Friends of Victoria Park
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Councillor hits back at campaign to stop plan for car park
February 14 2006
A leading councillor has hit back at the campaign to stop a car park being built in one of Glasgow's most historic parks.Aileen Colleran, Glasgow City Council's parks convener, said proposals to replace disused football pitches and trees with a car park at Victoria Park were being distorted by a campaign based on misconceptions.Ms Colleran, councillor for the Partick ward, said the council was determined to preserve green space, while upgrading facilities "to a twenty-first century standard". She denounced what she claimed were unwarranted accusations that Glasgow's playing fields were under increasing jeopardy from developers. She said: "You would think from some of the abuse the council is poised to send bulldozers into Victoria Park and turn a beautiful green space into a sea of ugly grey concrete.
"Two very poor quality red blaes pitches are going to be removed. In reality, they are derelict and used for little more than dog walking. "In their place, we will build two new grass pitches, fully available for recreational use by local residents and clubs. "Yes, it is true there will be a hard-surfaced area next to the new pitches and the grassed area will also be used on a limited number of occasions by motorists when major sporting events are being held at the Scotstoun stadium, with most of these on Friday evenings. "Believe me, there is no way we would be putting forward this proposal if we didn't believe it was leading to an improvement in the existing sports and recreational space in Victoria Park." David Moyes, Everton's manager, recently joined campaigners in the battle to save the Victoria Park football pitches. Glasgow-born Moyes played his first football game on the threatened Victoria Park red blaes pitches. Glasgow City Council wants to build the park on disused pitches, fell about 20 trees and build a new access road and driveway through the park. Steve Prince is a local resident who helps run Broomhill Sports Club which organises classes for hundreds of children.
He said his club would welcome the provision of new facilities in Victoria Park but added: "The real issue here is that the council want to park over 600 cars in our park about 20 times per year. What condition will the grass be in the morning after? Would the Glasgow rugby people like to give up two grass pitches at Scotstoun for an overflow car park? Probably not as it would ruin their playing surface. "However, it's meant to be a good enough arrangement for our children to play the national game on. We have been attempting to do develop our park while the council wants to rush through some ill-conceived plan to park cars there.
This is not good governance." In a separate development, the council are expected to approve more than £20m towards the development of Toryglen regional sports centre and Scotstoun Stadium. The council's policy and resources committee is today expected to set aside £10.5m for Toryglen and £7.9m for Scotstoun with a further £2.2m for a central contingency fund. Glasgow Herald
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