Last Chance to Make Your Voice Heard in Local Consultations

housingdemocracyCommunitypostwomen

Oct 21

Written By Greater Govanhill Notices

Want to have your voice heard on local issues? There are currently consultations on the council’s South Central Development Framework, which covers Govanhill and lighting in Queen’s Park.

By Jack Howse

Queen’s Park Lighting Consultation

For many, Queen’s Park is the beating heart of Glasgow’s Southside — you’ll find friends and family convening on the hill for BBQs, the bandstand for concerts and the woods to feel like you are completely out of the city. Yet many people, especially women, feel unsafe walking through the park at night due to the lack of lighting. As Becki Menzies, wrote on International Women’s Day: “Lighting in parks is a long-standing demand of women in the city, and of feminist campaign groups across the country such as Reclaim These Streets. Lighting up our parks and making everyone feel safer seems like a no-brainer”.

Read more: Imagine a Glasgow Built By and For Women...

Thankfully, Queen’s Park was chosen as one of three parks to participate in a pilot scheme to improve our city’s park lighting. Glasgow City Council has committed to use this pilot scheme to look into how to provide sensitive lighting solutions in parks, which includes considering both equality and climate impacts. You can read the Parks Lighting Update report for more background info.

On Wednesday (25th October), Greenspace Scotland will be leading a workshop and consultation into the community’s opinion on the lighting plans. The workshops will include community discussions about park safety, giving a wider perspective on different approaches to lighting in parks. It will start with a bite to eat and a brief presentation on placemaking followed by a walk around Queen's Park.

The workshop is free to attend but numbers are limited for night time safety reasons, please only book a space if you plan to attend. When registrations are full you will be able to add your name to a waiting list and Greenspace Scotland will contact you if another workshop is scheduled or a place becomes available. Book here

South Central Local Development Framework

There is also still time to share your views on the Glasgow City Council’s Local Development Framework (LDF) for South Central Glasgow, including Govanhill. The LDF is a 10-year planning framework for areas of Glasgow where, as the council put it: “It is recognised that an additional layer of planning intervention is required [...] these areas still face important challenges and also offer significant opportunities to justify more detailed consideration and action focused intervention”.

You can read Glasgow City Council’s assessment on the South Central here. The report includes a lot of demographic and sociological data like health, age, housing etc. in order to pinpoint in what ways the council wants to ‘develop’ the area. It also sets out what it sees as the strengths and weaknesses of the area. Strengths include community feelings and provision of day to day amenities whereas the weakness include bad public transport and the motorway cutting off communities.

Glasgow City Council is now letting local residents have their say on their plans, as well as identifying other aspects of community life that should be within the community framework plans. The deadline for taking part is 31 October and the survey can be found here.