Govan is unrecognisable since the days of Rab C Nesbitt but locals are still not shy of putting the world to rights THINK OF THE CLIMATE SUMMIT
On the north side of the Clyde, 191 world leaders are gathering for Cop26.
Across the river, in Govan, it’s possible to see the SEC where they wil l be meeting. It’s surrounded by shiny hotels, beside the Riverside Museum, down the river from the smart Glasgow Harbour housing development.
People in this former shipbuilding community are used to standing on deserted docks, watching important decisions being taken without them.
Deirdre Gaughan, a former councillor who now runs Central Govan Action Plan, said: “We see them putting up the tents and having a big event but the benefits all stay on that side. Everything is for that side of the water.”
The delegates at Cop26 will discuss how to keep global warming below 2C. At the Pearce Institute on Govan Road, this feels like hot air.
Outside, this grand Edwardian building, donated to the community by a shipyard owner’s widow, looks like a stately home. Inside, there’s a community pantry where members can buy food and household items at reduced prices.
There’s also a friendly cafe where two all-day breakfasts are £7.50.
But the environmental issues being debated here are dumped furniture, overflowing bins and overgrown trees.
“Govan is mess after mess after mess,” sighed John White. “The place is a slum.”
His friend Paul Downie, a gardener, looks after John’s small patch. “The money for Cop26 could have been spent on better things,” he stressed. “It all goes to the west end.” At another table,
Anna Burnside
Marion Johnston and her friends have a list of grievances ranging from road closures to the botched decision to use a fleet of electric cars to bring Cop26 delegates from Gleneagles to Glasgow. The country’s fanciest hotel only has one charging point.
Marion said: “There is so much disruption. You can’t get a bus – or if you do get one, it’s sitting in traffic. It’s now impossible to get to the shops or the hospital if you don’t drive.
“We are getting all the traffic diverted from the Clydeside Expressway and it’s going past two schools and a nursery.
“They have cut down all the bushes on the industrial estate. Why is the place not so tidy the rest of the time? But it’s all for show – the back courts are still a riot but the front is all clean.”
A spike in Covid cases as 30,000 delegates descend on the city is also a big worry. Marion said: “The kids will be off school and we will be back in lockdown.
“They don’t have to quarantine or pay for tests. There’s one rule for us and another one for them.”
Other than getting a few hedges trimmed, Marion and the Pearce Institute lunch crowd see no upside in the giant gathering across the water. “We are not going to benefit.”
Along the road, Cafe 13 is one of Govan’s few flashes of gentrification. It overlooks the underground station and the statue of the area’s famous rent strike organiser Mary Barbour. In the distance is the industrial estate built on the old Moorepark scheme, once known as Wine Alley.
Rab C Nesbitt would not recognise his
old stomping ground. Today Cafe 13 has cans of San Pellegrino – “Yuppie Fanta” – and f lat whites. The groovy young people who work in the area’s many youth projects and regeneration charities have meetings and answer emails on their laptops.
Drinking tea and petting a dozing pug, Pauline Glen and Margaret Downie have their doubts about the climate emergency. Pauline said: “Greta is a very intelligent girl but climate change? I’m not sure. It might be an act of God. This may be the way the world ends.”
She disl ikes the way her generation gets the blame for global warming. “When we were young, it was all glass bottles. No plastic cartons. Chips came in newspaper.”
But Margaret, with three grandchildren, does fear for the future. “I worry about them growing up, what the world will be like for them.”
There are some signs of a breakthrough from the green revolution, even if it’s just some small steps.
Govan has little of the infrastructure needed to halt the rise in global temperatures. The nearest electric car charging point is a mile-and-a-half away, in Bellahouston Park.
Tenement housing, which makes up around a quarter of the area’s housing stock, is hard to insulate and wastes a lot of heat. And it’s not easy to eat a locally grown, plant-based diet when the main supermarkets are
Farmfoods and Iceland. But one green oasis is Riverside Gardens, a lush corner where volunteers and schoolchildren grow melons and sweetcorn in a polytunnel. Organiser Jane Burdass said: “Within a month of planting the garden, we attracted birds and bees.”
Then there’s Starter Packs, a charity that began in Govan 21 years ago. They take bedding, towels, a kettle, a toaster and household basics to people who have moved into their first council or housing association home. Based in Govan’s Burleigh Street, the packs are funded by two charity shops.
Manager Gav Dunbar said: “Climate change is the biggest global issue we face, we need to stop it getting any worse. If people understood what a two-degree rise in global temperatures would look like, I think they would be more concerned.”
In the Riverside Hall community centre, David Patterson and colleagues are planning the pensioners’ Christmas party. He identifies “loads of things” that need done in Govan but doesn’t think Cop26 will help any of them.
But Mary Barbour’s community spirit and determination are still visible in Govan today – and that will drive the area on. David said: “We have a radical tradition but it’s not because we’ve got a statue of Mary Barbour. It’s always been here. If you are in a wee bit of bother, ask for help and you will get it.”
That is, he says, the Govan way. “It has to be. We can’t rely on anybody else to do it for us.”