I READ with great interest Jim McIntyre’s letter (October 30) about how the Jordanhill plans will “benefit the community”. As a local resident who has been involved in the grassroots campaign against the proposed development at the former campus I do wonder how far his tongue was in his cheek when he talked about “community benefit”. Whilst I agree with his statement that the university carried out extensive consultation with the community before getting its planning permission in principle that’s where our agreement ends.
That’s because despite that extensive community consultation and the promises made by the university in its Campus Plan the community has witnessed broken promise after broken promise. The consultation, amongst other things, promised that the pitches would be transferred to an appropriate community body (now being ignored as Strathclyde is keeping the freehold and only leasing them to the arms-length unaccountable Glasgow Life), that the public and community access would be retained to the civic spaces in the main David Stowe building (now being ignored, the areas are being used as flats and no alternatives being offered), that the publicly funded award-winning University Principal's House would be retained with only two new houses being permitted in its grounds (Cala now proposes the complete demolition of the house and the erection of 40 flats in its place) and that the refectory site would be unbuilt upon to preserve the setting of the main Stowe building (now being ignored and new flats being planned to be built on it).
The Cala plans ignore all these elements that were promised to the community and offer nothing in the alternative. The community wants to see the campus redeveloped but they also want to see promises honoured. If Mr McIntyre is sincere that he “wants to continue in partnership with the community” then according to my dictionary “partnership” involves “the pooling of skills and resources and the sharing of profit and loss”. Given the shameless reneging on the promises made during the consultation process by University of Strathclyde to the community is Mr McIntyre finally now promising financial or other recompense to benefit the existing citizens of Jordanhill in line with his talk of “partnership”? I would love for him to prove me wrong but I very much doubt it.
Euan Miller,
111 Southbrae Drive, Jordanhill, Glasgow.
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