Breathing new life into our local communities with Queens Park Neighbourhoods
Discover a community-led initiative, Queen's Park Neighbourhoods (QPN), is developing a blueprint to improve local spaces and unlock funding for the Queen's Park area. Find out about their key projects and how you can lend your voice to make these changes happen.
Local Place Plan Panning
By Mikael Phillips & Devon McCole | Image provided by Queen’s Park Neighbourhoods
Queen’s Park Neighbourhoods (QPN) is a collaborative initiative uniting residents, community councils, local organisations and businesses with one shared goal: making the areas around Queen’s Park a better place to live.
We sat down with QPN members Richard Dye, part of Langside, Battlefield & Camphill Community Council and Jude Hunter, part of Shawlands & Strathbungo Community Council, to discuss what the initiative is working on and how you can get involved.
Over the past year, QPN has been developing a Local Place Plan (LPP) – a community-led blueprint focused on improving the physical environment of the area, from buildings and parks to streets and public spaces. Once finalised, this plan can be submitted to Glasgow City Council for inclusion in their City Development Plans. It also means QPN can apply for funding to bring the vision to life beyond the Council’s remit: “Creating opportunities for people and neighbourhoods to work together,” says Jude.
Around Queen’s Park, several once-public buildings like the Glasshouse, the Bothy, located behind the Queen’s Park Bowling Club, and Langside Halls are now underused: “We don’t have any community buildings at the moment,” says Richard. Adding that many local groups, including QPN, have to rent expensive private spaces just to meet.
Recently, QPN hosted a book fair in the Queen’s Park Glasshouse – aiming to show what’s possible if the community had more say in programming local spaces: “If we had the power to run events here regularly, this is exactly the kind of thing we could be doing,” Richard notes. The Glasshouse, fondly remembered by many locals from their childhoods, is a much-loved but now largely dormant space.
These spaces are staples of the Southside landscape but unfortunately remain unused for the majority, if not all, of the time. A core aim of the LPP is focused on opening these spaces back up to the public, even partially, to create more room for shared activity and connection.
The LPP also highlights needs like public toilets and a desire for more ‘greening and growing’ to enhance the area: “We’ve got several priority projects,” explains Richard, including plans for cycle lanes, road use and pedestrian crossings.
The plan is nearly complete and QPN is keen to start putting it into action but they can’t do it alone. As Richard puts it: “Unless the community steps up and takes a bit more control over what matters to them, we’ll keep seeing a decline in some non-statutory services. Which could mean continued deterioration of local spaces.”
Jude feels that the QPN Local Place Plan offers an opportunity to build a more vibrant community life but it’s “about identifying what we do next. Anyone who wants to be part of that conversation is more than welcome.”
There’s real power in neighbourhoods coming together, Richards adds: “We’ve got incredible creativity and talent in the Southside – there’s a real buzz here. If people even put in an hour or two a month to something that’s important to them, we could make a huge difference.”
Jude highlights the area’s strong sense of place, with a distinct local identity: “We’ve got loads of local, independent, small owner-managed businesses who all want the community to be part of their journey… We have a lot going for us in this area”.
But there could be even more, she says, encouraging people to stand behind QPN and say, ‘yes, we want that’ because the more support QPN has, the more they can push the Council to act.
You can attend local community council meetings to join the conversation and support positive change. You don’t need to formally join a council to get involved and meetings are open to the public, explains Richard: “If you just want to help on a project as a co-opted member, you can get involved that way.”
Check the QPN website to find out more about plans for cycle lanes, road use, pedestrian crossings as well as their calendar of events and ways to participate.
This article is paid for by Queen's Park Neighbourhoods
