September 2024

Thornwood Community Council
Minutes of meeting 3rd September 2024 at 6.30pm in
Partick Free Church of Scotland Hall

Attendees

TCC Members
Shaun Conroy (Chair)
Jamie MacBrayne (Treasurer)
Colin Price (Secretary)
Geraldine Ross-Hargreaves
Madeline Jansen
Nicolas Dear
Seamus Gallagher 
Stephen Marshall

Ex Officio Members
Councillor Lana Reid-McConnell (Scottish Green Party)

Other attendees
Samuel Stair & Zoë Grainge (New Practice)
6 members of the public

Apologies Received in Advance
Ailie Hunter (member)
Councillor Eunis Jassemi (Scottish Labour Party)

Not present
Councillor Feargal Dalton (Scottish National Party)
PC Andy McKay (Police Scotland)

  1. Welcome and apologies
    Chair welcomed members of the Community Council; a special welcome to guests Samuel Stair & Zoë Grainge from New Practice; and six members of the public. Apologies were noted.
  2. Broomhill Place Plan (Samuel Stair, New Practice)
    Samuel gave some background to the gathering of evidence for the Broomhill Place Plan. BCC felt that although they had lots of representation from those in the North of the area, the thoughts of others using Broomhill facilities, particularly those living just outside the boundary in the flats in Thornwood, were unknown. For the Place Plan to be comprehensive it was felt desirable to ensure that these residents should also have their views taken into account.
    Samuel said that the results of this information gathering will be passed to TCC.
    Issues raised by residents that might be of particular interest to TCC were: the speed of traffic on Broomhill Drive; provision for cyclists; the dangers associated with Thornwood Roundabout; the safety and general condition of Broomhill Lane; safety of the woodland area; and that ‘managing land for bio-diversity’ shouldn’t just mean not cutting the grass.
    Samuel explained that the Place Plan related to higher level planning policy, i.e. it feeds into GCC planning processes and shouldn’t be thought of as initiating improvements in the short term.
    The next steps will be to incorporate the results of the public consultation into a draft Place Plan that will be presented to BCC at their October meeting.
    Further information and contact details are available on the website at: https://www.broomhillplan.com/
  1. Minutes for previous meeting (4th June  2024)
    These were approved (Proposed: Jamie; Seconded:Nicolas)
    Matters arising: The shrubbery has been cut back; the meeting re. the RPZ has not taken place; the zoom meeting did not take place; and Andy has been emailed regarding the drug dealing that has been observed in the area.
  2. Elected Representatives Update
    Lana updated TCC on various developments since the last meeting:
    • There will be a meeting to look at the initial designs for the RPZ on Friday 20th Sept.
    • Roundabout: there will be an initial assessment meeting on Tuesday 10th
    • Bins on Laurel St: Lana and Mark McColgan have been in contact with the factor and the situation is still being monitored.
    • Playpark: the need for improvements to the carpeting is being followed up and some progress is being made.
    • Partick Interchange: Some improvements to the area were noted but the area around the bike racks was singled out as an area much in need of improvement.
    The issue of the pavements being in need of repair was raised and it was noted that there was no provision for reporting problems with the  pavements on the GCC app. It was noted that people had mixed success with the app when reporting issues.
  3. Police Scotland Report
    The written report was circulated to TCC members prior to the meeting.
    It was noted that apart from the usual fluctuations in the various types of crime there was nothing specific that needed to be discussed. (However, see AOB).
  4. Summer meetings updates
    1. Thornwood roundabout – 17th June
      Nicola Bell and Kevin Argue both of GCC led the meeting and there was discussion of the various concerns about the roundabout and suggested improvements that have been submitted.

      Two “design options” will be submitted to the working group sometime before Christmas for further discussion and then “community consultations“ will take place on the chosen design.

      ColinP noted that since the meeting lining and signage has been added to the roundabout. There is no obvious reduction in speed but the lines outside the Thornwood pub seem to guide drivers into using a single lane to exit the roundabout and that has made crossing easier and safer. He thanked those who had made this happen.
  1. Kaukab Stewart MSP – 12th August
    Shaun and Colin met with Kaukab at her request as she wanted to know more about what was happening in the constituency.
    Shaun was able to share details of what was happening re. the school and the pitches and Kaukab made very supportive comments. She was unsure if she was able to attend any specific events as parliament will have started sitting. She mentioned the possibility that some funds to assist with social inclusion might be available. She asked to be kept informed about developments.
    Colin mentioned his ongoing attempts to discover why the cost of festive lighting was so high. Kaukab clearly thought the figure was astonishingly high. She said it wasn’t always the case that her taking on the matter was the best way forward but might be able to help by suggesting who best to contact. She encouraged Colin to continue to pursue the matter and asked to be kept informed.
    Colin told the meeting that he had subsequently emailed Stephen Blanchflower, who was responsible for presenting a document in April detailing the 2024/25 costs, but had received no reply. He has since emailed Mark McCogan who has said he will pursue the matter. As yet, there has still been no reply.
  2. Restricted Parking Zone – delayed until September
    A date for the meeting to review the plans has yet to be finalised. A maximum of two reps from each affected Community Council are invited to be at the meeting. Currently Shaun and Colin have submitted times in September when they will and won’t be available.
     
  1. Pitches community event on 10th September
    Shaun drew attention to the meeting taking place on the 10th and hoped that there would be lots of support. The meeting is being supported by Glasgow Eco TRust and the Glasgow Community Food Network.
  2. Landscaping at Thornwood Primary School (Love Thornwood)
    Shaun updated TCC on the work done at the School. Seamus spoke highly of all the work that Shaun had put into the project and encouraged people to ‘go and see for themselves’.
  3. TCC support of pitches working group until funds are secured
    The next step for this project is the establishment of a working group to set up appropriate governance. They will need somewhere to meet and it was agreed that TCC would fund the hiring of the church hall for four such meetings over the coming 12 months. This would be at £35/meeting.
  4. Website – inclusion of discussion forum.
    Stevie and Colin met during the summer  to discuss aspects of the website and agreed that a discussion forum should be added to the site. This will assist TCC in properly ascertaining the views of residents so that TCC can better fulfil its function of representing those views. There are some obvious management issues such as registering of contributors and appropriate moderation. It was agreed that this should go ahead and Colin has agreed to act as moderator. This should be kept under continuous review.
  5. Money for bulbs to be planted locally.
    Reference was made to the decision at the June meeting but it was suggested that other sources of funding should be explored.
  6. Official thanks are recorded to:
    1. Ailie for maintaining the street tubs
    2. Annexe for their continued support to the Community
    3. Basta for supplying food to community events
  7. Community matters
    1. TCC litter picking events first Saturday of the month
      Meeting outside the Thornwood Bar at 10am.
    2. Posters in hotspots to help reduce littering?
      No decision was made on this but it was noted that the notices themselves might be regarded as litter by some people. Perhaps SPT might be contacted to see if they have posters for use at bus stops.
    3. Completion of the roundabout mural
      It was agreed that the mural was a great success and TCC recorded their thanks to those involved in making it happen.
    4. Quantity of recycling bins
      A number of ‘bin issues’ have arisen.
      1. How many recycling bins is each close expected to have?
        Raised by ColinP after his factor noted there was an inadequate supply of bins across the area. The meeting did not know how many bins are allocated to each close and suggested Mark McColgan might have an answer.
      2. An email had come in from the office of Kaukab Stewart MSP about a constituent who had raised an issue concerning bins on Laurel Street that serve 117 Crow Road, The Axiom. This matter is being dealt with by Lana (see above).
      3. A resident on Love Thornwood had raised an issue about the lack of success in using the app to report recycling bins not being emptied. Repeated responses said the bins had been emptied despite this not being the case.
        It was suggested that the resident should contact one of our elected GCC councillors.
  8. Treasurer’s Report – Jamie
    Jamie talked the meeting through the treasurer’s report and noted that over the year we had spent a little more than we had taken in.
    TCC have received an email from Whiteinch CC reminding us of our agreement to help support the cost of a defibrillator and ‘Public Access Bleed Control Kit’ in Victoria Park and that the invoice needed paying. It was reaffirmed that we would contribute £25.00 annually
  9. AOB
    • It was noted that the October meeting would be the AGM and the office bearers will be up for re-election and the post of Vice Chair needed to be filled.
    • There was discussion about drug and other crime related issues in the area and it was suggested that we ask Andy to specifically address a meeting on how best to respond to these issues.

The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 1st October

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