkroom before becoming a photographer with the Daily Express and Evening Citizen.
A Requiem Mass was celebrated by Monsignor Noel Woods, in St Joseph’s Church, Tollcross, Glasgow, when Tom’s son, Robert, gave the eulogy.
He said: ‘Few of the journalists of that era could be accused of soft-heartedness or sentimentality. They made their name by sheer hard work.’
Reporters who worked with Fitzpatrick included big by-line people such as Stuart McCartney, David Scott, William Allsop and Andrew McCallum.
Fellow photographers included Ronnie Burgess, Ray Beltrami, Jack Middleton, Harry Turner and, occasionally, Fleet Street stars like Reg Lancaster, father of singer Rod Stewart’s glamorous wife, Penny, who flew up from London on royal visits.
Another good friend was the New York-based celebrity photographer Harry Benson who originated from Gorbals.
While hard news stories were the lifeblood of the Express, Fitzpatrick’s greatest love was photographing football matches.
An avid Celtic supporter, he always covered the Parkhead club’s matches, including all their European games. He was entrusted with the opposition’s banner by Celtic captain Billy McNeill to take back to manager Jock Stein in the dugout. Fitzpatrick was hugely proud to have been behind the goals in Lisbon, taking photographs, when Celtic won the European Cup in 1967.
After national service with the RAF in Germany between 1952 and 1954, he returned to the Express until the Beaverbrook operation was shut down in 1974 making 1,800 journalists, photographers, engineers and print workers, redundant.
Following this calamity, Fitzpatrick invested a great deal of time, effort and money in the ill-fated Scottish Daily News workers’ co-operative, in the Albion Street printing plant. When that failed, he freelanced before joining the Evening Times’ picture desk where he worked with distinction until his retirement.
He met his wife, Elizabeth, at the dancing and they married in 1957. When Tom died following a short illness, they had been together for nearly 60 years and had had four children; Thomas, Robert, Lisa and Mark and had 16 grandchildren.

Because of snow storms, grid-locked roads and abandoned rail services, many of Tom Fitzpatrick’s colleagues could not attend his funeral so a gathering will be held to raise a glass in his memory at the Press Bar in Albion Street, Glasgow, on Friday, December 10, at 1.30pm. All former colleagues are welcome to attend.
BILL HEANEY

Glasgow City to take on Liverpool

Scottish champions Glasgow City take on Liverpool this Sunday, 21 November, in a Scotland versus England glamour challenge match at Petershill Park.
Without doubt, City have set the benchmark in the Scottish game, recently winning their 4th Premier League title in a row. Sunday’s match will allow them to test themselves against one of the top sides south of the border.
Liverpool are one of the sides allocated into the new English Professional Super League to be launched in March on the back of a 4 year deal with broadcaster ESPN who will televise the matches.
City and Scotland striker Jane Ross, is 1 of 5 City players at the SFA National Academy and trains up to 8 times a week, despite being a full time student at Stirling University. She and her team mates can only look on in envy at how the game is developing in England, but is looking forward to seeing how her side can compete at that level.’

She said, ‘What is happening in England with the Super League is obviously fantastic for the women’s game as it brings a professional league for the first time to the UK. We all wish it could happen here in Scotland as at present we could only dream of that level of sponsorship and FA financial support. Although at Glasgow City we are entirely amateur, each player trains a minimum of 5 times a week and although we combine it with full time jobs and studies as opposed to being paid for it, in terms of commitment, attitude and ability, I think we are right up there with the best of them. We have done extremely well in the Champions league in recent years and have aquited ourselves very well against teams and players who are the best in the world and are earning salaries we could only dream of. I hope we get a good crowd on Sunday as I really do think if people come and watch us play they will be impressed by the standard and will hopefully enjoy it enough to come back again.
Glasgow City versus Liverpool kicks off at 2pm on Sunday 21 November at Petershill Park, Springburn.

Bhoys Back the Samaritans

CELTIC FC is backing Samaritans’ new campaign to combat suicide amongst Scottish men by putting up advertising at two top flight matches.
The club is to put up the charity’s adverts at Celtic Park for their match vs Aberdeen on Saturday 6th November, and again when they play vs Inverness CT  on Saturday the 27th November.
The adverts form part of Samaritans’ recently launched campaign which aims to reach out to working class men in their 30s, 40s and 50s, the most dangerous age group for suicide according to experts.
The overall objective is to reduce the annual male suicide rate in Scotland by 600,  by persuading men in distress to talk about their problems and call helplines like Samaritans.
Andrew Sim, the recently appointed Director for Samaritans in Scotland, said: ‘We are delighted that Celtic FC is backing our campaign which will ultimately save men’s lives. Scottish men have one of the highest suicide rates in the UK and we need to get these men to realise that they are prone to hiding their problems, which can result in it all building up to the point where they can’t cope anymore.
‘It is important for men to understand that talking about their problems can help. Samaritans are here 24 hours a day offering confidential support.’
A Celtic FC spokesman, said: ‘We are very glad to be able to back this worthwhile campaign. The majority of our supporters are men from the demographic targeted by this campaign and it would be great to be able to help those who are struggling with life. We have great respect for the work Samaritans do and have often supported the charity in the past.’

Three resign from Partick Thistle fans group

The Partick Thistle Supporters Association, The Jags Trust, today was today dealt a blow with the resignations of three key members.

Chair David Stewart along with board members Tom Hogg and Graeme Cowie have all stepped down from their positions with the fans group.

The Jags Trust have for over a decade been the key supporters voice with representation in the corridors of power and boardroom table at Firhill.

In September the Jags Trust were in some quarters recognised as orchestrating the boardroom reshuffle at 90 Firhill Road that saw Allan Cowan and Tom Hughes resign.

However, the Jags Trust loss could be PTFC’s gain as now David Stewart and Tom Hogg are keen to become more involved in with the running of Partick Thistle Football Club, although in what capacity remains to be seen. 

Former Jags Trust Chair David Stewart took time to wish the Jags Trust well.
He said: ‘It’s been an honour being Chair of the Jags Trust over the past 18 months or so. ‘However, I feel that it has been increasingly difficult to produce tangible results for the football club and the supporters from within the structure of the Trust.

‘I hope that someone else can step forward and inject some forward momentum into the Trust, or whatever vehicle that the supporters choose to represent them.’
He added: ‘Despite increasing work commitments, I hope that I can continue to play a small role to assist Partick Thistle Football Club going forward.’

Tom Hogg explained there had been a difference of opinion at the Jags Trust board level. He said: ‘It became clear to me that my views on what the Jags Trust should do in terms of engaging with the supporters and the football club were significantly different to the majority of the Jags Trust board members.

‘I have radical views on refocusing the Trust that are not supported by the majority of its board and I feel that I can’t commit to continuing with an agenda that I consider to be misguided and not in the best interests of Partick Thistle.’

‘I have regrets about leaving with the job of reinvigorating the Trust incomplete, but I now want to concentrate on looking after interests of the club, not the Supporters Association.’

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