Green in Govan: Street Art, Council Committees
Newsletter #29 - New murals across Greater Govan and a wee explainer about what work I do on council committees
New Street Art in Govan!
Over the last few years you may have noticed a big increase in decoration being added to gable ends, bringing colour and art to our streets. The council, housing associations and arts organisations have been working together with Yardworks to deliver these, each being totally unique and with community consultation beforehand.
Yesterday, Linthouse Housing Association had the official unveiling of two murals on gable ends at Burghead Drive and Place which complements the work the council have completed at the nearby underpass.
It’s well worth a wee trip down to check them out! I also hear that there’s a new one going up in the next week on Govan Road so keep your eyes peeled for that!
[Burghead Drive gable end]
[Burghead Underpass works]
[Burghead Place gable end]
What does a councillor do on committees?
Since starting this newsletter, I’ve been trying to make all things council more accessible to constituents and give you an insight into how the council actually works. I’ve had a few people ask in the last few weeks about how committees work so I’ve decided to give you a bit of a rundown of some of my committees from the last week.
The councils committee work is split into three kinds of committees:
Policy committees - these committees are probably what you expect, they’re split into different kinds of related policies so you end up with committees like:
Economy, Housing, Transport and Regeneration
Environment and Liveable Neighbourhoods
Education, Skills and Early Years
Scrutiny Committees - these committees are chaired by the opposition and are designed to hold the council administration and senior officers to account. There are two of these:
Operational Performance and Delivery
Finance and Audit
Quasi-Judicials - these are probably the more obscure of the committees. They are not party political and operate as permission granting spaces for planning, licencing and regulation.
Currently I sit on one of each of the above so will give you a bit of a flavour of each one.
The policy committee I sit on is the Contracts and Property committee which kind of does what is says on the tin. Approves and scrutinises procurement of goods and services to the council, and makes decisions on changes to property owned by the council. The big item on the agenda at last weeks committee was about the George Square redevelopment contract, as part of this item I raised concerns that the water feature had been removed from the plans. Also on the agenda was a contract for G4S for cash collection services. I raised some concerns about how ethical the company was and we’re waiting for a response from procurement officers on that.
The scrutiny committee I sit on is a new appointment for me (yesterday was my first meeting). It’s the Operational Performance and Delivery committee. At each meeting we have a paper about particular sections of the council’s strategic plan where officers will update us on their progress and then we question them. At yesterday’s meeting, there was a large section on education and on waste collection. If you’re so minded - you can see all the papers here.
Lastly, the quasi-judicial committee I sit on is the City of Glasgow Licencing Board, of which I’m the vice-chair. The whole point of the board is to regulate alcohol sales in the city. This is achieved through reviewing applications for licences and making a determination on the impact of the provision of alcohol. Last week we also did our yearly visits where the whole board goes around the city 8pm-2am visiting venues and discussing the impact of our licencing regime on the night time economy.
This is the quickest whistle stop tour I could do - I hope it was interesting!
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!