EDITORIAL

Remembering can be done in so many ways…. with ceremony and music and flags and flowers or in silence with no one else there.

Simply telling the stories of the people who are being remembered is salutary.

One of the most moving stories of sacrifice in war is of John Young, a 24 year old from 7 Jedburgh Gardens in Glasgow’s West End.  He was a captain serving with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1944 in Kohima in the North East of India. This was a crucial ridge selected by the Japanese as their way into India.

Captain Young’s order was to hold the position ‘until the last man and the last round.’ Knowing the impossibility of the situation, he finally ordered his men to retreat and he elected to hold the position with the injured, so that he would be the last man and he would fire the last round. His fight so impressed the Japanese that they buried him with full military honours.

John Young is remembered today by veterans of the Burma Campaign, who set up the Kohima Educational Trust which gives educational support to the children of the area where they fought.

He is remembered by a granite plaque at the door of his Glasgow home. This was unveiled in 2011 by the then Lord Provost of Glasgow, Robert Winter, after sterling research work by Roy McCallum and Gordon Graham of the Kohima Trust.

He is remembered by the congregation of Wellington Church where he and his family worshipped. There,  his name is one of many inscribed on the wall of remembrance.  A special collection on Sunday 11 November 2012, was inspired by John Young’s sacrifice and has been given to the Kohima Educational Trust.

And,   following a worldwide competition organised by the College of Piping in Glasgow, John Young will be remembered by a pipe tune named after him. This will be played in public for the first time on Thursday 15 November at 11am in Jedburgh Gardens where John grew up.

Remembering will continue for a long time to come.

 

West end business event run by Raj

Life Coach, Raj Nahar, is running a Business Networking event on Wednesday 26 September at 6.30pm in Coopers Bar, 499 Great Western Road in the West End. It will be a chance to have indepth discussions with other business people and to discover how to achieve your entrepreneurial goals.

A splendid buffet is included in the event ticket of £15. More details at: www.rajnahar-coaching.com

Travel clinic wins top award

Crow Road Pharmacy in the West End, has won a professional award for its outstanding travel clinic. The chemists – J. A. Hogarths – like to wish their customers a ‘healthy holiday’ and offer specialised clinical services such as yellow fever vaccinations and malaria treatment.

The judges in the Scottish Pharmacist Awards praised pharmacist Mhairi Speirs and her team for their walk-in style travel clinic and their dedication to the community by helping people make ‘informed and professionally guided decisions about their own health.’

Collecting the prestigious Business Initiative Award at a ceremony in Edinburgh, Mhairi said: ‘I feel so honoured and absolutely delighted to have received this. I am just thrilled. We have had really positive feedback in the clinic. We have a wide-ranging demographic among our customers so it is great to be able to offer the service to everyone.’ She added: ‘local schools seem to be going further afield for long trips. So we’d love to work with them to develop the clinic.’

Fairtrade kids head for the park

Glasgow’s largest primary school’s first ever Fairtrade Fortnight Parade will set off for Kelvingrove Park on Friday 9 March from their Otago Street base.

More than 700 pupils, staff and parents from Hillhead Primary School, including Kelvin Park Early Years Centre, will demonstrate their support for the ideals of Fairtrade with the march and rally.

Said Head Teacher Francis Donaghy: ‘It’s a big event for us and everyone involved is really excited and looking forward to it. It’s going to look fantastic. We have Fair Trade status as a school. On the parade the children will be carrying banners, holding placards, wearing tabards, waving flags, singing songs and generally making a lot of noise.

The rally will leave the West End school at 2pm. Three different routes will be used by different groups of children and they will all meet up about 45 minutes later at a central point in the park.

The new school has been green from the start with a unique turf roof to show its good ecology credentials.

Repairs under way after the storm

Glasgow is picking up the pieces after the storm. Teams of workers have been called back from holiday to deal with the hundreds of damaged buildings.

Winds of more than 90mph swept across the city in the first few days of 2012. Rail services were suspended and people advised not to travel. Two high sided vehicles were blown over on the Kingston Bridge causing it to be closed for the first time in most people’s memories. More than 180 trees were damaged as winds up to 95mph hit. The city’s Christmas Tree in George Square was blown over causing the square to be closed to the public for safety’s sake. The River Clyde broke its banks around the George V Bridge.

Many residents in the West End, in particular, woke to find their chimney stack blown off. In most instances debris fell to the ground and damaged cars below. In many cases, huge holes were left in the roof.

Workers were called back from holidays by David Hunter which is part of the long established Glasgow company Hugh Scott Builders and Slaters. Said Callum Hunter: ‘We have had between 500 and 600 calls to repair the damage done by the storm. We will get around to everyone but we have to prioritise and first make each place safe and make a temporary repair. Then we will have to come back.’

He said the properties most affected by the storm were traditional West End flats where the chimney heads had collapsed and flat roofed buildings from the 1970s and 1980s. ‘Often they were shoddily built and of poor design,’ he said. ‘As for the tenements; one top flat in the West End has a four metre square hole in the roof where the chimney head has been blown in. It will be at least three months before the owner can return home and he’s not alone in that situation.’

American student, Bill Baehr from St Louis, Missouri stopped to ponder one of the fallen trees in Kelvin Way as he walked to Glasgow University. He said: ‘I come from Missouri and we have tornadoes. We don’t associate Scotland with storms like this!’ But he added that it hasn’t put him off the city.

If you have experiences of the storm you’d like to retell on this website or if you have  good pictures of the storm damage you’d like to show, please email this website : franklinfeatures@gmail.com  The website is:www.localnewsglasgow.co.uk

Many more for tennis!

By David Lamont

The West End now has new, all-weather tennis courts which are floodlit.  Broomhill Tennis and Squash Club President, Claire McKelvie said at the official opening: ‘It is fantastic to see such a huge project come to fruition. It provides excellent tennis playing opportunities all year round. This will enhance the Club’s ability to offer excellent facilities with low fees and no waiting list.’

Located in Crow road close to the Clyde Tunnel, the Club is easily accessible to all parts of the city.

Recently, the long-established club received the Lawn Tennis Association’s Clubmark award. This shows that a club’s coaches have appropriate qualifications and that child protection, equality and health and safety issues are properly addressed.

The new squash season has started with two gents and ladies teams playing in the West of Scotland leagues. There is a range of squash activities for all standards.

A junior tennis coaching programme is available to members and non-members throughout the winter. The Club has special discounts and promotions for new members and it has a bar and social events.

See their website for further details: www.broomhill-tennis-squash.co.uk

Children make magic in West End garden

 More than 60 children – with some adult help – transformed a West End Garden into the magic world of Peter Pan. The musical production on Saturday 6 August, held captive, a wide variety of residents and friends in the Banavie and Turnberry Rd Gardens behind Hillhead Secondary School.

After only five days of rehearsal, the summer school pupils of Theatre Studio performed a version of Peter Pan’s Adventures. First indoors at Partick Burgh Hall on Friday and in the private gardens on Saturday where early showers demanded brollys but the sun soon came out.

With a full complement of Victorian family, Tinkerbell fairy, Indians, Pirates, Mermaids, Lost Boys and even an Alligator, the cast sang and acted with great gusto. They also helped create the music, props and costumes. Ages ranged from 5 to 16 with some likely talents showing.

Said Producer Joanna Harte, founder of Theatre Studio: ‘ This is the third year we have done a summer project. Previously we did A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tales of Alice. Each year the children amaze me especially with how quickly they learn and develop their parts.’ Added Joanna: ‘I write and direct the shows and try to make sure each child always has at least one thing to say or do so each participant feels truly involved the whole time. This year we had Rebecca Oliver as our morning school supervisor and assistant director, Katrina Nimmo as Musical Director and Joanne Fullarton as morning school assistant and props maker.’

Under musical director Katrina,who composed the music for the hour long production, a key board, several xylophones, 2 cellos, 3 violins and 3 drums as well as percussion provided by the 5-year-old Indian tribe and a bell for Tinkerbell were all tunefully played by the young music makers.

Said one of the children afterwards: ‘It was great fun to do this. And I made new friends.’

The large audience of parents, grandparents, relatives, friends and neighbours all agreed this was a very fine production – you could even say a magic one!

 The Theatre Studio was set up three and half years ago in the West End of Glasgow. It runs weekly drama and musical theatre classes, a children’s and adult choir, an adult jazz class, and holiday projects in February, Spring and Summer. The children go from scripts to performance in a week! See website www.glasgowtheatrestudio.com

Bukharah is the right Spice to win top award

The spice of Glasgow’s curry houses took to the red carpet on Tuesday 15 June  for the Scottish Curry Awards at the Thistle Hotel, and a new kid on the block stole the show.
The newly opened Bukharah restaurant, part of the refurbished Lorne Hotel, was the star, bagging both the Restaurant and Chef of the Year Awards. For Archie Sharif, owner of the new Lorne Hotel, this recognition is sweet justification for the changes he made to Glasgow’s famous hotel, which reopened only in 2009.
After the awards, Archie beamed:’This is a fantastic achievement for the Bukharah, to win both awards, I am absolutely delighted and want to thank all our customers for voting for us. The Bukharah offers something different to the curry connoisseur, it’s healthy Indian cuisine, exactly what it says on the door, home cooking at it’s best.’
While the Bukharah is a new player on Glasgow’s vibrant curry scene, experienced hands are involved in cooking the curry. Head Chef Mahrukh Butt, originally from Pakistan, came from the 5 star Dubai Sheraton to be head chef  at the Bukharah. In collecting the Chef of the Year award Mahruk continues a remarkable personal journey. In leading Bukharah’s kitchen she became Scotland’s first Asian female head-chef. Mahruk lavished praise on the Lorne hotel after receiving her award. She said:’I am delighted to have been awarded Chef of the Year. Working at the Bukharah has allowed me to be creative in my cooking, I enjoy being able to come up with new healthy food dishes using fresh Scottish produce. The restaurant is part of a boutique hotel and not a global chain, it’s unique and to me that’s something special.’  Congratulations to Bukharah and all the other flavours of the night!

Kids bowled over on the green

Woodend Bowling Club in the West End has opened its doors to up-and-coming sports stars with their inaugural Junior Open Day. More than 50 local children descended on the club, recently, to be introduced to bowling by former World, Commonwealth and National champion, David Gourley.

Now 101 years old, the Club is part of ‘Get on the Green’; a nationwide campaign to interest young people in the sport. The campaign is organised by Taylor Bowls, the UK’s leading bowls manufacturer.

George Ross, President of Gents Bowling at Woodend, said: ‘The day was a great success and we look forward to more events that get local people interested in bowls. Some of the kids who came along had a natural flair for the sport so we have had additional coaching sessions for them. Who knows, we may even have found a new champion to take Scotland to victory in the 2014 Commonwealth Games!’

Bowling Clubs across Scotland are being helped to rejuvenate the sport by Taylor Bowls. Managing Director, Grant Heron, said: ‘Well done to everybody at Woodend Bowling Club for putting on such a fun-filled Open Day. It was refreshing to see so many children on the green.’

Battle for the future of Clouston Street

The West End’s green fingered fraternity are embroiled in a war of words with Councillor Jim McKechnie over the site of the old blase football pitches on Clouston Street.
North Kelvin Meadow Campaign (NKMC) have created community gardens and social space on the land which is ear-marked for development.
Douglas Peacock, the Chair of NKMC said: ‘Two years ago Councillor McKechnie claimed the land was already sold and there was no point in us using the space.
‘But that was incorrect and our gardening project has brought the space to life and is a community asset.
‘Councillor McKechnie is adamant the sale goes through and he has not been supportive of our moves to bring the community together.
‘The delays in the developers’ action may be a result of the recession and the banks hostility to lending.
‘When that changes, there is a danger that all our good work could be put to waste. But we’re determined to not let that happen.
‘The Meadow is like a green-gym, where -people can grow veg, meet one another and keep fit at the same time.’
The proposed developers, New City Vision (NCV), have signed the missives for the land and were expected to have started work on their 115 residential flats development in January.
Harry O’Donnell, Director of New City Vision, in January told LOCAL NEWS GLASGOW: ‘We’re nearly at the stage of testing the land with trial pots and bore holes.
‘We are doing everything possible to work in a spirit of co-operation with the gardeners.’

However, there has been no sign of NCV at the site.   Director Harry O’Donnell spoke to Douglas Peacock early in the year and advised him that they could keep growing for another season as they would not be boring any holes or doing any work on the site until well after summer ’10.
Councillor Jim McKechnie wants the sale to go ahead as he has been promised £1.1m of the proceeds of the sale to go to the redevelopment of the football pitches at the corner of Maryhill Road and Queen Margaret Drive.
He said: ‘The gardeners appeared on the scene some 18 months after the decision to go ahead with the sale of the land was agreed.
‘The so-called Meadow campaigners are very much Johnny-come-lately.’
‘The legal transfer of the land has taken a lot of time, that is just due to the the administration of the sale.’
‘The council have legalised the operation of the gardeners by inviting them to sign a licensing agreement which will allow them to stay on the land until the end of November when NCV will definitely need on.
‘At the moment NCV are proceeding with their planning application which involved a period of community consultation prior to approval.’
However, the gardeners will carry-on and are encouraging parents and children to attend their Sunday events and help with painting, litter-clearing, signage making and meeting their neighbours.
Badminton, treasure hunts and other games will be on offer for kids (and parents!) who get bored with the gardening.
The gardeners claim that local people are reclaiming the site and tell of people playing cricket and generally enjoying the green space.

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