Locals ‘sick’ of alarm noise from Celtic Park
MSP offers to intervene as residents complain
FURIOUS residents living near Celtic Park have hit out at the Parkhead club after an evacuation alarm blared in the early hours of the morning.
The bleary-eyed locals say the noise from the alarm system woke them up at 6am on Sunday.
They claim the noise lasted for up to an hour and was heard by those living in Dennistoun, Calton, Dalmarnock, Bridgeton and even Cambuslang and Rutherglen.
Glen Sutherland, from Dalmarnock, was woken by the noise which he believed was a safety test.
He said: “I had no idea what it was at first but we asked around and it’s a pretty common occurrence in the area. It’s loud enough to wake the dead. I’m sure the whole of Dalmarnock heard it. I’m getting pretty sick of it.”
Dennistoun resident Pauline Thomson filmed a video of the alarm going off. She said: “6.30am is outrageous. What makes them think they aren’t disturbing people? My son works in the Tennent’s Brewery and we were panicking in case it was coming from there. How very dare they!”
In the video seen by the Glasgow Times, three short blasts can be heard, followed by a voice asking people to evacuate the stadium.
Other outraged locals claim that the alarms have been going off for years.
Lifelong Dalmarnock woman Harriet Poole said: “It used to be four in the morning when we were in Ardenlea Street. If you play your music too loud you have the police at the door but you can test your alarm during the night and wake the East End up and that’s ok? It’s a joke.”
It is unclear whether or not the alarm was a test or if it was triggered, however the Scottish Fire and Rescue confirmed that crews attended the scene on Sunday morning.
A spokeswoman said: “We were alerted at 6.04am on Sunday, February 14 to reports of a
fire alarm activation at a football stadium on Kerrydale Street, Glasgow. Operations Control mobilised one appliance to the scene, but it was a false alarm.”
Local MSP John Mason has urged constituents who have concerns about the noise to get in touch with him.
He said: “Alarms going off during the night, whether car alarms, house alarms, or from a site like Celtic Park, are incredibly disturbing and annoying.
“In a situation like this, my normal first step would be to raise the issue with those causing the problem – Celtic in this case. I have always found them open to interacting on issues affecting the local neighbourhood.
“If any constituent wants to contact me about this, I would ask for a list of times and dates when alarms have gone off, and then I would be more than happy to take it up with the club.”
Calton councillor Robert Connelly has also reassured constituents he is looking into the issue.
He said: “You can often to see lights on in the stadium in the evening, including non-match days, although I have never noticed them on very late.
“It is worrying to hear about alarms going off at anti-social times and I will look into this issue.”
The Glasgow Times approached the club for comment but received no response.
It’s loud enough to wake the dead
GLASGOW’S main walkways and high streets could be redesigned post Covid-19 to encourage physical distancing. The City Centre taskforce, which was launched in November last year to tackle the effects of the coronavirus crisis, is also looking to widen footpaths and pavements so people feel safe and planning a deep clean of the city.
Glasgow is one of the worst affected areas in Scotland.
An update was brought before the licensing forum this week.
Denise Hamilton, of neighbourhoods and sustainability, said: “We are in the middle of a pandemic and the city centre of Glasgow will be affected more than most areas.
“We felt that as we started to see restrictions easing last year that there were still a number of challenges for the sector and businesses operating in the city centre to recover from the pandemic.
“In November we were asked to establish a taskforce. Many of us will know that even if your business was permitted to open during the summer, we didn’t have the footfall in the city centre which meant businesses didn’t reopen even though they could.”
The taskforce aims to provide city leadership and support to other businesses throughout the pandemic.
It is developing an action plan and a “lessons learned” assessment to future-proof Glasgow against further pandemic lockdowns and other restrictions which negatively impact the city’s economy and the lives of its citizens.
Ms Hamilton continued: “We have a challenge to get people back in the city centre and feeling safe again.
“That will be a key part of our recovery. There is no doubt that Covid has had a change on or made changes to the way people feel and interact with the city centre. It is our job to look at that.
“We started the group in November, and are already frustrated. It has been difficult to implement the ideas we had.
“We have managed to take the red and white barriers away from the city centre, so it doesn’t look like a race track, and we are now trying to procure various different measures to widen footpaths and create permanent solutions that will encourage social distancing.
“How do we plan ahead? How do we plan for Christmas? We are pushing the Scottish Government to listen.
“The aim is to create a two-way conversation between the business sector and the city council and to address some of the walls that have been built up over the years. We are keen to keep the conversation going.”
Garage and Cathouse owner Donald MacLeod added: “There seems to be a lack of understanding and creation of a roadmap to recovery.
“It is up to this group to keep pushing and asking these questions. We’ve got COP26 at the end of the year. Are we just going to open up the week before?
“I hope not – we need to find out.”
A“CALTON village” can be developed in the East End after council planners approved the scheme. The Wheatley Group is behind plans to build 254 homes on a vacant site off the Gallowgate, next to Morrisons supermarket.
Work on the first phase of the new village – 123 homes for mid-market rent – is expected to start in spring and be complete by late 2023.
There will be 221 flats and 33 houses on the five-acre site, which is bounded by Barrack Street, Melbourne Street and the Gallowgate, with the Queen Street railway line running behind.
David Fletcher, Wheatley Group’s director of development, said: “We’re looking forward to work starting on these homes, which are part of our exciting plans to bring more affordable housing to the city.
“We’re delighted to be working with our partners at Glasgow City Council on this development which will help regenerate the area.”
Homes for mid-market rent will be built by Glasgow Housing Association, part of the Wheatley Group, and will be managed by Lowther.
There will be 75 car parking spaces included in the development and a “large green spine linear park” cutting across from west to east.
A “significant” amount of vacant and derelict land within inner east Glasgow “discourages investment”, a statement submitted on behalf of the applicant claimed.
It added: “It also serves to disconnect the area from the rest of the city, creating a sense of fragmentation.
“Many of the larger sites require substantial ‘up front’ investment, both in terms of road infrastructure and decontamination, making private sector development less attractive.
“This is within the particularly the Calton Village case site
which requires improve links neighbourhoods.”
The main access to the site will be from the Gallowgate or Duke Street along Melbourne Street.
The nearby former Meat Market site is also being developed, with 252 mid-market rent flats to be built by Home Group on the corner of Duke Street and Bellgrove Street.
investment to with adjacent