We have received the following communication from Robert Booth, Director of LES.  Please note the number for the Council’s freephone reporting service, RALF: 0800 37 36 35.

“For the third year running, extreme winter weather has taken a heavy toll on our road network – but not just a Glasgow issue, a national one, with even parts of the motorway network disintegrating.

Predictably reported potholes are on the increase and LES resources (7 squads currently – would normally be 2) have been concentrating on repairing as many as possible.

The £8M roads investment strategy is well advanced and has provided real improvements.  The last progress update in October reported that:-

Commitment                                                               Progress to Date

Permanently repair 10,000 potholes                      over 8,000 complete

300 roads to be resurfaced                                          200 completed

90 junctions to be resurfaced                                     100% complete

20% of city centre roads resurfaced                          20% complete

150 high quality manhole repairs                            100% complete

Despite these improvements the road network is continuing to deteriorate – a process which has been accelerated by the severe weather conditions.

In 2010 the published SCOTS Road Maintenance Backlog Calculation for Glasgow city Council was in excess of £70M.  This figure is calculated on an annual basis using national survey data and represents the one off spend to bring our roads back to an acceptable condition.

For the remainder of this financial year it will be necessary to divert funding from planned carriageway resurfacing work to repairing potholes and other defects caused by the severe weather.  Further details of any resurfacing schemes requiring to be rescheduled will be provided in due course.

In the meantime, should you receive any reports of potholes or other road defects from any of your constituents, I would respectfully encourage you to direct them to the Council’s freephone reporting service, RALF on 0800 37 36 35 since this route will provide the most efficient service.”

Below is a letter we received from Robert Booth, Director LES:

“As you are aware, our refuse collection service was disrupted during November and December as a consequence of the extreme weather conditions.  The situation was exacerbated to a certain extent during the festive holiday period, with the normal seasonal peak in refuse produced coupled with reduced resources on certain public holidays.  I am pleased to inform you that with the recent improvement in the weather the majority of these services are now returning to normal, however, I must warn you that further snowfall has been forecast for the coming weekend which may once again impact on this service.

Provided below is a general summary of the current situation, followed by further detail on an area basis.

Multi-Storey Locations – Collections from all multi-storey locations across the city are all currently up to date.  Advance uplifts are continuing at a number of these locations to ensure refuse chambers within these properties have sufficient space to safely cope with any additional New Year refuse.

Kerbside Wheeled Bin Uplifts – The Service has returned to scheduled weekly uplifts for residents with kerbside collections.  The vast majority of wheeled bins presented are now up to date citywide.  Festive arrangements for kerbside wheeled bin uplifts were generally successful with certain allowances for delays due to weather.  All New Year refuse will be collected from domestic wheeled bin routes by Sunday 9 January.

Back-Court and Lane Collections – These locations continue to present the most challenges at the moment and additional resources are being deployed to assist with dealing with the backlog in specific areas noted below.  Priority will continue to be given to putrescible waste with recycling collections following thereafter.

Outstanding Collections – We continue to work closely with Customer & Business Services, sharing information and identifying and resolving known hot-spot locations.

Bulk Uplift – A limited service is being operated at present with priority being given to bulk materials already placed on the kerbside.  The remaining resource from this service is currently assisting with domestic waste collections and will return to their core duties as soon as possible.  Partner organisations such as GHA and GERA have also been providing much appreciated assistance with this service.

Area summaries are provided below with more detailed information.

South East Area: Polmadie Complex

Wheeled Bin Routes – 2 hours behind.

Tenemental/multi occupancy/lane routes (domestic waste) – generally 2 days behind in Govanhill, Castlemilk and Shawlands areas.  Up to 3 days behind in Gorbals and Mount Florida.

Additional resources are being deployed in each of the areas, to recover the outstanding backlog.  As they become available resources from other areas in the city will be diverted to the South East in order to assist this worst affected area.

Working closely with the Customer Care Centre, we are continually reviewing and responding to any addresses within the city where domestic refuse has remained uncollected for any substantial period.  Close liaison with our colleagues in the Customer Care Centre has meant that for the period 1 Jan until 7 Jan 2011, we have managed to reduce the number of reported missed collections to 620 – representing 44% of the total for the same period last year.  Notwithstanding any further adverse weather, we anticipate that we will return to a normal collection schedule by Friday 14 January.”

The Council’s Department of Land and Environmental Services recently completed draft Management Plans for Parks in Glasgow, including Queen’s Park.  The Council invite you to view the plans and contribute to this consultation.  You can view the plans by clicking on the PDF below and use the following link to make your comments electronically.

The consultation closes on Friday 17th December 2010.

http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/YourCouncil/Consultations/

Queens Park Management Plan

Our AGM (and October meeting thereafter) will take place on Monday 4th October at 7.30pm at 81 Carmichael Place.  Do come along if you have any issues you would like to raise at this meeting.

The Community Council continue to be heavily involved in the design and consultation for the ‘bandstand’ in Queen’s Park.

ZM Architecture Ltd, winners of the design competition for the Queen’s Park Arena held jointly by Glasgow Institute of Architects and the Queen’s Park Project steering group (chaired by Evelyn Silber, Chair of LBCCC), have been commissioned to develop their design and working more detailed plans and costs for the site.

The idea is, first to re-landscape the seating, provide drainage and electrical supply and re-lay the arena so the site can come back into use. Grant applications being submitted this autumn will hopefully meet the £176k cost. If successful, work will take place on site in 2011.

ZM have designed a flexible performance structure with inbuilt lighting and security features which would enable it to function as landmark, performers’ canopy, film screen, lighting support and much more . There are also plans to upgrade the small storage building nearby to create a changing space and unisex WC with disabled facilities. These and other site refinements will be dependent upon a second phase of fund raising and will make the space more flexible and attractive to a wider range of performers.

Below is a pdf of the winning design by ZM Architects:

Performance Space Design

The Community Council have been very active in monitoring the work being carried out at the former ‘Agenda’ pub in Millbrae Road.  We have commented on a number of the individual applications, so if we hear any news, we will post it here first!

LBCCC are proud to announce the completion of a couple of projects that have been in progress over the past year or so.  Planters have now been situated in Langside Place, through a grant from the Langside Area Committee.

The final phase of the Bluebell Wood project is near completion, with the final planting stage to be completed in the next few weeks.

Yes, it’s been almost a year already!

The South Side Festival takes place on Saturday 22nd May and is shaping up to be a great day!

More information & a programme of events can be found on the festival website at:

http://southsidefestival.org.uk/

The Community Council will have a stall in the glasshouse so make sure you come visit us!

We have received notification of a very useful service available to those over 65 who need a hand doing small jobs around the house.

More information can be found by accessing the following link:

http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/Residents/Care_Support/SupportatHome/HandypersonService/

Following the October 2009 public meeting, the Community Council has obtained revised estimates for path work and lighting.

These are within the budget (with the proviso that the Council Lighting Dept contributes another £2000 from their own resources to which they have agreed.)

On this basis we have commissioned the path improvement work and the lighting will be done in March.  There will be four new lampposts on the main existing tarmac path.  The smaller items such a bollards still to be sorted out.