Petition hopes to name park after Rab

A petition calling for a Coatbridge park to be renamed after boxing and community legend Rab Bannan is gathering pace online, gaining more than 1300 supporters in its first five days.

Coaches at the Barn boxing club are asking locals to support their suggestion for Souterhouse Park, where the club is located, to be renamed in honour of the distinguished and much-loved coach.

Rab passed away on July 30, aged 86; with hundreds of people lining the streets of Coatbridge for his final journey from his beloved Barn club to his funeral and then as he was laid to rest at Old Monkland cemetery.

The Barn coaches’ petition, hosted on the change.org website, asks for support to“set the wheels in motion” in asking North Lanarkshire Council to rename the park in honour of their “late, great coach” who devoted decades to boxing and who had such an impact on his home town.

Rab’s brother, Pat, said the renaming suggestion is “a great idea” and told the Advertiser: “It would be

an amazing thing to happen, for him and for the whole Bannan family.

“He flew that flag of trying to help people and deserves recognition; he worked hard for all his young boxers and helped so many people, giving an amazing amount of time.

“The coaches running the Barn told me they were going to try to organise this. I think it’s a great idea.”

Barn coach Lauren McGowan said: “We’d all talked about how it would be nice to have a bench to remember Rab, then there was the idea to have the park named after him, as everyone who uses it knew him. It would mean the world to us to have the park called after Rab and it’s just a way of trying to give him something back, as he gave us his whole life.”

The petition states: “For the past 26 years this place became his home, doing 14-hour shifts to help everyone in our community and beyond – it would be a great honour to give a little back to the man that gave his all to us.

“His recent passing showed just how many lives he touched and how many hearts he will continue to live in. Let’s help keep his legacy alive in the place where he changed so many lives.”

Coatbridge MP Steven Bonnar said: “I have signed this petition and urge people to do so also – any tribute has my full backing.”

See the petition at www.change.org/p/north-lanarkshire-councilre-name-of-souterhouse-park.

A spokesperson for North Lanarkshire Council said: “A report is prepared on petitions received and these are considered by the relevant community boards.”

Rab has also been remembered at Holyrood thanks to a motion lodged by former Coatbridge MSP Elaine Smith.

Praising him as an “unsung hero”, it “notes with sadness the passing of boxing trainer Rab Bannan, who positively shaped the lives and careers of all those involved with Barn boxing club”.

The motion recognises his work developing “numerous amateur, national and world boxing champions”– and described “the esteem and respect in which Rab was held by his community”.

It gained support from Fulton MacGregor, Alex Neil and Richard Lyle and Margaret Mitchell.

tribute Rab Bannan was a much-loved coach. Inset, Barn Boxing Club have already paid tribute to him with a special painting