Play Parks - Festival Park and Clyde Hall

At long last, the council is moving forward with getting our local play parks upto an acceptable standard again. You may remember back in May I wrote about consultations that are open for Elder and Plantation Parks, well the time has come for Festival Park and the playpark at the back of Clyde Community Hall.

There is dedicated funding for both of these parks so while it has taken way too long to get these facilities back in order, once the council has got the views of those using the parks of what they’d like installed - I’ll be back pushing for the work to get done as soon as possible.

Complete the survey here

20 mph rollout continuing

It’s been a few months since most roads across Govan moved down to a 20 miles per hour speed limit and all of the signage is now up. While we’re still to see the statistics on measurable improvement in safety, anecdotally it seems that there has been some improvement in safety conditions.

I’d written a larger segment on this a few newsletters ago so I won’t repeat myself but second stage of the rollout is about to move ahead across the Gorbals, Govanhill, bits of Strathbungo, the Calton and continuing out to the eastern perimeter of the city from the 22nd of September. There’s a link below that you can check all the roads changing.

mapping tool for 20mph

Paisley Road West Improvements

Over the last few months we’ve had some long needed improvements in the streetscape along the Cessnock shop between Harley Street and Midlock Street. With new streets, the grates reinstated and freshly painted, and new benches just gone in, I hope you agree it’s starting to look a bit more like a loved high street. Of course there’s a lot left that we can do but I’m always keen to celebrate wins when they happen.

I did go to get some nice photos of the improvements on my Saturday morning dog walk but even at 8am the benches were too full of people for me to get a good photo so you’ll just have to go and have a look yourself!

The Kensington Renovations

Local Cessnock watering hole - The Kensington has been closed for the last few weeks for a full renovation. If you’re anything like me and been sneaking a look through the windows, you’ll agree that it’s looking great.

I hear the doors are reopening on Monday 31st August if you want to see the changes.

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up and speak to me! Next dates are:

Thursday 10th August - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

Thursday 17th August - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

Friday 25th August - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road [Cancelled]

Sorry to cancel a surgery but I’m nipping off for a wee holiday!

Upcoming Community Councils

Govan - Maslow’s Community Hub - 7th September - 7pm

Govan East - Riverside Hall - 15th September - 6pm

Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 16th September - 7pm

Drumoyne - Govan High - 17th September - 7pm

Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 21st September - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Paisley Road West Closure

If you’ve been out and about this morning - you may have noticed some roadworks going on down Paisley Road West between Kirkwood Street and the Petrol Station. The good news is that these are only going on for three days so by Monday it should be all cleared up.

The works are being undertaken by Scottish Water and the purpose is a permanent road reinstatement following the works they had to undertake on the sewage system earlier this summer.

The closure is only for the Westbound carriageway so if you’re heading down to the Cessnock shops, there shouldn’t be any disruption and there are diversion signs out to direct traffic down Edmiston Drive if you’re heading west.

All the details

Motorway Bridges finally returning

After years of being down for repairs, the footbridges over the motorway from Kirkwood Street and Cornwall Street are set to be reinstated by the end of the year.

Representatives from Transports Scotland’s contractor responsible for the motorway, Amey, attended both Kinning Park and Ibrox and Cessnock Community council’s last month to outline the plans and give assurances that the bridges are going back up and that works on the other two (from Clifford Place and Beech Avenue) won’t take anywhere near as long.

So what the next steps look like. From Monday 10th August, work on site will restart for preparatory works before the bridges go back up in November. Once up, I understand that there are further works needed before they can be open to the public but if all goes to plan, the bridges should be open to the public in February.

Of course we’ve had lots of deadlines from Amey over the last few years which have always been delayed so while I’m glad we’re moving to the reinstatement stage - I’ll keep the pressure on to stay on this timeline. Should there be any further delays, I’ll let you know.

The next step once these ones are back up is to take the other two bridges down and renovate them too but this won’t be until at least the spring.

read more here

Clyde Community Hall - Vacancy

Local community hall in the middle of Ibrox, Clyde Community Hall are hiring a new manager for the hall so if you want to work supporting our community managing the venue, this could be the job for you.

The role is 17.5 hours a week and the pro-rata salary is £31,376 – £32,468

Deadline is 3rd August (monday coming)

Job Advert

Planning and Licencing

There’s a few planning applications in at the moment but these two are the most interesting (in my opinion).

7 Copland Place - 26/01278/FUL

The landlord of this property is looking to use this flat as a 3 person HMO, it’s already attracted objections from neighbours.

[deadline 10th August]

You can view all the planning applications live in Govan by following this link

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

Thursday 13th August - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

Thursday 20th August - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

Friday 28th August - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

Upcoming Community Councils

Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 19th August - 7pm

Govan - Maslow’s Community Hub - 7th September - 7pm

Govan East - Riverside Hall - 15th September - 6pm

Drumoyne - Govan High - 17th September - 7pm

Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 21st September - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

20mph speed limit rollout

There’s been a lot of coverage of this in the press but I wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of what is and isn’t about to happen and a bit of the logic behind the move so this might be a bit of long one - please bare with me.

So on the 4th June most streets in the Govan ward (from the hospital to Bridge Street and between the River and the Motorway) which are currently 30mph will be moving down to 20mph. Any street currently at 40mph or above is unaffected (I can’t actually think of one in Govan but that’s the guidelines city-wide).

The 4th is the start of this rollout. Over the 4 weeks after the 4th, you’ll see new signs getting put up to indicate when you’re entering a 20mph zone. Until those signs are up, it’s not officially in place. In total 194 streets will be chasing speed limit so that’s a lot of signs! It’s probably also worth saying that Govan is going first so there may be issues in the implementation and if you notice anything, please let me know so I can pass onto the council team.

This is a whole city change over so after Govan’s done, you’ll start to notice the rollout in other parts of the city that you visit but it will take a while to do the signs for nearly 4000 streets.

I’ve been asked a few questions mainly so far about this so here’s the answer to them.

Why is this happening?

As a city, we’re coming to this a bit later than others but essentially it’s about improving safety. Edinburgh implemented this in 2016 and Wales did it in 2023. Both did it on the grounds of safety. Research from the University of Edinburgh on the Edinburgh implementation showed that within the first year collisions fell by 40%, fatalities fell by 23% and serious injuries by 33%. To me, those are pretty solid statistics on the safety for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists which is one of the issues I get the most complaints about and this looks like it’ll be a good way to ease the harm caused on our roads.

How much are congestion and emissions going to increase?

This is a great question and one I’ve done a lot of digging and questioning on. Again following from Edinburgh’s example, their results show that emissions haven’t actually changed from this policy. Logically, you’d assume that driving slower takes longer and then emits emissions for longer. However, driving slower produces lower emissions and driving slower in the city has improved congestion in Edinburgh and our transport modelling shows that it’ll do the same here.

The improvement in congestion also has other desirable outcomes, like buses running to timetable, less frustration on the road and roads being much safer for cyclists - hopefully decreasing cycling on the pavement. What it’s shown in Edinburgh is that the drive from the suburbs to the city centre has on average less than a minute extra added to the drive which I know isn’t ideal for some but on balance for the improvement in safety - I’d say it’s worth it.

Is it actually going to be enforced?

This is the question I don’t have a solid answer to. The responsibility for driving enforcement sits with Police Scotland and they have supported the concept of the policy but they haven’t explicitly said that they’re going to be adding extra enforcement. I’ll be seeing some local police officers at community council’s this week and I’ll be asking about their plans then to try and get a better idea on their plans locally. Whether it’s enforced by the police or not. Someone breaking the speed limit in a 30 is probably going to be going 35-40mph, whereas someone breaking the speed limit in a 20, is probably going to be going 25-30mph, that’s my logic anyway. Not everyone is going to adhere to it but if the majority are driving slower - we’re going to see an improvement in safety and that’s the whole point.

I know that’s a lot of information but I hope it’s helpful - any other specific questions - drop me an e-mail and I’ll try to get an answer for you.

I’ve put a wee button below to the traffic regulation order which has a list of streets and the specific changes on those streets for those who want to have a proper look at any specific street.

Traffic Regulation Order

New MSPs

The Holyrood election is over and done with and your new MSPs have been sworn into the Scottish Parliament. Over the summer your new MSPs will be setting up their offices but if you’ve got issues that are Scottish Parliament issues (If you’re not sure what these issues are - click here) here are a list of who you can contact:

Glasgow Central Constituency MSP

Alison Thewliss (SNP) Alison.Thewliss.msp@parliament.scot

Glasgow Regional MSPs

Anas Sarwar (Labour) Anas.Sarwar.msp@parliament.scot

Thomas Kerr (Reform UK) Thomas.Kerr.msp@parliament.scot

Patrick Harvie (Greens) Patrick.Harvie.msp@parliament.scot

Pauline McNeill (Labour) Pauline.McNeill.msp@parliament.scot

Iris Duane (Greens) Iris.Duane.msp@parliament.scot

Kim Schmulian (Reform UK) Kim.Schmulian.msp@parliament.scot

Paul Sweeney (Labour) Paul.Sweeney.msp@parliament.scot

Glasgow’s Peregrine Falcons

Ok, bare with me, I know this isn’t the normal political stuff I share but I like Peregrine Falcons and it’s a chance for you to have your say on something.

So back in 2020 a couple of Peregrine Falcons called Bonnie and Clyde were sighted at Glasgow Cathedral where they made their nest. They then moved onto nest at Glasgow University and more recently shifted to make their home at the top of the City Chambers. A few weeks ago their chicks hatched and the council are looking for the public’s help in naming them! Click the button below if you wish to submit a suggestion

Name those Chicks!

And if you want to keep an eye on how the family is keeping you can follow the Glasgow Peregrine Project on Instagram or keep on eye on the council’s update page

GCC Falcon Watch

Planning and Licencing

There’s a few planning applications in at the moment but these two are the most interesting (in my opinion).

Ibrox Stadium Statue

This planning application doesn’t have too much detail but it’s for illumination of a statue which I think is the Sir Walter Smith statue at the Edmiston Road side of the Stadium.

[deadline 11th June]

81 Cook Street

This one is the transfer a flat in Tradeston from a residential property for a Short Term Let like an Airbnb.

[deadline 5th June]

You can view all the planning applications live in Govan by following this link

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

Thursday 21st May - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

Friday 29th May - 10am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road [please note that this is an hour earlier than normal as we have a family wedding to go to in the afternoon]

Thursday 11th June - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

Upcoming Community Councils

Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 18th May - 7pm

Govan East - Riverside Hall - 19th May - 6pm

Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 20th May - 7pm

Drumoyne - Govan High - 21st May - 7pm

Govan - Maslow’s Community Hub - 1st June - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Some movement on play park improvements

The long overdue playpark improvement project is finally getting some progress in 9 local play parks across the city, two of which being Plantation Park and Elder Park.

Funding has been put aside for this for at least 4 years and I know the state of many of our local play parks have been a real frustration for parents and carers. A consultation has just launched for the next 4 weeks to ensure that each park is designed according to those who use it’s needs and wants.

So if you, or anyone you know wants to have your say - click the button below (it only takes a few minutes)

Have your say here

Festival Park has a new entrance!

Frequent users of the park will have noticed some major works ongoing in Festival Park over the winter while the new paths and entrance were constructed by the council’s contractor Covanburn.

Well the disruption is over and the new entrance is open for all.

This was funded through the council’s place fund programme with additional funding from the feminist action fund, altogether totalling a £300,000 investment into the park. This was decided for a few reasons, part of the liveable neighbourhoods consultations back in 2022, partially because of the garden festival heritage, the parks declaration as a local nature reserve and as an attempt to prevent previous criminal activity happening again.

It’s got my dog’s seal of approval and I hope it has yours too!

I posted some photos of it a few weeks ago if you want to have a look before you make the trip.

Mayday weekend is here

Glasgow Trades Council have been in full swing organising a fortnight of activities around International Workers Day ranging from an election hustings, walking tours, shows and of course Sunday’s mayday march.

We’re half way through the programme but there’s still plenty for you to get along to.

See all the events

Holyrood elections this Thursday

I’m sure you’re aware by now by the amount of leaflets you’ll have had through your door, the Scottish Parliamentary elections are coming up in less than a week!

I decided early on that this newsletter wouldn’t be a party political thing so no endorsements here but I do want to make sure you have all the information to make it as easy as possible to vote.

You should have had through by now your polling card telling you where you should vote if you don’t have a postal ballot but if it’s in the bin or not arrived yet - you can search using this tool to check where it is you should be registered to vote. Where do I vote?

Here’s another useful tool that shows you all the candidates putting themselves forward for the ballot Who can I vote for?

If you’ve got any issues with your ballot at all, you can access council resources here or call them on 0141 287 4444

Planning and Licencing

There’s a few planning applications in at the moment but most of them are either car park resurfacing or replacement windows but here’s one that is an interesting development.

423 Paisley Road West (Bellahouston Business Centre)

This planning application is to convert from the current use as a business centre to a private performance arts school operating Monday to Friday 9-5.30

[deadline 22nd May]

Read Full Application here

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

Thursday 14th May - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

Thursday 21st May - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

Friday 29th May - 10am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

Upcoming Community Councils

Govan - Maslow’s Community Hub - 11th May - 7pm

Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 18th May - 7pm

Govan East - Riverside Hall - 19th May - 6pm

Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 20th May - 7pm

Drumoyne - Govan High - 21st 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!

Finally, apologies for the long time since the last newsletter, between a few bouts of illness, lots of e-mails, holidays and all that, I’ve just not had a second to sit down and get this written.

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

New Cycle Lane Plans

The plans for safe cycle infrastructure across Govan has been a somewhat tumultuous experience. Between the council’s lack of consultation with communities before the previous plan and the concerns that this caused in Central Govan. This time, the Council have pulled back a bit and are focussing on building a network route by route. The first being connecting Pollok Park straight down to Govan Cross to connect with the bridge to Partick.

The plan is to move forward with this route first if the consultation goes well and then move onto route 2 (Peninver Drive, Burghead Drive, Govan Road and Summertown Road) then Route 3 (Shieldhall Road and Edmiston Drive) and to finish off with Route 4 (Moss Road, Skipness Road and Craigton Road South/Jura Street).

I’ve written before about the benefits I see from this kind of investment in our local infrastructure so I won’t dive into it again but if you’re interested, you can read it in my 23rd Newsletter which is linked here.

You can see all the details of this plans and add your thoughts to the consultation by clicking here.

There will also be some in-person events if you want to see fine details of the plans, ask specific questions of the designers or share your thoughts directly. These are:

• Pop-up event in Elder Park - Saturday 21st Feb 8.30-11am

• Drop-in event at McLeod Hall, Pearce Institute - Tuesday 3rd March 3.30-7pm

• Pop-up event at Govan Subway Station - Wednesday 18th March 4-7pm

The consultation itself closes on the 30th March and the more responses we can get, the better!

Kirkwood Street and Cornwall Street Bridges

The foot and cycle bridges crossing the M8 from both Kirkwood Street and Cornwall Street were removed on the 1st July 2024 for essential works to refurbish the bridges which have been up for 50 years. These works were due to be completed in 25 weeks before the bridges at Percy Street and Beech Avenue were to be taken down for the same refurbishment works.

Unfortunately, we’ve still not had the first two bridges put back up and the update posted on Amey’s website advise that the first two bridges won’t be back up until at least September 2026.

I’ve had a lot of complaints about these bridges being down from residents and businesses so I’ve written to the Cabinet Secretary for Transport to get some more details, a commitment that they are going back up by September, and to find out what’s happening with the other bridges.

You can read more in the Glasgow Times here.

The Govan Letter

Those of you living in Central Govan may be used to the bi-annual newsletter that Govan Community Council publishes and have done since the 80s, well they’re changing it up a little bit with the hope of helping with the financing of it. They’re making it bigger (8 pages in total) filled with lots of information about issues and interests in Govan.

They’re looking for businesses and organisations who would like to take an advert out. They need to be non-party political and non-sectarian but otherwise they’re interested to hear from potential advertisers. They’re looking for the following for these ads - quarter page £150, half page £300, full page £600.

If you would like out an ad or wish to encourage someone to do so - the deadline is March 9th and should be addressed to the Secretary of the Community Council, Greg Easton via e-mail at gregeaston@gmail.com

Planning and Licencing

There’s a few planning and licencing applications that may be of interest to you, and if you want to share your views on them - you can do so by following the links.

803 Govan Road

This planning application is to convert the upper floors of Brechin’s Bar into a short-term let for upto 6 persons. The space has previously been a function space for the bar and a Taxi Office but has been out for use for many years.

[deadline 16th February]

See full planning application

The Bellrock, 4-6 Cornwall Street

This alcohol licence application is to allow the pub to have additional hours during the festive period, bank holidays aligned to other premises who take advantage of the licencing boards additional hours policy. It also seeks to allow outdoor drinking facilities for upto 15 persons on Cornwall Street which would be allowed until 10pm.

[deadline 19th February]

How to share your thoughts

I haven’t previously shared these kinds of applications in this newsletter so do tell me if it’s helpful and if you’d like to see these more often.

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

Thursday 12th February - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

Thursday 19th February - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

Friday 27th February - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

Upcoming Community Councils

Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 16th February - 7pm

Govan East - Riverside Hall - 17th February - 6pm

Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 18th February - 7pm

Drumoyne - Govan High - 19th February - 7pm

Govan - Pearce Institute - 2nd March - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

No more parking on the pavements in Govan

Way back in 2019, the Scottish Parliament voted through a new transport bill which included provisions to ban parking on pavements throughout Scotland. This was included in the legislation due to concerns raised by groups and individuals across the country that found the blockage caused by parked cars to which limits their access to the street. Specific concerns raised included wheelchair users and those pushing prams and buggies were unable to go about their daily lives without facing unexpected and unnecessary blockages.

Following the passing of the legislation, it took until 2023 for Scottish Government to provide the guidance to councils for the ban to actually be implemented. Then it took the council until March this year to get ready for the implementation. Yes, I know, bureaucracy is painfully slow.

In March, you’ll probably have seen news reports that any road over 7.5m in width will have the pavement parking ban implemented immediately but any road thinner needs to be assessed individually before a decision being reached. Well we’re finally at that stage!

Across the city, 76 street have had allowances made for cars to park on the pavement however none of these are within the Govan ward. The council have already started enforcement on streets where pavement parking was very common, like Walmer Crescent. So before you park on a pavement in the city - please check the full list below or you could be getting a £100 fine and no one needs that.

full list of exemptions

Govan-Partick Bridge renaming - update

Last newsletter I wrote about a motion I’d put into the council about hearing a petition from Govan Community Council to rename the bridge. After nearly an hour and a half of debate in the committee, I managed to get support from Your Party, SNP, Labour and Green Councillors to formally open a public engagement and consultation process at the start of the year to decide on a new name.

So, you’ve got the holidays to get your thinking caps on and decide what you want the name to be!

Once I’ve got the ins and outs of the consultation through - I’ll share that with you too, probably in the new year.

Christmas Light Switch-on

With the nights drawing in, it’s rapidly approaching the holidays and with that comes the switching on of the tree at Govan Cross! This year it’ll be at 6pm on the 11th of December so rap up and see you there!

Summer Sessions

The summer sessions at Bellahouston Park have announced their busiest year that I can remember next year which means there’s likely a band you like coming to a park near you!

What is announced so far is:

• 27th June - The Lumineers/The Proclaimers

• 28th June - Teddy Swims

• 29th June - Neil Young

• 1st July - Pitbull

• 3rd July - Kings of Leon

• 4th July - My Chemical Romance

I’ve added a link below to all the info which includes information for residents on all the impacts and community engagement events.

all the info

Glasgow Barons - upcoming events

Govan’s very own Orchestra, the wonderful Glasgow Barons have a host of really exciting free or very affordable events coming up in December to keep you entertained!

• 1st December - 1-2pm, Govan Winter Gathering, a concert with Govan School Choirs at the Fairfield Club

• 4th December - 1-2pm, Billiard Room Session: Harpist, Sophie Rocks at Govan and Linthouse Parish Church

• 11th December - 7:30-10:30pm, Messiah and Carols, a selection of Handel at Govan and Linthouse Parish Church

• 16th December - 7-9pm, Musicians in Exile’s Festive Concert, a refugee and aslyum seeker led concert sharing music from around the world at Govan and Linthouse Parish Church

  get your tickets

Craft Cafe Fair

One of the most enjoyable events in Govan is having a public fair! The Craft Cafe is a project run by Impact Arts to reduce isolation and give older people a place to go, do their favourite crafts and be with each other.

Anyway on the 4th December 12-3pm, they’ll be selling their wares at Elder Park Library and it’s well worth a trip round!

read more

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

Friday 28th November - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

Thursday 8th January - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

Thursday 15th January - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

Upcoming Community Councils

Govan - Pearce Institute - 1st December - 7pm

Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 15th December - 7pm

Govan East - Riverside Hall - 16th December - 6pm

Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 17th December - 7pm

Drumoyne - Govan High - 18th December - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Will the Govan-Partick be renamed in Mary Barbour’s honour?

For this section, I need to take you back to a few days after the new bridge opened last September. Govan Community Council held their regular monthly meeting which led to a really exciting debate about trying to have the bridge named after Govan’s own Mary Barbour who united Govan and Partick a hundred years ago in the fight against greedy landlords. The outcome was that the community council would check in with the other neighbouring community councils north of the river and submit the paperwork to the council.

The paperwork went in on the 11th of December 2024 and the petition still hasn’t been called for a committee to hear it. In a bid to get the community council’s voice heard, I submitted a motion to the committee back in the summer for the petition to be heard and that is calling this thursday.

Quite a wait for a council who prides itself on being open, transparent and empowering communities right? (this is a rant for another time, I know.)

This thursday’s decision is only to decide if the petition will be heard by the end of the year, not if bridge should be renamed. However I’m aware I’ve not taken a proper canvass of public opinion on the bridges name so here I am - asking your thoughts!

I’ve also added some links below for background reading should you desire it.

motion details

background info on Mary Barbour

Ibrox Match Day Parking

I’ve written before about the long process we’re currently going through within the council about the new event day parking zone that we’re hopeful will be in place next year. In the interim though, I’m still receiving regular complaints and have arranged to meet the council’s parking director next week to raise these complaints.

So if there’s a street corner that bugs you, a lane that gets blocked or a pavement that gets parked on regularly during football games - please send me these locations and I’ll add them to my list!

Nelson Mandela Statue

The Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation have been working on a new bronze statue honouring the late South African President who was bestowed Freedom of the City of Glasgow back in 1981 while he was still imprisoned by the Apartheid-era Government.

They’ve commissioned 5 different artists to produce small scale versions of their statue which will be on display in the City Chambers today between 1:30 and 4 for your viewing and feedback - hopefully see you there!

Medical Leave

I’m heading for a small and planned medical procedure on the 17th November and I’ve been advised to take a week off work to recover which means I’ll be off my e-mails and not answering my phone that whole week. I’ll also miss a few community councils and I’ve had to cancel my surgery on the 20th November at Kinning Park Complex.

My Support Officer Anita will be manning my inbox and phone to pick up anything urgent and I’ll catch up with everything else when I’m back!

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

• Friday 28th November - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

• Thursday 8th January - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

• Thursday 15th January - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

Upcoming Community Councils

• Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 17th November - 7pm

• Govan East - Riverside Hall - 18th November - 6pm

• Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 19th November - 7pm

• Drumoyne - Govan High - 20th November - 7pm

• Govan - Pearce Institute - 1st December - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Dear Constituents,

I wanted to write to you first thing this morning before the news breaks because ultimately I work for you and I believe you deserve to hear this kind of news from the horse’s mouth, not from a news bulletin. You entrusted me to represent you in the city chambers and I know many of you will have questions and hopefully you’ll get answers here.

Today I have left the Scottish Green Party and have joined the new political project launched by Zarah Sultana MP and Jeremy Corbyn MP. After over 10 years as a member of the Scottish Green Party - this was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever made and it has taken a lot of soul searching and I want to tell you how I reached this and what it looks like for you moving forward.

I joined the Scottish Green Party in early 2015. Like many in Scotland, I became engaged in politics during the independence referendum, at the time I was building a career as a restaurant manager in mid-tier restaurants in the city centre. I worked 60 hour weeks, with limited breaks and very low pay. I knew this was wrong and not what I saw for the future of Scotland. I didn’t understand why it was legally possible for me to work as long and as hard as I did and still struggle to rent a flat and feed myself. Why it was legal for the restaurants I worked in to turn over millions of pounds a year and still pay staff minimum wage and make deductions from our tips.

At the time there was a lot of discussion, videos of debates and people talking politics in the street and in my workplace. The only people that I could see in elected office who was vocalising the future I saw was Patrick Harvie MSP and Maggie Chapman MSP. Naturally, this led me to align myself with the Greens. As I began to get more involved in 2016 as I shifted to working in call centres for 2 years and found free time, was that the Greens didn’t have many people like me. People who didn’t have the safety net of middle-class parents, who had to work to feed themselves. People who couldn’t take a sabbatical to travel south-east Asia or join an art retreat in the Spanish mountains. At the time, there was a few members who understood what life was like as a working class person in Scotland, my now Colleague Cllr Anthony Carroll and my election agent Claire Leonard - both of whom have been constantly refreshing voices in a party that has struggled to understand where we come from in our views.

I’ve spent my time in the Greens working on trying to pull the parties position left-wards, to make life better for the majority of people in Scotland. Working on having the Greens adopt policies like making public transport free at the point of use and leading our election campaigns here in Glasgow to lift up, empower and elect more working-class socialists to positions where they can make real change for people in Scotland. This ultimately was what led me to throw my hat in the ring to be a representative of my community here in Govan.

Since I was selected, the party has changed dramatically and I no longer see it as a political vehicle capable of achieving the socialist scottish republic that I’ve always longed for. When Nicola Sturgeon, the then First Minister, invited the Greens to join the government, I spoke out that I didn’t feel that the party was politically mature enough to go into government with the behemoth that was the SNP, that our MSPs were going to have to make very difficult concessions that wouldn’t be in the interests of communities like ours.

Undoubtedly there were clear benefits to having Greens in government, like the solid increases in funding for improving our streets through adding cycle lanes, tree planting and the general improvements that go along with this. Greens also achieved solid improvements like extending the free bus travel for under 22’s that we won before going into government to include refugees and asylum seekers.

What was very clear though was that these ‘wins’ were at the cost of drastic cuts to local government budgets, cuts that could have been clearly avoided by taxing the rich. The Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) outlined very clearly how a series of changes to local taxation, income tax reform, and introducing a wealth tax, land value tax and a super tax on private jets could all raise significantly more than we’d need to stop these cuts and bring the NHS back into condition that we need it. Instead of taxing the rich to fund essential services like our schools, social care, street cleaning, housing the homeless, repairing our roads and pavements, the Green MSPs decided to pass swathing cuts to local government, expecting councils to manage decline in our communities.

I, with many other Greens on the left of the party, resisted this, tried to show our leadership another path forward. Instead of rejecting that the climate crisis can be solved via the free market - we witnessed Green ministers leading the charge for Scotland’s largest Private Finance Initiative (PFI) where £2billion was paid to wealthy landlords to plant trees and the party abandoned our support for a publicly owned, not-for-profit energy company. On top of these policy decisions, there’s been a shift from our now leadership to move away from our traditional and core principle of being anti-war. A few years ago saw one of our now co-leaders advocate for our participation in a european army and more recently supporting warships being built in our community. Politicians have to stand for something and have to be resolute in what they stand for and the public expect us not to change our core principles on a whim.

Now after all of this, you might think - why did you hang around so long? The answer to that is that the Greens in Glasgow have for the most part been on the left of the party, standing in opposition to the MSPs cuts and continuing to push for a more socially just policy position. I held out hope that our members would vote for change when the time came. This summer saw both our MSP selections and our leadership elections but the change we needed was not forthcoming. In our co-leadership election it was clear to me that the writing was on the wall when no-one from the left of the party felt there was enough to salvage in the party to launch a bid for the position.

So why this new party that isn’t even a party yet? When I was much younger and first engaging in politics, I saw the independence campaign as a mass mobilisation of ordinary people, almost everyone in society had a position on the question of the day but most importantly, everyone had the space to articulate their views and it was very commonplace for fair debate in the most unusual of places. Politics was accessible for the masses for once.

That’s exactly what I see in this new party - it’s a mass mobilisation of ordinary working people. When the party released their expression of interest form, they signed up approximately 1% of the population of the UK. The Greens in comparison couldn’t even get 1000 members to vote in their biggest leadership election in recent history. The new parties first branch meeting in Glasgow gathered 250 people in a room on a friday night, with a queue outside and they’ve had to organise the same meeting a further 2 times to meet demand. The Greens on the other hand couldn’t even get 30 people at our last branch meeting in the city.

I’ve spent the last few months speaking to people, particularly current and ex-Green members and voters across Govan about the Greens and about the new party and the key thing that came up time and time again was that people seen the new party as a party of hope. While almost everyone said they didn’t know any Green politicians that paid any attention to Govan who wasn’t me, and many of them told me that they forgot I was a Green because the party tag meant little to nothing to them.

I was proud to stand on the manifesto that I stood on, a manifesto produced in Glasgow for Glasgow which addressed the issues that people in Govan face. The need for increased speed in our journey to Net-Zero, heating our homes, making our streets safer and improving our health. Tackling the waste crisis that the city faces with improving our recycling services and tackling fly tipping. Striving towards a radical change in our transport system, making it easier to walk, wheel and cycle and to push for public transport to be publicly-owned and not-for-profit. An unequivocal support of rent controls, for more social housing and harsher enforcement powers on landlords. A recognition of subsidiarity, that decisions should be made at the lowest possible level so that decision makers aren’t council officers in what were once smoke-filled rooms but by the very people that will be directly impacted.

I’ve been proud to work with the Green Councillors in Glasgow to push for this manifesto that I remain in support of but what has become increasingly clear is that while Greens Councillors are prepared to make these drastic changes. Green MSPs time and time again tie the hands of local government and make this manifesto impossible to deliver.

I have 18 months left of the honour of representing my community in this council term, and I am hopeful that with a strong group of socialist MSPs from our new party elected to Holyrood next year - the urgent change that we need in Glasgow will be more likely than with a group of Green MSPs.

What difference can you expect from me? I plan on continuing working the way I have for the last three and a half years, being as present as possible in the community - attending our community council meetings, holding my advice surgeries and continuing to push hard in the council for the real change that I write about in this newsletter. What will change is that I’m no longer hamstrung as a member of a party actively participating in the managed decline of our civic society - with this, I look forward to being able to be more outspoken without concern for the hurt feelings of the MSPs causing pain in our society.

I know many of you will have voted for me as your Green representative and I hope that this message has shown you why I’ve made the decision that I have and gives you reassurance that my politics, the politics that you voted for hasn’t changed but is more emboldened.

All the best,

Dan

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

• Friday 31st October - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

• Tuesday 11th November - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

• Thursday 20th November - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

Upcoming Community Councils

• Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 27th October - 7pm

• Govan - Pearce Institute - 3rd November - 7pm

• Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 19th November - 7pm

• Govan East - Riverside Hall - 18th November - 6pm

• Drumoyne - Govan High - 20th November - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Bus Re-regulation

Our bus services have for way too long been overpriced, unreliable and run only on profitable routes. As a result, a grassroots campaign group, Get Glasgow Moving were set up to campaign for a revolution in our public transport system. Their work was the driving force behind the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 which included provisions on how regional transport authorities (like Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT)) can take bus services out of the hands of the private sector and run them for the public good. What this means that instead of transport being run for private shareholders - they’re run for our benefit, where and when we need to use it and the prices set much lower to reflect that.

What the Scottish Government haven’t done since that legislation passed in 2019 is release the guidance that is required to enact the law. Meaning that regional transport authorities can’t actually use the legislation yet, 6 years down the line.

What the motion that the Scottish Greens have adopted does is instruct our Members of the Scottish Parliament that they are not allowed to vote for the SNPs budget again this year unless this guidance is published and a solid foundation for a funding model for the move is established.

The motion is a proverbial boot up the behind to the SNP that they won’t be allowed to rest on their laurels again this year. It’s been 50 years since Thatcher gave the buses to the private sector and we need to take them back.

read press reporting

Ibrox Train Station

There’s long been talk of reopening Ibrox Train station following it’s closure in 1967 as part of the Beeching cuts of the 1960s but since the Rangers Supporters’ Trust call for it back in 2008, there’s been little attention drawn to it.

I’ve listened over the last few years to members of the community’s concerns about how much traffic enters the community during home games and the issues that so many cars bring into the neighbourhood. While we are working on an event-day parking zone from the closest streets to the stadium, this doesn’t solve the wider issue of how fans get to the club - just pushes the cars and associated disruption a bit further out.

The Subway has a maximum hourly capacity of 6000 people and the buses (if running at maximum capacity and only holding fans) could only handle 4000-5000 people. Meaning there’s still about 80% of the fans needing to get in. Of course there’s private coaches that ease the burden but adding a station on the line between Glasgow Central and Paisley Gilmore Street is the undoubtedly the most feasible way to help fans get to the stadium without the unmanageable amount of cars we currently face.

So now, Green MSPs have been tasked with lobbying Network Rail and Transport Scotland to get it the station rebuilt. By no means does it mean that the stations going to appear tomorrow but it gets the ball rolling politically!

Collaborating with Your Party

The third key vote at the conference for me was the motion on working collaboratively with the new left-wing political party formed by Zarah Sultana MP and Jeremy Corbyn MP. Last newsletter, I shared a piece I wrote about how important I believe working towards unity on the left is, especially in the face of the far right in Reform UK and the neoliberal austerity consensus of the SNP, Conservatives and Labour.

Unfortunately, the Scottish Greens decided yesterday to bury their heads in the sand and to not work with a like minded party of the left. I believe that politicians should be honest so cards on the table, this is move that I’m exceptionally disappointed in and one that I believe in the long term does a disservice to communities like ours.

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

• Friday 31st October - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

• Tuesday 11th November - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

• Thursday 20th November - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

Upcoming Community Councils

• Govan East - Riverside Hall - 21st October - 6pm

• Drumoyne - Govan High - 23rd October - 7pm

• Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 27th October - 7pm

• Govan - Pearce Institute - 3rd November - 7pm

• Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 19th November - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Bin Hubs

The next rollout of the bin hubs that you’ll have seen across Cessnock, Elder Park, Linthouse and Central Govan is heading to Ibrox and the rest of Cessnock over the next month or so.

This new system will remove bins from the back gardens of most flatted properties and replace them with the on-street hubs which will be emptied twice as often as your current service. It will also introduce additional recycling facilities, crucially food waste recycling.

We’ve seen the successful recycling rates with this system soar, collection timetables being more successfully adhered to, rat reports reducing and overall street cleanliness improving.

Everyone that will be moved to the new system should receive a letter a few weeks before the change to let you know the fine detail of the change.

The council is also running a drop in event today in Ibrox Library 2pm-7pm where you can see the details of what’s happening, ask any questions and suggest any changes you think are needed to the officers responsible.

read more about the scheme

Storm Amy

And with that, the summer is at an end. The Met Office has issued their first weather warning of the winter with a yellow warning for rain and wind for tomorrow and Saturday which includes a danger to life warning. There is currently no changes to council services during the period but we can expect localised flooding and there is a risk to trees, branches and power lines.

If you witness any issues that need urgent dealing with, here are some helpful contacts and anything less urgent please e-mail me with and I’ll pass on to relevant department.

To report a roads or lighting issue – call RALF on 0800 373635

To report flooding - https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/article/4049/Report-a-Flood

To report power line or power cut issue - call 105 and if there is an immediate risk to life or property, call 999

To report fallen trees - https://glasgow.gov.uk/article/3689/Report-a-Problem-with-a-Tree

Advertising in Glasgow

Last week I told you about a public meeting that I was co-hosting about advertising in the city, the issues we see and some suggestions on how to move forward. We got some really interesting and passionate feedback which we’re looking to incorporate moving forward. As part of this process we had an intern work with me over the summer to undertake some interesting research and I’ve pasted a link below for anyone who is interested in reading the background.

Advertising in Glasgow Research

The Green Case for Left Unity

In a more overtly political news, you may have seen that Zarah Sultana MP and Jeremy Corbyn MP have launched a new political party, currently named Your Party which is in the process of forming. For the longest time, the Scottish Green Party have been the electoral vehicle most radically seeking a economically, socially and environmentally just society but it seems that space is going to be shared very soon.

I’m really positive about the benefits that this can bring to us on the political left, and very much hope that both parties can work together collaboratively on what I see as very similar political outlooks. I’ve written a fuller account of my thoughts on the matter for the Scottish Left Review which may be of interest to you. I’ve added a link to the article via the button below.

read the article here

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

• Tuesday 14th October - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

• Thursday 16th October - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

• Friday 31st October - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

Upcoming Community Councils

• Govan - Pearce Institute - 6th October - 7pm

• Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 15th October - 7pm

• Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 20th October - 7pm

• Govan East - Riverside Hall - 21st October - 6pm

• Drumoyne - Govan High - 23rd October - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Avid readers will be aware I’m a little bit later than normal with this issue, my apologies for that - the flu took me out for a week but I’m back now!

Bus Franchising

There was very exciting news in the public transport world last week, first of which being that Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) who are the regional transport authority (same folk that run the subway) have approved their Regional Bus Strategy. A key part of this strategy is supporting bus franchising which is a very welcome step in my eyes.

Currently the way our buses run is that private companies run the bus routes and decide what the routes are and make their own decisions for routes based on profit. Over the years this has meant that unprofitable (but essential routes) have been cancelled purely based on cold hard cash for these private companies and their shareholders. What bus franchising means is that SPT decide the routes and the fares and then open tenders up to the companies to decide if they want to run the service. The long and the short is that this should mean: more money in your pocket, less money in the private companies pocket, and that our buses should work in the areas that aren’t profitable but that people still need public transport in.

I’m very happy that this step has been made but I’m also very clear that it can’t be the end of the transformation in our bus services. I am of the opinion that SPT should be setting up their own bus provision with a view to taking all the routes back into public service. This will reduce the desire for profit in the system meaning that all the fares can be reduced and any profit can be reinvested in more public transport.

There’s a few legislative obstacles in the way specifically from the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 and the governments extreme delays in letting the legislation be enacted but hopefully this will be possible soon.

I’m sure all politicians will be patting themselves on the backs for getting here but the true credit belongs with Get Glasgow Moving who have tirelessly campaigned for nearly a decade to get to this point.

Paisley Road West - Public Realm funding

I’ve written quite a few times about the Connecting Greater Govan project that is aiming to improve walking, wheeling and cycling throughout Govan which will be a transformational project for the community. My big frustration with the project though is that Paisley Road West was separated from the project.

It was removed because Transport Scotland who provide the funding for the design works changed their programmes and because Paisley Road West is also a bus prioritisation route it was incompatible. Finally though, the funding to redesign Paisley Road West was approved last Thursday meaning we have £450,000 to redesign the route from Glasgow City Centre to Paisley Town Centre.

Off the back of this, I met the officers responsible last week to once again push for the introduction of safe cycling infrastructure down Paisley Road West and for road thinning to prevent the double parking that has become endemic on the stretch between Midlock Street and Cornwall Street.

There’ll be some preparatory works happening before it comes out for public consultation but not to worry - I’ll be advertising the consultation widely!

Advertising in Glasgow

Tomorrow (Wednesday 24th September) I’m co-hosting a public meeting about how we view advertising in the city. Looking at what the impact on our health, wellbeing and behaviour is. Asking: is it right that everywhere you look, someone’s selling you something? And thinking about whether this is this something we as a city should challenge? If so, how should we do it?

The evening will an interesting one with plenty of discussion to get all of our thoughts and views. Hope to see you there!

Filming in Tradeston

This week there’s filming scheduled at 100 Morrison Street in Tradeston that could cause a bit of disruption. The filming is for a new BBC drama called “Counsels”. There will be parking restrictions for filming equipment and the area could be busier than normal. The filming times are as follows:

• Tuesday 23rd September - 17:30-03:30

• Wednesday 24th September - 16:30-02:30

• Thursday 25th September - 14:30-00:30

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

• Friday 26th September - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

• Tuesday 14th October - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

• Thursday 16th October - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

Upcoming Community Councils

• Govan - Pearce Institute - 6th October - 7pm

• Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 15th October - 7pm

• Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 20th October - 7pm

• Govan East - Riverside Hall - 21st October - 6pm

• Drumoyne - Govan High - 23rd October - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Festival Park - New Entrance

Festival Park, as much as it’s a beautiful park and an essential greenspace, has long been a concern for many people, especially at night when it's really dark. In particular the south eastern section where there's no path and no lighting.

Well that's all going to change!

The council has just signed up £300,000 to create a new entrance and pathway at the South East of the park, the entrance itself is to be located across from 209 Govan Road. The route of the path is yet to be finally determined following woodland thinning and restocking focused on diversification that is set to take place between November 2025 and February 2026. After that, the fine detail of the works can be established. However, it will make using the park to travel from Cessnock and Kinning Park to the Clyde Science Centre and the rest of Pacific Quay much easier, as well as opening up the darker sections of the park.

Along with this exciting plan, the council is also intending to increase the biodiversity of the forest floor in the park which is already a local nature reserve.

I’ll be keeping on top of progress and as soon as I have the full timeline - so will you!

New Hire Bikes Scheme

For many years now Glasgow has had a Mass Automated Cycle Hire (MACH) scheme in the form of the Nextbikes that you’ll have seen all over the city. The scheme launched initially in July 2014 and has grown to 1030 normal bikes and 209 e-bikes across the city. This contract however is coming to an end.

The council has gone through a full procurement exercise and has approved a new supplier to the Swedish firm Voi who will be over the next four months mobilising 1000 brand new e-bikes across the city to replace the old and worn down stock.

The pricing will also change from a 30 minute hire to a minute by minute hire - more akin to what you’d see in big European cities like Paris. When questioned on the cost, officers suggested that this would end up with lower overall costs to users.

I also asked about the docking arrangements because of the mess that the bikes have caused in areas where they were not docked well before. The team responsible within the council are working directly with the delivery company and we’ll see fixed docks on high traffic areas like St Enoch and George Square and other, more local areas will have much stricter GPS restrictions on the drop offs.

Ibrox Fireworks Control Zone

Way back in May I told you that I was hoping to get a Fireworks Control Zone implemented for Ibrox in these years round of applications. Unfortunately this was not to be this year.

The council went through a consultation process which attracted 56 responses with 46 of those supporting the proposal, with 5 against and 5 neutral. Unfortunately the decision is made based on the last three years police and fire reports which I understand showed a very low reporting rate of fireworks issues. This is what caused it to be disproportionate for the council to implement this year so adoption of the scheme this year wasn’t progressed.

So, if you have concerns about fireworks being set off in antisocial manner - you need to report this to the police via 101 or via this link. Especially if you want a scheme in place in future years.

read all the details

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

• Tuesday 9th September - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

• Thursday 18th September - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

• Friday 26th September - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

Upcoming Community Councils

• Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 15th September - 7pm

• Govan East - Riverside Hall - 16th September - 6pm

• Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 17th September - 7pm

• Drumoyne - Govan High - 18th September- 7pm

• Govan - Pearce Institute - 6th October - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Village Hotel Strike Victory

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the staff at the Village Hotel at Pacific Quay were heading out on strike in the first strike action seen in the UK hotel since 1979. Well, yesterday they had a phenomenal win that I want to share with you.

The workers in the food and beverage team have been working on negotiating for equal and better pay, and for a significant improvement to their conditions over the last year but management refused to move an inch. Workers on the picket line told me that the HR department even told them explicitly that they are content with discriminating against workers. I was also told an employee refused his paternity leave on the birth of his child, due to his age. It’s no surprise hearing their first hand accounts that they’ve felt that they had to take this historic action.

Yesterday at 4pm, the 18-25 year old negotiators who have spent the last few weeks round the table with the millionaire CEO of the chain announced that they’ve made some wins! These are:

• 10% payrise for the youngest workers backdated to April 2024 (in some cases this is upto £3000)

• The business are covering all tax and national insurance implications in these payouts

• Workers over 21 who aren’t benefiting from an equal pay uplift are to receive a £400 payment

• Zero-hours contracts are being replaced with guaranteed minimum hour contracts.

While the workers demands of fully equal pay for equal work and the real living wage are yet to be fulfilled - this is an exceptional victory in our community and the workers deserve a massive round of applause!

Congestion Charging

You may have seen some press coverage about congestion charging in the last week or so, I wanted to give you some context on this conversation and for my perspective on it.

Greens in the council have long advocated for the introduction of a Workplace Parking Levy which would introduce a charge for employers with large car parks based on the amount of parking spaces that are present. During the last two budget cycles, Greens secured funding for preparatory works for a scheme like this which intended to force employers to determine how essential it was for their staff to use cars to get to work. If there were alternatives such as public transport, car sharing, work from home and active travel. Unfortunately on Tuesday the SNP administration dropped their support for the work continuing and have instead put the whole resource into the other investigatory work we’d secured. Namely a congestion charge.

The intention behind a congestion charge is two-fold - to discourage people from bringing their cars into the city and to fund the council’s transport plan. While we do have the powers for a Workplace Parking Levy, the council doesn’t yet have the powers for a congestion charge so this work is truly preparatory and won’t be happening anytime soon.

What the SNP have proposed in the media is a congestion charge at the city boundary as a method of raising revenue to close some of the gap that has occured from years and years of cuts from governments, both Scottish and UK. While I agree that closing this gap is essential. I also believe that achieving a modal shift from private car reliance to public transport and active travel is essential. My support for a congestion charge relies on the proceeds being used for transforming public transport.

By that I don’t mean giving some handouts to the private bus companies. I mean bringing our buses into public ownership, running them for people not profit. Making sure that they run reliably, at all times of the day. Ensuring that people can use them always - that includes subsiding them heavily, ideally making them free at the point of use. What I am clear about with this is: the better we make public transport, the less people should need to pay a congestion charge and that’s a financial balance that makes it difficult but it’s the ideal that should be at the forefront of the policy.

This is a good few years away of course but it’s helpful to get your feedback so there’s a poll below!

Kinning Park Fire

You might remember that there was a pretty major fire on Stanley Street, Kinning Park on the 31st July which has destroyed home and businesses.

CCTV of the scene shows someone setting fire to the premises and Police Scotland are investigating a case of wilful fire-raising. The community has raised a reward of £10,000 for identifying the responsible individual.

If you have information - please contact Police Scotland on 101 and quote 0563 of 31 July, 2025. You can also report anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

• Friday 29th August - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

• Tuesday 9th September - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

• Thursday 18th September - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

Upcoming Community Councils

• Govan - Pearce Institute - 1st September - 7pm

• Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 15th September - 7pm

• Govan East - Riverside Hall - 16th September - 6pm

• Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 17th September - 7pm

• Drumoyne - Govan High - 18th September- 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Subway Modernisation

After nearly a decade of works across the Subway system - Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) have finally announced that the final phase of the works are starting. That means over the next few weeks, starting at Govan, you’ll see works underway to put siding screens across the train doors. After Govan, works will move to Ibrox and Partick before working around the system station by station. These new sliding barriers will be automatically opened when the train reaches a safe stop.

While this might seems like a small addition in comparison to the new carriages, station renovations and track works we’ve seen over the last decade - they are crucial for SPT’s plan to run the trains without drivers from next July. This also means that the drivers hubs will be removed and seating available to view down the tunnel as the trains are moving.

Following SPTs announcement of this final timeline - I posed some questions to them about hours of operation. Mainly, once the trains are running driverless - can we expect to see an extension to the hours, especially on a Sunday. SPT are holding their cards close to their chest on that one but they did say it will be considered next year.

I have pressed that it’s very much desired by subway users and that I’m firmly in favour of extending the hours. Once these works are done and the trains are driverless - I’m confident that a strong case will be made to extend the hours but that’ll be next year - more on that then!

Doors Open Festival

Have you ever walked past a building and thought “I wonder what goes on in there?” Well, your chance to find out is coming up soon!

Every year for a few days in September, Glasgow Building Preservation Trust holds the Doors Open Festival which means over a 100 of the cities most iconic buildings fling open their doors for you to have a wander around and a real good look. This is matched with an extensive programme of walking tours, performance, workshops and other activities. This years dates are 18th September - 21st September.

There’s loads of really exciting events across Greater Govan and the city more widely! Click the button below for access to the full programme.

View the full programme

Elder Park Community Festival

Looking for something to do today? Well you’re in luck!

Head down to Elder Park for the Elder Park Community Festival - a free music festival that’s been organised by 20 different community organisations and groups. Here’s what to expect:

• Live performances from talented local artists
• DJs , Dancers and performers sets on a professional stage with video screens & sound
• Kids’ zone with activities, games & creative workshops
• Eco Zone – upcycling, climate-friendly tips, and sustainability stalls
• Healthy food demos & nutrition advice – cook smart, eat well
• Art installations, community crafts & hands-on workshops
• Tasty street food and local traders
• Community info stalls and support from amazing local groups

Sunny Govan Radio have just posted the set times so if there’s a specific act you’re excited for - here’s the times they’ll be on stage!

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

• Thursday 21st August - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

• Friday 29th August - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

• Tuesday 9th September - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

Upcoming Community Councils

• Govan East - Riverside Hall - 19th August - 6pm

• Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 20th August - 7pm

• Govan - Pearce Institute - 1st September - 7pm

• Drumoyne - Govan High - 18th September- 7pm

• Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 20th September - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Far-Right Rally

Saturday afternoon saw a rally organised by UKIP in the city centre calling for ‘mass deportations’ of a million people, that’s 1 in 70 in the UK, but the people of Glasgow stood up and said no.

We stood with our family, friends, neighbours and co-workers to say that the people from UKIP coming up from the south of England to stir up an unsafe environment for migrants in our city don’t speak for us. We met on Buchanan Street to be on their march route and there were speakers from all over the city, representing all different sections of our society. Everyone was steadfast in their support for our migrant communities. Eventually the Police decided that the racist march wasn’t allowed to go across Buchanan Street and it was rerouted up to the cathedral.

I asked the council to intervene and stop the march beforehand because of the risk of violence that UKIP poses. For those unaware - UKIP have become much more extreme in the last 2 years, they’re removed their ban on those who have been members of fascist and terror groups. With that their membership has become more extreme and their stoking of racial tensions in Ballymena and Epping in the last few weeks show how dangerous allowing them a platform can be.

I’ve written out my thoughts in detail in the national which you can read here:

read the national article here

Waste Collection Drop-In

I’ve written quite a few times about the changes to the waste systems across Govan that are launching from today. Starting at Shieldhall Depot and working east we’re going to see back court bins removed from most flats and bin hubs put on the street. Where that isn’t happening, we will see an additional recycling bin and the collections made twice as often. This will be happening between now and the end of the year.

I’ve added some links below for all the detailed info but I wanted to make you aware of drop in sessions that you can go to ask the experts the ins and outs of it all.

• 11th August 1-8pm - Elderpark Library

• 2nd October 12-8pm - Ibrox Library

If you have a specific query about your property and if you’re going to get them - I have a giant list of everyone that’s getting them and more than happy to check it for you if you e-mail me at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Bin Hub Booklet

New Recycling Service Webpage

Elder Park Community Festival

Have you heard about the free music festival hitting Govan in a fortnight?

Well you have now! Loads of community organisations have banded together, got a wad of cash and are putting this on for everyone!

Check out the poster below and hopefully see you on the 16th at Elder Park!

Shaw Street Clean-up

I wrote to you last week about the Saturday morning clean up party on Shaw Street.

Well it was a resounding success, and Yardworks put together this wonderful video on Instagram showing the work getting done and the outcome!

What was a street long ignored by the council has been weeded, sweeped and pops of colour added to it, and the feedback from those passing was universally positive, and it’s looking pretty great.

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

• Tuesday 12th August - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

• Thursday 21st August - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

• Friday 29th August - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

Upcoming Community Councils

• Govan East - Riverside Hall - 19th August - 6pm

• Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 20th August - 7pm

• Govan - Pearce Institute - 1st September - 7pm

• Drumoyne - Govan High - 18th September- 7pm

• Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 20th September - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Cycle Lockers

I’ve been working for a few years to improve cycling in the city, in a bid to reduce the need for cars, which in turn reduces air pollution, makes our roads safer and makes us all a bit healthier. Anyway, a key problem that we have in Glasgow that way too many people say is a main block to them getting on the bike is actually storing it safely when they live in a tenement.

As a fellow tenement-dweller, I get it, I also get how annoyed neighbours can get with each other when bikes are tied up in the close and cause obstacles to using the bannister.

For those reasons, we (the Green Councillors) managed to get a commitment in the council’s strategic plan back in 2022 that we’d have a mass rollout of cycle lockers after the super successful trial period in the last council session.

After a lot of work to get the contract agreed for 500 new lockers across the city - we’ve finally seen some land on the streets of Govan this week! These are placed due to demand in the area and apparently these are the locations of the most desire in Govan. I’m expecting there will be more over the next few months so there may be one closer to you then.

This round can be found at:

• 211 Copland Road

• 74 Clifford Street

• 39 Wallace Street

Some are on the ground already and others should appear over the next week or so.

Want a space? - there’s a few spaces left if you want one - click here

Want one nearer you? - you can suggest a location via cyclehoop - click here

Want to know more about the whole scheme? - here is all the information and process - click here

Bellahouston Pool

Any regular users of Bellahouston Gym and Pool will be aware that there has been a lot of improvement works been going on. Well some good news! They’re almost finished with the pool reopening on Friday 8th August.

The improvements include:

• Upgraded pool operating system

• Upgraded air handling units

• Significant refurbishment of the changing rooms

• A new Poolpod system for those with limited mobility

• AirCon in the Spin Studio

• Resanding and relining of the main hall floor

• Addition of a changing places toilet

• New gates and refresh of the reception and changing rooms

Let me know what you think once you’ve been in!

Village Hotel Strike

For the first time in approximately 40 years, strike action has called at a hotel in the UK and it’s right here in Govan. The food and beverage team at the Village Hotel at the Pacific Quay are taking industrial action in a bid to achieve the real living wage of £12.60 an hour and paid breaks for all staff.

This has been a long time coming. In one of the world’s weird coincidences, I was a member of this team until about 7 years ago, and these demands have long been a desire.

Unite Hospitality are asking for all the support they can get at 2pm on the 2nd August for their picket - hope you can join me there!

Shaw Street Clean-up

This Saturday coming there’s a community clean up event organised on Shaw Street in Central Govan. Along with Maslows, Govan Community Trust and Get Govan Gleaming, SWG3 will be there with a Graffitti and Painting workshop. Maslow’s will be providing tea, coffee and snacks and all you need to do is help clean up a bit!

Fire Service Cuts - Public Meeting

This is a copy and paste from a few weeks ago but the meeting is coming up next week, if you want to have your voice heard, join me at the public meeting - 31st July, Pearce Institute, 6pm.

Many of you will know that in September 2023, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) decided to remove one of the two fire trucks and crews “temporarily” from the Govan Fire Station. I did a lot of work at the time to make the case for Govan to retain, some of which you can read here.

Unfortunately, that seems to have fallen on deaf ears and the SFRS have decided that they will be presenting two, frankly abysmal, options to the people of Glasgow. Both of which would see Govan station permanently reduced to 1 fire truck and crew.

The two options are:

Option 1

• Rebuild Cowcaddens on Maitland Street site and maintain two wholetime appliances. Reinstatement of second appliance that was temporarily withdrawn September 2023; AND

• Reduce the number of wholetime appliances based at Govan from two to one. The second appliance was temporarily withdrawn in September 2023;

• Reduce the number of wholetime appliances based at Springburn from two to one;

• Close Yorkhill which has one wholetime appliance based there;

• Reinstatement of second wholetime appliance at Maryhill that was temporarily removed in September 2023.

Option 2

• Reduce the number of wholetime appliances based at Govan from two to one. The second appliance was temporarily withdrawn in September 2023;

• Close Cowcaddens which has two wholetime appliances based there. Maintain ownership of the neighbouring Maitland Street site for future development;

• Reinstatement of second wholetime appliance at Maryhill that was temporarily removed in September 2023.

You can share your views of these proposals with the SFRS by completing their online survey or you can attend their consultation meeting on the 31st July at 6pm in the Pearce Institute which I would greatly encourage!

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

• Tuesday 12th August - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

• Thursday 21st August - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

• Friday 29th August - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

Upcoming Community Councils

• Govan East - Riverside Hall - 19th August - 6pm

• Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 20th August - 7pm

• Govan - Pearce Institute - 1st September - 7pm

• Drumoyne - Govan High - 18th September- 7pm

• Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 20th September - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

I gave you all a run down a fortnight ago in this newsletter about the plans for the new bin hubs which will be making their way onto the ground outside your flats over the next 6 months. After sending this out I got a bit of an update which means I now know that Shieldhall, Linthouse, Elder Park and Govan will start to see them hit the ground in August.

I’m hopeful that this rollout is more successful than the Cessnock rollout but I am generally concerned that no-one seems to know about the rollout yet. But this is because the council are yet to tell anyone!

I raised this in the chamber and was told that communication is on-going and letters and social media posts should already been reaching people.

You can read a run down of the full interaction here, including my Green colleague asking about accessibility of the bins.

Proscription of Palestine Action

The UK Government have made the unprecedented decision to add the direct action group Palestine Action to the list of proscribed groups under the Terrorism Act 2000. Meaning that they’re now classed as a terrorist organisation in the same fashion as Al-Qaeda, ISIS, the IRA, the UDA, National Front, Boko Haram, and the Wagner Group.

The Green group placed a motion before the council that we believed that the decision to do this was unjust and sets a dangerous precedent.

Section 3(4) of the Terrorism Act 2000 defines an organisation engaging with terrorism as one who:

• “commits or participates in acts of terrorism”

• “prepares for terrorism”

• “promotes or encourages terrorism, including the unlawful glorification of terrorism”

• “is otherwise concerned in terrorism”

Now, while I get that people have differing opinions of the actions that Palestine Action undertake in their efforts to prevent further Genocide in Palestine, classing their actions as terrorism is a bit ridiculous and in my view, weakens the UK’s ability to identify and target real terrorism.

It is quite clear legally that many of the actions of Palestine Action are criminal, and charges have been raised against activists already over the years but there’s a great difference between planning a terror attack and spraying paint on a stationary plane.

My concern with this move is it being used as an excuse to react even more aggressively than we’ve seen recently to peaceful protest. Because of this motion, the council are standing against the proscription order and asking the Home Secretary to reverse her decision, and asking the Lord Advocate (Scottish Government’s senior lawyer) to issue non-prosecution guidance for Scotland.

Police Facial Recognition

For a decade Police Forces in England and Wales have been using Facial Recognition Technology to scan public spaces and crowds. This scanning allows them to use a database of images to identify individuals.

On the face of it, it might sound like a good way to catch the top wanted list, but the question before politicians is - is that worth giving up our right to privacy and data protection? When asked to rule on South Wales Police’s use of live facial recognition technology, the Court of Appeal ruled that they violated privacy rights, broke data protection and violated equality laws.

Police Scotland have gone to and fro on the use of a system over the last decade but a recent freedom of information request has shown that Police Scotland are looking at introducing a system which is capable of facial recognition. Even after the European Union have taken action to ban these technologies on the continent over the risk they pose to citizens.

The Green position is that these technologies do more harm than good and should halt any rollout.

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

• Tuesday 12th August - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

• Thursday 21st August - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

• Friday 29th August - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

Upcoming Community Councils

• Govan East - Riverside Hall - 19th August - 6pm

• Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 20th August - 7pm

• Govan - Pearce Institute - 1st September - 7pm

• Drumoyne - Govan High - 18th September- 7pm

• Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 20th September - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Way back in issue 23 I shared the plans for George V Bridge which crosses the Clyde from Commerce Street (next to the new Barclays HQ) to the bottom of Oswald Street and here I am, telling you that it’s finished - and ahead of schedule if you’d believe it!

The bridge has had upgrades planned for a fair while but following the death of young cyclist, Emma Burke Newman in January 2023, these were accelerated.

Now there is safe cycle crossings North and South which connect both into the Barclays lane and the South West City Way to Pollok Park, and in with the Broomielaw lanes heading East and West. Along with these lanes, the crossings have been significantly improved on both sides of the river. Including a new crossing over the Broomielaw on the East of the junction. One of those junctions that lots of people used to run over because there was no traffic control.

This was a key block in making cycling segregated cycling from from the Eastern half of the Govan ward into the city centre and having used it a few times now - it’s great!

If you’ve been over it - let me know what you think!

Leave a comment

Tradeston Parking

The council officially made a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) on the 16th June 2025 following notice last year of the intention to do so.

What does this mean?

Well new parking restrictions will be coming into effect on the 4th August 2025 in the area stretching from Clyde Place and Cook Street in the north and south respectfully, and from Eglinton Street in the east and west respectively. The map below shows this more accurately.

This will mean those utilising on-street parking will be paying for their parking based on the carbon emissions of their vehicle, rather than a standard charge across all vehicles. The full ins and outs can be found on the initial notice issued in October 2025 which you can find here.

Anyone who wants to challenge the validity of the order - you can do so via the Court of Session within 6 weeks of 16th June 2025.

Fire Cuts

Many of you will know that in September 2023, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) decided to remove one of the two fire trucks and crews “temporarily” from the Govan Fire Station. I did a lot of work at the time to make the case for Govan to retain, some of which you can read here.

Unfortunately, that seems to have fallen on deaf ears and the SFRS have decided that they will be presenting two, frankly abysmal, options to the people of Glasgow. Both of which would see Govan station permanently reduced to 1 fire truck and crew.

The two options are:

Option 1

• Rebuild Cowcaddens on Maitland Street site and maintain two wholetime appliances. Reinstatement of second appliance that was temporarily withdrawn September 2023; AND

• Reduce the number of wholetime appliances based at Govan from two to one. The second appliance was temporarily withdrawn in September 2023;

• Reduce the number of wholetime appliances based at Springburn from two to one;

• Close Yorkhill which has one wholetime appliance based there;

• Reinstatement of second wholetime appliance at Maryhill that was temporarily removed in September 2023.

Option 2

• Reduce the number of wholetime appliances based at Govan from two to one. The second appliance was temporarily withdrawn in September 2023;

• Close Cowcaddens which has two wholetime appliances based there. Maintain ownership of the neighbouring Maitland Street site for future development;

• Reinstatement of second wholetime appliance at Maryhill that was temporarily removed in September 2023.

You can share your views of these proposals with the SFRS by completing their online survey or you can attend their consultation meeting on the 31st July at 6pm in the Pearce Institute which I would greatly encourage!

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

• Tuesday 12th August - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

• Thursday 21st August - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

• Friday 29th August - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

Upcoming Community Councils

• Govan - Pearce Institute - 7th July - 7pm

• Govan East - Riverside Hall - 19th August - 6pm

• Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 20th August - 7pm

• Drumoyne - Govan High - 18th September- 7pm

• Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 20th September - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Anyone who has been out and about in Cessnock, Pollokshields, Haghill or Anderston in the last 9-12 months might have seen the bin hubs (pictured below) out on the street. These areas were mostly a pilot scheme to see how the council could successfully roll out a bin scheme that wasn’t based in back courts which are becoming more and more difficult to collect from.

This rollout is happening now. The council have now purchased these bins. Over the summer and into the autumn we’ll start to see them hit the ground in Linthouse, Govan, Elder Park, then Ibrox, Cessnock and Kinning Park. I’m advised this will all be done by the end of this year.

The advantage of this system is that you won’t have bins in your garden anymore, they’ll be on the street. You’ll also get food recycling at long last. As well as bins collected every 4 days for general waste and 8 days for recycling (instead of 8 and 16 days currently). What we’ve seen from the Cessnock rollout is a significant increase in recycling rates, as well as much less street litter. That’s not to say there’s not still flytipping and waste dumped at the side of the hubs but overall, the area is much cleaner.

Those living in houses won’t be getting these bin hubs and it won’t be every block. I’m waiting for the full list which I’ll of course pass over when I have these.

I’ve made it really clear to the council officers doing this rollout that people in Govan need to be consulted about what is happening to their streets. I’m hopefully getting some dates through in the next week and will share everything I have with you when it it arrives.

Visitor Levy

Last year, the Scottish Parliament passed the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 which allowed local councils to implement what is commonly known as a Tourist Tax. Almost as soon as the powers came in, the work started to get Glasgow’s scheme off the ground. After the consultation period, we’ve signed off the scheme and have a launch date!

From the 25th January 2027 (the legislation makes us do nothing for 18 months), any visitor staying in a hotel, hostel, guest house, b&b, or self-catering accommodation will have to contribute 5% of their cost to the city. The money raised by this is expected to be roughly £16 million a year from 2027.

The legislation does stipulate that this money has to be spend on things that tourists use. While the discussions are still to be had about where the first year of this funding is to be directed. I am strongly of the opinion that this should include keeping the city clean, improving and maintaining our parks, investment into our public transport systems (ideally not in private hands), and funding cultural events like Celtic Connections. When we get to that debate - I’ll let you know!

Cyber Attack

You may have seen that the council were made aware of malicious activities on servers of a third party supplier to our outsourced IT supplier. While this is being investigated the servers have been taken offline.

We don’t yet know if any data was stolen but I’m assured that every precaution possible is being taken.

You can find out all the information that we know currently but clicking the button below. While many of the online services are offline - you can report things directly to me and I’ll endeavour to get it to the right place. My e-mail is dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk.

Read more

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

• Friday 27th June - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

• Tuesday 12th August - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

• Thursday 21st August - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

Upcoming Community Councils

• Govan - Pearce Institute - 7th July - 7pm

• Govan East - Riverside Hall - 19th August - 6pm

• Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 20th August - 7pm

• Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 20th September - 7pm

• Drumoyne - Govan High - 21st August- 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk

Following years of building, the beautiful new flats at the Water Row development opened last year and tenants of the properties moved in. For those who don’t know the set up of these flats. They’re classed as “Mid-Market Rent” so specifically designed to be rented out to people who would struggle to purchase property but who would also struggle to get high enough up a list for social housing. Sounds like a good idea on paper right?

The flats at Water Row are owned and managed by the Water Row Company, a subsidiary company of local registered social landlord Govan Housing Association. The difference with Mid-Market Rent and Social Rent is that the former is classed in the exact same way as Private Rent. You don’t get a say on your rent increase, you can be evicted for next to no reason and you’re not entitled to any of the services that a Housing Association is funded to provide but it’s still owned and operated by a Housing Association. Many view the arrangement as a cash cow for Housing Associations although undoubtedly they’d disagree.

The specific problem that has come about at Water Row is that from moving in March 2024 to this year, some tenants have been faced with a rent increase of approximately 50%. No ifs, not buts. That was the Water Row Company’s (the subsidiary company of Govan Housing Association) decision and that’s that. To be clear, the decision was entirely legal which is a problem in it’s own right. At the time, many of the tenants reached out to politicians across the political spectrum and representations were made by Councillors, MSPs and the MP. None of these interjections however were successful.

In the meeting I had with the company, they openly told me that they were increasing to the maximum rent they could because they miscalculated the cost of the development, citing unexpected expenses like gardeners, indoor bin rooms and having to paint disabled parking spaces (which were a planning condition anyway). I said at the time and I stand by it, the rent increases proposed were due to a failure to adequately plan or manage the properties and that shouldn’t fall on the shoulder of tenants.

The tenants did try to use the Scottish Government’s “Rent Service Scotland” which is supposed to assess your rent level and can change it if you’re dramatically different from the expected market level. The feedback I got from tenants about this wasn’t anything to write home about.

With politicians being unable to convince the landlord and with the independent service unable to convince the landlord. The tenants chose to collectivise, and in doing so joined up with Scotland’s tenants union, Living Rent. I spoke to one of the fantastic organisers from Living Rent at the demo last night who said Living Rent were on the ground supporting the tenants for 6 weeks and they’ve managed to achieve a complete cancellation of the rent increase and a guarantee of real consultation before any other changes to rent levels.

This is a massive victory for the tenants and I’m over the moon that they’ve made managed what seemed like an insurmountable challenge. If you’re interested in finding out more about Living Rent or in joining the very active local Govan/Ibrox Branch - you can get all the info on their website.

Govan CC Public Meeting

Govan Community Council are holding their summer public meeting next Wednesday at 7pm at the Pearce Institute.

The topic is “Govan needs decent housing, shops and public services” with speakers being local business owner Pat Cassidy (of Govan Workspace) and local community development manager Ruby Kelly (of Maslows).

These are always really interesting meetings with good discussion and debate and normally gives us politicians some actions to go and work on. It’s a free, open, public meeting so just rock up if you’re interested!

Scottish Green Party Selections for Holyrood

Any keen observers of the Scottish Green Party will have noticed that we’re in the process of selecting our candidates for next years Scottish Parliament election. I’ve had a few people catch me in the street and at meetings to ask if my hat is in the ring so I thought it’d be crystal clear.

While the tripling of my salary and having my own staff might seem appealing, I enjoy being in Govan too much to spend most of my week travelling through to Edinburgh so I won’t be on the ballot paper next year. You will of course have a delightful Green on the ballot, but it won’t be me!

Surgeries

I run advice and support surgeries 3 times a month, you don’t need an appointment, just turn up! Next dates are:

• Thursday 19th June - 5pm - Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street

• Friday 27th June - 11am - Clyde Community Hall, Whitefield Road

• Tuesday 12th August - 4pm - Maslow’s Community Hub, Shaw Street

Upcoming Community Councils

• Drumoyne - Govan High - 19th June - 7pm

• Govan - Pearce Institute - 7th July - 7pm

• Govan East - Riverside Hall - 19th August - 6pm

• Ibrox and Cessnock - Clyde Community Hall - 20th August - 7pm

• Kinning Park - Kinning Park Complex - 20th September - 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!

As always - any problems you want to raise - my e-mails always open at dan.hutchison@glasgow.gov.uk