Project Update Newsletter #1

pre-launch update

You’re reading the Broomhill Community Hub (name pending) newsletter updating you about the community ownership campaign for the Bowling Green on Randolph Road. You can sign up here:

Meeting Summary

We have agreed to begin our initial consultation of the local community by next week 25/05/15. The draft survey can be found here and we are looking for feedback.

We have a credible plan to have two mini consultations of the local community as part of this milestone. The first will be to generate ideas and inspire the community to imagine use cases for the bowling club. This survey will be open for 3 weeks. We will then seek to run an in-person event where the results of this consultation are revealed, discussed, and whittled down. This will also serve as the launch pad of the second survey (provisionally to last 1 week) to get the community to vote on the use cases they like the most to take forward to develop a viable business plan. This would be developed potentially into the summer.

Next Meeting

Looking at having an in-person meeting next week which will mark the launch of the survey and our promotion activities. More details will follow.

Name for Project

We discussed last night the importance for a simple catch-all name and shared language for this project. Something people can easily refer to and easily understand what's being talked about as the project gains interest. Any ideas welcome and then we can have a simple vote? It needn't be anything clever or fancy, it just needs to do the job. Some initial ideas were:

• Broomhill Community Hub

• Project Broomhill

• The Bowling Green

We discussed that it would ideal if it could assume that this community project will succeed, and it certainly should be inclusive and non-combative. All ideas welcome!

Plan to reach older residents 

Current plan to have online survey may not reach all residents in the area and so it was thought we need to have a secondary route to reach residents. Looking for ideas on reaching residents who may not be able to fill out online Survey.

• Have printed survey on back of leaflets and drop off points for responses in local shops.

• Canvassing - going door to door asking for ideas for bowling green

• Set up stall on Crow Rd / Naseby Park to collect ideas

Any more?

Survey promotion ideas

Starting to think about some of the functional bits of getting the word out. Specifically, poster and leaflet design and production as well as tactics that might be useful in this initial 3 week period. In addition to this we were thinking of channels of trying get messages out, both through in-person conversation and on social media.

• Broomhill Toddlers group

• Allotment

• Broomhill Primary PTA

• local churches and church groups

• residents associations

• local businesses

• WhatsApp groups

• local elected representatives (asking them to spread the word rather than do anything political at this point)

If anyone knows of any other active groups in the area or has contacts it would be great to know.  

Planning dossier

The consultation activities will run in parallel with trying to create pressure for the trustees to negotiate with us and see if they are willing to come to the bargaining table and go down a negotiated sale route.

We know that there is a planning application incoming, so we need to also have our defence strategy at the ready. To this aim we will compile a dossier of planning applications for other disused bowls club sites in Glasgow that we will host on our website which in conjunction with our plans for the space will show the following: i) we are serious ii) there is no point in going into a prolonged planning application/rejection/appeal cycle if the council won't allow development and loss of green space. 

This dossier, and the associated planning documents will also inform what can be a pro-forma response to any consultation which we can mobilise people into objecting at the council. I note that Yorkhill and Kelvingrove CC did something similar and they were highly successful (3x planning applications all won) (here is their proforma) That said, just as we are learning from their campaign any proposed developer will also learn from those planning decisions. 

Contacting Other groups

Have started identifying groups which may be able to assist the project which we need to get in contact with. If you have specific contacts or ideas of organisations who could help us please get in touch:

• Community Land Scotland – right to buy process and funding

• Heart of Scotstoun – setting up company limited by guarantee/ Charitable Trust

• Bowling Green (Pollokshields) and Kinning Park complex – setting up community hubs

• Yorkhill and Kelvingrove CC & Mount Florida Community Trust – advice on planning applications

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