Sporting efforts by Partick Sainsbury team win Relief funding

Staff at Sainsbury’s Partick store recently raised more than £1400 for Sport Relief through sponsored mountain climbs and marathons.

Last month, on Sport Relief night, the company was able to say their workers across the UK had raised more than £4 million for this year’s campaign.

Since their sponsorship of Comedy Relief began in 1999 – the charity from which Sport Relief comes –  the corporate has donated a whopping £60 million.

The Partick Sainsbury team’s efforts began with a cycling event in store. This was followed by a sponsored climb of Ben Narnain and the Cobbler, Completing the series of sporting events was the participation of the Partick Team in the company’s Sport Relief Mile run in Prestwick where Sainsbury’s Chief Executive, Justin King ran.

Amber Gove, a Counters Team Leader, said: ‘Running for a good cause with so many local people was a truly great experience. Sainsbury’s are proud to have sponsored the mile and we’d like to thank all our customers who literally went the extra mile in their fundraising efforts for Sport Relief.’

Sainsbury’s Chief Executive Justin King ran 32 miles over a range of company Sport Relief Mile events and spurred a total of 1000 company colleagues to run with him.

Local charities including Glasgow’s North United Communities (Formerly: Ruchill Youth Project) in Possilpark will benefit from Sport Relief fundraising this year.

Katherine How, the company’s Sport Relief Sponsorship Manager said: ‘Our customers in Partick have helped to transform lives in some of the world’s poorest countries, as well as support our local community, so I’d like to say thank-you to them all.’

 

Bus stops in lots of places

The people of Mansewood and Hillpark are not the only communities facing cuts in bus services.  First Glasgow has stated the following five services will be withdrawn:

Route 2 – Toryglen and Croftfoot

Route 25 – Govan and Silverburn

Route 29 – Manswood, Hillpark and Shawlands

Route 91 – Partick and Clydebank

Route 92 – restricted to operate between Partick Bus Station and Gartnavel Hospital only.

But Glasgow City Council has been told of others to be withdrawn:

Route 11 – Bearsden Road/Switchback – diverted from Glasgow Road, Clydebank to Barns Street/East Barns Street.

Route 42 – Drumchapel and City Centre via Garscadden, Scotstoun, Partick and Charing Cross – evening operation to be withdrawn.

Route 119 – Baljaffray and Castlemains Estate

Route 213A – Bargeddie to Buchanan Bus Station via Baillieston, Edinburgh Road, Cranhill and Alexandra Parade – Sunday day service to be withdrawn.

In addition,  many established routes will have major timetable changes.

Sainsbury sign up for Fair Trade Fortnight

Sainsbury’s Partick will be one of the major stores celebrating Fair Trade Fortnight, which runs from Monday 27 February to Sunday 11 March.

This is Sainsbury’s fifth year selling 100% Fair-trade bananas so store staff will be visiting local schools to help pupils, make Pancakes with Banana Ice Cream.

According to store manager, Louise Watson, Sainsbury’s Partick is very proud to be part of the worldwide celebration: ‘It gives a great opportunity to involve and educate local community about the benefits of Fair Trade,’ she said. Also, store colleague Laura McBain, who is passionately involved in working with Fair Trade, believes that by simply choosing to use Fair-Trade products people can significantly change the communities which are disadvantaged by complex supply chains and imbalances of power in conventional trade.

The FAIR TRADE Mark is the only label which gives groups of farmers and producers the means to improve their livelihoods through a guaranteed minimum price and premium for social, environmental and business projects. Around 7.5 million people (farmers, workers, their families and communities) across 58 countries in the developing world, benefit from the international Fair Trade system.

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.’

 

Gok takes a look in Scotstoun

Words and photograph by Stuart Maxwell

The construction of a new community centre in Scotstoun is ahead of schedule according to the Chair of the local group heading the project.

Heart of Scotstoun, a group of local volunteers, are close to realising a 12 year old dream by opening a new community centre in the area, in an economic climate that has seen many such centres close across the city.

On Wednesday 13 October, Chair Maria Fletcher told the LOCAL NEWS that: ‘the building should be completed by the end of November, ahead of schedule’.  All is going to plan, the facility will officially open for public use in April 2011.’

Said Maria: ‘Scotstoun’s last community centre closed its doors 12 years ago. The centre will provide a focal point and is a great example of a community getting together to make a difference.’

This effort has been aided in no small way by charity worker Mhairi Owens, who spent two months working with the Heart of Scotstoun after being selected, from over 1000 applicants in 2009, to undertake a Vodafone funded placement.

On the day that TV celebrity stylist Gok Wan visited the site on Balmoral Street, Mhairi told the LOCAL NEWS: ‘I was in between jobs and decided to offer my services for a charity. A friend told me what the Heart of Scotstoun were trying to do and it sounded like a worthwhile cause. It has been very rewarding being involved.’

Mhairi added: ‘The vodaphone World of Difference placement gave me the chance to get involved with this charity and has left me inspired to do more.’

The World of Differencee programme pays individuals to work for a charity of their choice for a two month period. The face for the Vodafone initiative is stylist Gok Wan, who visited the Scotstoun development to see the fruits of Mhairi’s efforts.

Gok told the LOCAL NEWS: ‘Travelling across the UK and seeing all the work these guys do is a real eye opener and very emotional.’  Gok, who has made a name for himself persuading middle-aged people to go naked on TV, added: ‘It’s great to be in Glasgow, I’ve been here many times and it’s a very stylish city.’

Come April, Scotstoun should have a very stylish new community centre.

Siege court appearance

Following the siege in Partick on Friday 10 September, 22-year-old John McDermott appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court on a variety of charges including assaulting police officers by throwing grenades at them, assaulting his wife Jillian, two counts of breach of the peace – one for holding a knife to his own throat and the other for throwing things from his second- floor window in Partick.

He was also charged under the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act for allegedly doing these things while supposedly looking after a child. No plea or declaration was given and the man has been remanded in custody pending a bail plea to be heard later this week.

An entire section of Dumbarton Road was cordoned off for more than eight hours when a siege scenario developed with armed police, bomb disposal and emergency services in attendance. Residents were confined to their homes and businesses were unable to open.

Sainsbury’s get charged up for recycling

Sainsbury’s are continuing with their recycling drive by encouraging  customers in all their Glasgow stores to do something new…..recycle their phone chargers!

Starting now, phone charger recycling banks will be introduced in all Sainsbury’s stores. Over the next four weeks the company hopes to collect over 150,000 chargers in total. This is the latest in their series of Make the Difference Days, where stores around the country unite over a specific environmental issue.

It is estimated that there are around 20 million chargers tucked away and lying forgotten in drawers and cupboards

Neil Sachdev,   Sainsbury’s property director, said: ‘By running this campaign, we hope to raise awareness of charger recycling facilities, while at the same time preventing nearly 40 tonnes of waste from going to landfill”.

Sainsbury’s is partnering with Valpak and We Are What We Do for this initiative. Valpak will collect the chargers from Sainsbury’s taking them to a recycling company in Daventry. The chargers are then taken apart and the plastic recycled back into new chargers amongst other things. The metal enters the metal recycling market.

City reacts to first Leaders Debate

By Erik Geddes

General Election outsider and Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg has been hailed by the national press as the victor from last night’s leaders’ debate on ITV in Manchester.
However, Local News Glasgow canvassed reaction at ground level in Glasgow and found a mixed response to the event.
Firstly, during the debate I put out the question on my Twitter – ‘Will these Leaders Debates really make more people vote?’ which was met with derision by Tom Hosie from the East End of Glasgow. He tweeted back to me that it was making people ‘change channel to Have I Got News For You’.
Despite that, the 90 minute debate on ITV captivated the nation with an audience of nearly 10 million people.
Steven McKell was glued to the set but annoyed by the host. He said: ‘Alastair Stewart ruined it, he didn’t let it flow it enough.’
Clegg picked up plaudits from the polls and potential voters, and not just natural Lib Dem voters.
A Greenockian who works in Glasgow and tweets as RealColinQuinn said ‘Clegg has nailed Cameron’.
Stewart Taylor from Partick was also unimpressed with the Tory leader, who was enjoying the Glasgow sunshine this morning. He said: ‘Clegg swung it, Broon was Broon and Cameron was like a wet fish handshake.’
Scottish Nationalists – and indeed many Scots watching – felt left out by the whole affair which dealt with many issues which are devolved matters in Scotland.
Cozie Thom, an SNP supporter, was fed up with Alex Salmond being excluded from the debate.
He said: ‘Never mind the UK’s double-dip recession, as if things weren’t bad enough we’ve now got a triple-dipped debating disaster.’
Indeed, while there were detractors from all sides it seems everyone had something to say about it. Southside Paddy said: ‘Clegg was terrible, slimy and dodged questions, but Gordo came across as distinguished.’

Brigton Olympia Memories

The LOCAL NEWS GLASGOW recently asked for people’s memories of the Olympia building in Bridgeton. One of the first epistles to arrive was from ‘Old Chris, Partick’ as he signs himself.
He says: ‘In my parents’ youth, the Olympia was a thriving music hall. The top acts from all over the UK were on stage there. A Glasgow mill girl called Edie Haley was a firm favourite. Much later, she lived in semi-retirement in the flat above the present day Scotia Bar in Stockwell Street.
‘I also enjoyed her theatre appearances in the Metropole which was next door.
‘As a schoolboy in the 1930s, I was in the Olympia. It had not been modernised. Boxes, procenium Arch and the ‘gods’ still remained.
‘The Brigton Umbrella was not always in Glasgow,’ continues Old Chris. ‘It used to be in the Burgh of Calton before becoming a part of the much expanded city.’
He comments that in the old live theatre days of the Olympia, the fruit barrow on the pavement outside was ‘an absolute necessity.’ The apples and oranges were always a bargain and dates were a penny a bag.
DO YOU HAVE MEMORIES OF THE OLYMPIA BUILDING? Send them to newsdesk@localnewsglasgow.co.uk or write to OLYMPIA, Local News, Yam Publications Ltd, 73 Robertson Street, Glasgow G2 8QD

Pub pals and pedal power raise £5,000 for Maggie’s Centre

Five adventurers who left the comfort of the Liquid Ship, their favourite pub in the West End, for the windswept and interesting climes of John O’ Groats, have raised more than £5,000 for Maggie’s Centre.
The team – Martin Johnstone, Adam Alexander, Lee Vickers and Glen Marrilier – buddied up with Kevin McLelland, whose wife, Chantelle, has successfully battled thyroid cancer, to make the gruelling 400-mile cycle trip North in five days.
Looking back on a journey that had more than its fair share of sun, rain, bumps, bruises and punctures, Kevin said: ‘We were inspired by the sense of achievement, absolutely exhausted, looking forward to the next challenge whatever that might be, and in need of a cold pint.’
He added: ‘Chantelle had cancer a couple of years ago. At the time we were provided with fantastic care by the NHS. However, the real need for support came well after the surgery.
‘Both of us were unaware how big an effect cancer would have on us after the event. We turned to a fantastic organisation, the Maggie’s Centre, who offered us so much help and support.’

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