Fairfield is fair bloomin’

During Glasgow Fair 2010, young Govanites opened a new chapter in local history. They ceremoniously took off protective covers to reveal the refurbished windows of Fairfield Shipyard offices in Govan Road, which have been boarded up for nine years.
This completes the first phase of a £4.5m restoration project led by Govan Workspace Ltd. Said Pat Cassidy, Managing Director of Govan Workspace: ‘The young people have done a fantastic job. They’ve been out since early morning picking up litter and planting window boxes and tubs with flowers. This is an important day for this community. This historic space will become offices with the community heavily involved. This is a celebration of what Govan has achieved particularly through shipbuilding. And it is about time these achievements were celebrated.’
Already £3.6m has been found and the Fairfield development partners are confident the remaining £.9m can be secured to allow the second phase of the refurbishment to start by Christmas this year.
Added Pat: ‘We’ve been able to make the place wind proof and watertight. Now we need to finish the job to transform these historic offices into usable, quality, workspace.’
Part of the plan is to dedicate an area within Fairfield House to the history of shipbuilding.
Commented Tommy McMahon, secretary of the Govan Youth Information Project (GYIP) management committee: ‘ You could say the young people who had the job of taking off the window covers today, are the latest generation to be working at Fairfield offices!’ They were all part of the summer programme run by GYIP for several hundred local youngsters during the school holidays.

Govan armada sets sail

Boats of all shapes and sizes set off from the River Clyde at Govan on Sunday 2 May in the first armada to leave these shores in generations.
The craft had been created by local children in a series of fun workshops using re-cycled items and had been led by artists from Atypical Root, a public Art Trail which was part of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art.  With free burgers from the Riverside Community Hall, the Fire and Rescue Service and local Councillor Shaukat Butt, the whole mission was given a blessing by the newly appointed Bishop Greogr Duncan, of the Scottish Episcopal Church before setting sail. The boats were taken out into the Rivr Clyde by a vessel from the Fire and Rescue Service personnel who had the job of placing them in the water. Each boat has a message attached. The hope is that anyone finding one of the craft will contact the organisers www.atypicalroot.com  But since the children themselves, and the adult art tutors, parents and friends were not allowed down to the riverside because of the state of the derelict land,  it is indicative of how inaccessible the riverbanks are.

Support Lorne’s drive to pass his Husky Dog Driving Licence

This is the week our barking mad colleague Lorne Brown leaves for the Arctic Circle to sit his Husky Dog Driving Licence and to raise funds for Guide Dogs for the Blind.
Dear Website reader, we invite you to support our 78-year-old mad-cap, former production editor at the LOCAL NEWS GLASGOW. He aims to raise £5000 for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and you can help him by visiting his page – Lorne Brown – on JustGiving.com website. He’s more than half way there. Can you help him hit his target before his return?  He’ll experience day-time temperatures of +3 or -13 when the wind chill factor is counted in. His four days of living as the Inuit people live – travelling by husky sledge, living in tents and making a hole in the ice to fish for supper, should end with him being tested driving a sledge by himself. ”These dogs are bigger than normal and there’s a lot of them in front of me,’ said Lorne. ‘It will be a real test for me for they’ve been bred to do this over hundreds of years and I’ve only manged to learn to ski a little in the past few months!’
He’s already been out to Ittoqqortoormiit, North of the Arctic Circle to acclimatise. On arrival, he was issued with a gun almost as tall as himself as protection against polar bears. The local people were NOT kidding! The skin of a recently shot bear was hanging up to dry outside his window.
Said Lorne: ‘I don’t know if I’m acting maturely, but I plan to raise enough to train a guide dog and have some fun at the same time.’
A confirmed workaholic, he found retiral and vacuuming the carpet uninteresting. While leafing through some National Geographic magazines, he saw the challenge to learn to drive huskies in the Arctic Circle. Since his daughter’s partner is blind, and Lorne himself had a bit of eye trouble, he is aware of the everyday problems every blind person faces.
‘I understand, a little, what the word BLIND really means. Nothing is there! NOTHING,’ said Lorne. ‘You cannot see the telly, people get irked when YOU bump into THEM. Cars parked on the pavement give you grief, dustbins and abandoned shopping trolleys, likewise. It goes on… But the help of a guide dog- this fantastic, trained dog, that steers a blind person in and out of lifts, stops at kerbs, improves confidence and prevents falls into potholes, is available. But all the funding is through charity. There is no government cash.’
Lorne has already paid for his eight-day trip and he’s packing his bagpipe too. All donations will go to the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association via JustGiving. So go there now and key in LORNE BROWN and support his amazing venture.

Scarborough makes big splash on the Clyde

 

The 90-metre long ship, commissioned by the government of Trinidad & Tobago (T&T), is one of three that form part of a £150m contract. BAE will take the vessels from scratch to sea trials on behalf of the Caribbean republic and will provide five years of in-service support.

The UK Ministry of Defence is providing T&T Coast Guard crews with training.

The Port of Spain – the Scarborough’s sister ship – has been launched at Portsmouth. The third ship will be built on the Clyde.

BAE’s Govan operation recently launched HMS Defender – the fifth of six Type-45 destroyers for the Royal Navy.

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