Green in Govan: Litter, Mayday, KPC AGM
Newsletter #28 - a bit about work I've been doing on street litter and details for Mayday and the Kinning Park Complex AGM
Litter clear-up
One of the biggest complaints I get is the amount of litter on the streets. It’s been a problem for a long time but certainly the last few years it has been noticeably bad across the city. Part of this is the budget cuts that the council have faced year after year but it’s certainly not the only reason. The council changed the on-street bins in 2018 meaning we have a larger overall capacity but there are less locations for bins. This also means that smaller parks, like Plantation Park, had the bins removed from inside the parks.
I’m sure you’re thinking by now “but can people not just take their rubbish home with them?”. Well yes they should, but they don’t and we need to deal with that. We also have an added issue across most of the Govan ward in that we have one of the biggest football stadiums in the country and two busy high schools.
Back in February, as an outcome of this years budget the council will be recruiting hundreds of new staff. Some of these staff are being hired to keep the public realm clean and tidy. Obviously this isn’t a complete solve but it’s certainly a good first step in the right direction. Over the last few months I’ve been focussing on getting things a bit more proactive around Ibrox and Cessnock where the bulk of the complaints come from, and I’m hoping that you may have noticed the place a bit cleaner.
Cessnock, specifically around the Cessnock shops and the bridges over the motorway have long been a bit of a mess. Partially because there’s barely any bins, partially because a lot of football foot traffic comes over the bridges, partially because the school kids use it every day to get to and from school and to get their lunch, and partially because because the council haven’t proactively cleansing it.
Together with my south side of the motorway counterpart
I’ve also been working closely with the council team who litter pick the streets, particularly after home games at Ibrox. Ranger’s provide a private firm to do some street cleaning on the nearby streets but between them and the council’s staff, there were some major blindspots. These were mostly green spaces - being the grassed areas off Ibrox Terrace and Edmiston Drive. Over the last month or so, there has been a regular pick of the spaces and it is looking better (to my eye anyway).
I can’t have an eye on every street of course so if you’re noticing somewhere that’s not getting cleared regularly - please tell me!
Mayday
Mayday, or International Workers Day is coming up next Monday and the Glasgow Trades Council have an action packed agenda for the next few weeks. Which you can access on Instagram here. If you want to know more about the history of International Workers Day - here’s an article which will give you the history.
The big event is the march on Sunday 4th May - kicking off at 11am from Barrowland Park and rallying at Glasgow University Union at 12:30pm. People tend to march with their unions, political parties, or other organisations but if you’re not a member of any relevant organisations and still fancy a walk - join in, you’ll be welcomed!
[Scottish Green Party Bloc at 2023 March]
Kinning Park Complex AGM
Tomorrow (Thursday 1st May) is the annual general meeting for the Kinning Park Complex and they’ve issued an open invitation to join them between 6-8pm. They’re hoping for community members to give their feedback about the space, tell them what you hope to see next and to share some food!
Hopefully see you there!
Surgeries
I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:
Tuesday 13th May - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street
Thursday 15th May - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street
Friday 30th May - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road
Upcoming Community Councils
Govan - Pearce Institute - 12th May - 7pm
Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 19th May - 7pm
Govan East - Riverside Hall - 20th May - 6pm
Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 21st May - 7pm
Drumoyne - Govan High - 22nd May - 7pm
These are all public meetings so you can just turn up at your relevant one. They’d all be very happy for someone new to join in! I’m aim to attend at many of them as possible so hopefully see you there!
An issue I see is that bin openings are too small to get a carrier bag in. Carrier bags get left next to the bins, and the wildlife disperses the contents of them overnight.
This is the case around festival park where there's a lot of match day coach parking - people make an effort to collect their rubbish but because of insufficient facilities it ends up in bushes anyway.
My suggestion would be temporary bins on match days around these busier areas, and even litter pickers on the day.