Cricketers score two schools

By Elyas Hussain

Two new primary schools have been built in flood-devastated Pakistan – thanks to money raised by a cricketing event in Glasgow.
The Active Life Club (ALC), a youth group on the Southside of the city, together with Hamilton Cricket Club and Clydesdale Cricket Club held a Super Six’s tournament in the summer and raised more than £8,000.
The funding enabled charity Ucare Foundation to build the schools – one in the Glasgow Village in Muzaffar Ghar in the Punjab District and other in the Edinburgh Village in Charsada in the North Frontier. Ucare has committed to building at least 600 homes in different areas badly hit by recent flooding, but it has no programme for schools to be built.
Raza Sadiq, Chairperson of ALC told the LOCAL NEWS: ‘We promote community integration and cohesion and play an important role in developing future leaders. The new schools in Pakistan will provide a constant reminder and a lasting legacy in learning. Glasgow’s people are always supportive to such causes and will help us sustain and develop these schools as well as continue to help us engage with and develop young people in this city.’
The ALC was set up in 1999 by Raza Sadiq and other friends and is run by volunteers. It provides a range of recreational, diversionary and physical activities for young people from the Asian and ethnic minority communities in Govanhill, Toryglen, King’s Park, Mount Florida and other areas of the Southside.

Council creates £1.5m fund for private sector house repairs

By Martin Graham

Glasgow City Council has announced a £1.5m fund to help private homeowners to carry out essential repair work.
The fund, along with the new powers granted to local authorities as part of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, means that the council can enforce work to be carried out to resolve the issue, especially prevalent in tenements, where a minority of owners are unwilling to pay their share of essential repairs.
The money will be allocated from the Council’s Private Sector Housing pot and will be set aside into a fund that can be used to cover the costs of moderate repair work carried out under statutory notice.
Work paid from the fund will be replenished as accounts and fees are repaid to the council, with the local authority charging a fee of 15% to cover its technical and administrative costs.
A lack of participation by some homeowners often means that problems such as rain penetration is not dealt with, dampness not treated and this lack of timely remedial action leads to a much more serious and expensive repair, and misery for those owners willing, but unable, to get consensus to address the problem.
Until now, the council was unable to assist owners or property mangers in carrying out this work because it did not have the necessary resources to cope the scale of the problem and the housing services lacked the appropriate power to enforce the work by all owners.
As reported in the Local News previously, lack of repairs to properties can lead to buildings becoming dangerous, like the property on Cathcart Road in Mount Florida which was in such poor repair that masonry was falling on to the pavement below.
Councillor Elaine McDougall, Executive Member for Housing, said: ‘We regularly receive calls from frustrated home owners, across the city, in tenemental properties, who cannot gain agreement from all owners to pay for minor but essential repair work to their properties.
‘Up until now, we have been unable to assist all of these owners or property managers but this new power allows us to enforce the work to be carried out and recover the full cost from all the owners.
‘This scheme will help to improve the quality of the city’s older housing stock, preserving it for future generations, and I would hope that if proved successful, this self-sustaining fund can be expanded in the future.’
This is a step towards the model for property management common in Edinburgh, where there are no factors for tenement closes, rather the council acts as property manager and issues statutory notices for essential repairs to each homeowner.

It’s a Cinderella story as Theatre Nemo goes fishing for new talent

Theatre Nemo, the community theatre company which has been working across the South Side of Glasgow for the past 10 years, is planning a spring performance of Cinderella.
Loosely based upon Roald Dahl’s Revolting tales, the show is expected to open in the Spring. Theatre Nemo is calling on dancers, singers, musicians and actors – no
stage experience necessary – to take part. In addition, stage crew volunteers are required.
The establishment of a community choir, under the guidance of musical director Gregg Muir, has been a big success.
Gregg began his musical career at 19, playing trumpet and singing backing vocals for various bands in gigs throughout Scotland.
Having compled an HNC in Music, he went on to Strathclyde University, attaining a 2:1 Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in composition and community music
The group opened the National Lottery Fund Big Meet at Hampden Park and played to an audience that included Cabinet Secretary for Finance, John Swinney MSP, and Dharmendra Kanani, who is director of The Lottery for Scotland.
Theatre Nemo recently secured funding from the Scottish Enterprise Trust to hire a business development worker for a year.
The first meeting of the Cinderella group was on Sunday, 10 January 2010 at Mount Florida Parish Church, 1123 Cathcart Road, Glasgow from 2.30pm till 4pm.
Theatre Nemo can be contacted at 0141 552-3198 or by email at Isabel@theatrenemo.org.

Crumbling building threat in Mount Florida

Residents in Mount Florida are extremely concerned about the danger of falling masonry from a building in the area.

The close at 1023 Cathcart Road is four storeys high with a restaurant, the Pearl of India, on the ground floor.

Peter Rose lives on Hampden Terrace, just around the corner from the danger site. He reported the problem to the council.

He said: “I have a young family, including a 6 month old baby in a pram and a four year old daughter.

“We pass by there every day, so I am concerned for the safety of my family.

“Even after the fencing was put up there was more masonry falling on to the pavement.

“A larger piece could easily fall off and hit someone or go into the road.”

There is a lane to the side of the building and the corner flats have large round bay windows.

The masonry has been crumbling from the lintel above the bay window of the top floor flat and falling on to the pavement below.

Glasgow City Council has erected safety fencing to keep pedestrians away from the danger area.

A spokesman for the council confirmed that they were aware of the problem and that it was council officials who installed the safety fence.

The council are in dialogue with the owners to address repairs to the property.

The close has no factor at present, so the council is working with the six owners to try and get consensus on what to do. This is expected to add considerably to the timescale for repairs.