New Award for North Kelvin Meadow

GREEN MSP MEDIA RELEASE

For immediate release 16 December 2010

GREENS CONGRATULATE NORTH KELVIN MEADOW CAMPAIGN

Patrick Harvie MSP has lodged a motion (1) in the Scottish Parliament congratulating the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign on receiving an It’s Your Neighbourhood Award from Beautiful Scotland which places them in the ‘Thriving’ category. (2) This acknowledgement of the award raises once more the injustice at the selling off of this space to ‘luxury’ property developers, and highlights Green concerns about the public consultation conducted by the developers.

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“I am pleased to see the Meadow recognised as ‘thriving’. It is indeed a thriving place for all the community to enjoy and has gone from strength to strength thanks to the remarkable efforts of the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign. It is therefore such a tragedy that Glasgow City Council believes this space should be sold off to property developers.

“The development of luxury flats on the Meadow is in complete opposition to public opinion, and the developer’s gestures at public consultation are nothing more than box ticking. What is best for the community has never been on their agenda, nor Glasgow City Council’s, and I do not believe that residents’ concerns will be genuinely acknowledged or considered by both parties.

“And so Glasgow is threatened with losing a valuable and beautiful space, a space that has brought an incredible amount of joy to all those that have been to one of the numerous events held at the Meadow, and to local residents pleased to see what was once disused land transformed into something so beneficial for their community and the natural environment. There is still time for Glasgow City Council to see sense on this and save North Kelvin Meadow.”

Notes

1.Full text of parliamentary motion:

S3M-07608 Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Scottish Green Party): North Kelvin Meadow Award— That the Parliament congratulates all those at the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign on their It’s Your Neighbourhood Award from Beautiful Scotland; notes that this award places the meadow in the Thriving category of project awarded; deplores the present proposals from developers, which it considers would destroy this thriving area, and applauds Beautiful Scotland for recognising the efforts of all those involved in the campaign to make the meadow such a special and beautiful green space that benefits an entire community.

2. See:

http://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/news.asp?nid=732

Risky Buchanan funding approved

Glasgow City Council’s Executive Committee has approved a business case for a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) Initiative to fund a major expansion of Buchanan Galleries, build a new 1500 space car park and undertake public realm works.

The business case identifies a funding gap of £56m that the developer can’t come up with themselves.  These millions are to be paid upfront by Council borrowing and the debt intended to be paid back over 25 years by additional business rates generated by the development. This is a high-risk strategy in uncertain economic times.  Securing unnecessary debt on Glasgow’s hard-pressed tax payers is deeply irresponsible, especially while people are being asked to accept cuts to vital local services.  It’s time Glasgow City Council started putting people ahead of private interests!

As part of the plans, Buchanan Galleries would be allowed to go ahead with plans to demolish the Royal Concert Hall steps, to create a more prominent entrance into the shopping centre.  This will prove deeply unpopular with many Glaswegians.  Yes, the steps need to be better maintained and accessibility should be improved.  But there is no case other than that driven by Buchanan Galleries own commercial interest, to justify the removal of this popular and fun public space.

As a Glasgow MSP, I will raise this matter immediately with the Scottish Government and the Scottish Futures Trust, and ask them to reject outright Glasgow City Council’s irresponsible plan for TIF borrowing.

End of Life Assistance Bill

A little delayed, but here is my speech in the Stage 1 debate on Margo MacDonald’s End of Life Assitance Bill which took place on December 1st.

I was disappointed that there were only sixteen votes in favour, but I don’t think that this will be the last time Parliament debates proposals to allow people to make their own choices as they face the end of life. Margo is due huge credit for working hard to develop proposals and bring them for debate.

Transport & Climate Change minister resigns

One thing has been settled by Stewart Stevenson’s resignation today; over recent months there has been constant disagreement in political circles (well, the ones which involve sarcastic comments on Twitter) over which Minister most deserved the nickname Beaker. With Stewart gone, the title now rests unambiguously with Danny Alexander.

What isn’t resolved is the actual work he should have been doing to prepare Scotland for winter, and I’m now unsure whether anyone from the Scottish Government will actually turn up in front of my committee on Tuesday as planned, so that we can find out what went wrong last week and ensure that we won’t see a repeat of the chaos over the coming months. It seems pretty clear that warnings were missed or ignored, that roads which should have been closed stayed open, and that there was extremely poor communication with the public about the need to avoid travelling.

But of course there’s another hugely important half of the position which Stevenson has just given up – he’s been the Minister responsible for climate change policy too. There are legally defined timescales for much of the work in this area, including the Government’s report on the measures it will take to cut emissions and a public engagement strategy, the draft of which has left those who’ve seen it very unimpressed.

As a Minister, Stewart Stevenson thought that flatline carbon targets were acceptable, that technofixes will solve the problem of transport emissions, and that a multi-billion pound roadbuilding programme is compatible with all that “low carbon Scotland” rhetoric. I won’t miss him from that role.

But the Minister who takes on that responsibility will need to get moving very quickly indeed if the Government isn’t going to break its own climate change laws again; they spent months in breach earlier this year, and if they don’t meet the impending deadlines for the current work they’ll be leaving a legacy of spin but no substance on this vital issue.

Video clip – Scotland Bill debated at Holyrood

This week the Scottish Parliament debated the new Scotland Bill, which has been published by the UK Government and which MPs will ultimately decide on. Here’s my contribution to the debate:

Andy Wightman’s inspiring speech at SGP conf

Andy Wightman speaking at Scottish Green Party Conference 2010 from Scottish Greens on Vimeo.