‘Frustrating and disheartening’: Govanhill Baths Community Trust blames council for delays to Covid memorial
Glasgow City Council has been accused of “moral” and “bureaucratic” failure over delays to a memorial for victims of the Covid-19 pandemic which is sitting in storage at taxpayers expense, The Ferret reveals.
Image from Window Wanderland 2020, at the height of the pandemic. First appeared in Connecting Govanhill Through Art article
By Paul Dobson, The Ferret
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the nationwide Remembering Together initiative in March 2021, with projects in each of Scotland’s 32 council areas given £120,000 to create a “unique” local memorial.
The national project concluded in September 2024, with memorials completed or being installed in every council area – except Glasgow.
Across Scotland memorials funded through Remembering Together ranged from music and events to benches and the creation of a special tartan in the Borders.
Govanhill Baths Community Trust, the community organisation leading Glasgow’s project, says a sculpture co-created by artists and Glaswegians affected by Covid-19 is finished and ready to be installed in Queen’s Park, in the city’s Southside.
However, the council has yet to approve the installation, claiming that “valid” safety concerns about the memorial have not been “adequately addressed.”
Govanhill Baths disputes this and claims the council has shown little engagement with the project or guidance on what steps can be taken to ensure it is installed.
It says council employees have attended meetings about the project without being properly prepared and that goalposts for it to gain approval have been shifted at the eleventh hour. The sculpture remains in storage, which has cost the organisation over £1,800 in public money so far.
“Instead of a public space for reflection and care, we are left with a sculpture in storage, accumulating monthly costs – because of systemic failures and a lack of accountability.”
The chief executive of Govanhill Baths Community Trust, Fatima Uygun, claimed trying to get clearance from the council had been “one of the most frustrating and disheartening experiences” the organisation had faced.
“We began this project with a deep commitment to honouring the lives lost, the communities most affected and the collective trauma we’ve all carried,” she said.
“The community showed up. The artists delivered. But instead of a public space for reflection and care, we are left with a sculpture in storage, accumulating monthly costs – because of systemic failures and a lack of accountability.”
Fatima argued those most impacted by Covid-19 – including those “experiencing disabilities, bereaved families and frontline workers” – had been “sidelined” by a process that, for many of them, echoed the failures they experienced during the pandemic.
“We’ve submitted proposals, attended meetings, revised plans and waited,” Uygun continued. “This memorial was meant to offer dignity and space to grieve. The fact that it remains hidden from public view is more than a bureaucratic failure – it’s a moral one.”
The artwork, designed by Glaswegian artists Littlewhitehead, is around two metres tall and features concrete panels on a metal frame. Its design has yet to be unveiled to the public but the plan is to put it near the poetry garden in Queen’s Park.
A council spokesperson said there was “a risk from children climbing and falling from the structure” and also from a “concrete panel falling from the steel structure that supports these panels”.
They continued: “We have valid concerns about the safety of the proposed structure that have not been adequately addressed by the team from Govanhill Baths.
“Govanhill Baths undertook to provide us with information that would satisfy our safety concerns and so far they have not done so. As the landowner of Queen’s Park, we have a legal responsibility to ensure our parks are safe for the public to use.
“Without further information from the project team that satisfies our safety concerns, the community trust does not have permission to install the structure in Queen’s Park. We are happy to continue the dialogue with their project team and find a way for the proposed memorial to go on display.”
“My worry is that the impact of these genuine and heartfelt stories will continue to be minimised as the delay goes on.”
Govanhill Baths said the sculpture was designed in “consultation with a structural engineer” who has “confirmed the soundness of the design”. They said they welcomed “any sincere effort to resolve the situation”, but that their experience with the council “tells a different story”.
Artist Audrey O’Brien worked on the first phase of the Glasgow project which involved meeting with “nearly 40 people from diverse local community groups” to inform the type of memorial that Glaswegians wanted.
She said: “Each person I spoke to shared their personal reflections about their experiences during Covid-19, many of which were very moving.
“In terms of the delay to the installation of the final sculpture, my worry is that the impact of these genuine and heartfelt stories will continue to be minimised as the delay goes on. The sculpture as the city’s artistic response has a vital role to play in helping all of us process what happened, both now and into the future.”
Carla Almeida, previously the Remembering Together lead for Greenspace Scotland, who oversaw the 32 projects across Scotland, said despite various hurdles the national project had many highlights and had been cathartic for those involved who had lost people during Covid and not had the chance to grieve. She claimed that though in some areas it took longer, or was more difficult to get buy-in, Glasgow City Council “had zero interest from the get go.”
“It is quite embarrassing, “ she added. “We had 32 projects and though the others have had many many challenges and delays all the others are going ahead.”
Scottish Labour MSP Paul Sweeney, who represents the Glasgow region, said the failure to install the sculpture was “disappointing.”
Sweeney said: “I share the frustration of Govanhill Baths, who fulfilled their side of the bargain and constructed a sculpture co-created by artists and people affected by Covid-19. It is now time that the council fulfill their side of the deal and install the sculpture in a prominent location in the city, so that we can remember family members and loved ones who died tragically as a result of Covid-19.”
Glasgow City Council pointed out that it had previously worked with organisations, including The Herald newspaper, to create a nationwide Covid-19 memorial in the city’s Pollok Park.
The Scottish Greens councillor for the local Pollokshields ward, Jon Molyneux, said delivery of the memorial is “long overdue” and that it was “vital” that a “solution is found as soon as possible that allows the artwork to go in the ground.”