Vital stage in battle to secure empty site for social housing
Residents confident of go-ahead for deal
ACAMPAIGN calling for a vacant area of land to be used for social housing has reached a crucial stage.
Activists from Maryhill who are members of the Still Game for the Valley Campaign launched their bid for a community buyout of land on Collina Street, close to where the popular BBC series is filmed. If successful, the move would allow the community to register their interest in the land and be given the opportunity to buy the land when it comes up for sale again.
They have previously built a bothy on the site named after Boaby the Barman from Still Game.
Fiona Higgins, who is involved in the campaign said there has been growing support for a community buy-out. She said: “Our understanding is that at various points there were interested parties in the land. The council seem to have halted efforts to sell the land.
“We have occupied the land and we’ve been cultivating the land for community use. We’ve been growing vegetables with a lot of local people, students who have been very interested and a lot of local children and that’s been going on for several months now.
“We’re looking to formalise plans for a community buyout so we can set up a limited company for that. It requires 10% of the community to get behind it.”
Along with colleague Nick Durie, they have been canvassing opinion around the Wyndford area of Maryhill and held an event to formally launch their plans on
Sunday. Fiona added: “Right now, we’re just going around the community and there’s a lot of outreach through phone banking and visiting. We’ve had a lot of support so far. We were talking to a lot of local residents and there is a lot of interest in the land, a lot of people have told us that they used to stay there or had family who stayed there and they were displaced. There is a lot of support for social housing and a community buy out.”
At their formal launch on Sunday, local residents were able to take part in workshops for growing vegetables, how to get involved in the campaign and the future of The Valley.
Fiona is confident that the buyout can go ahead. She added: “We are confident that we can build our plan and take people along with us. We’ve been surprised by the level of awareness of the campaign.”
The Glasgow Times has previously reported that the plot could be bought by private developers to build low-cost housing to buy, but locals showed opposition to the plans. The sale of the land has since been paused by the council while they consider other options.
A council spokesperson said: “The sale process has been temporarily paused to allow the impact of issues facing the housing market in relation to the supply of material and labour shortages to be assessed.
“The council and the other members of Transforming Communities: Glasgow are continuing to monitor the situation and will re-engage the process when it is appropriate to do so.”