Memorial Garden to Commemorate Loved Ones Established

A quiet place for local people to remember those they have loved and lost has been created in Govanhill.

The Govanhill Remembrance Garden is part of the community garden next to the Association’s offices in Coplaw Street.

It is set in a secluded part of the garden close to Butterbiggins Medical Centre and away from the main growing and training spaces. The peaceful spot features benches and soft planting where people can take a quiet moment.

The area features a wall-mounted remembrance tree where simple plaques commemorate the names of local people. The first tree is now almost full, with a second tree planned for installation in the next few months. Getting a name plaque engraved and installed costs £5 from The Cobbler on Calder Street.

The garden has been the work of local residents Rosemary Scott and Association tenant Kathy Graham, who organised a fundraiser in 2016 to get the memorial tree installed. The installation was supported by staff from the Association and Govanhill Community Development Trust.

A remembrance day in the community garden and Samaritan House is planned for late summer or early autumn. The date will be confirmed once accessibility improvements have been completed in the wider community garden. Check the Govanhill Community Remembrance Garden Facebook page for updates or contact Dave Zabiega at dzabiega@govanhillha.org or on 0141 636 3665.

English Language Café Extended for Further Year

This summer brought some great news for anyone wanting to learn English in Govanhill. The English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Café at the former Govanhill Trinity Church building in Daisy Street will now open for two days a week rather than one after receiving funding from Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government. Govanhill Community Development Trust run the drop-in classes, which teach people to read, write and speak English. People speaking more than 30 languages have attended the classes since they began in October 2015. They will now run on Fridays as well as Tuesdays until at least summer 2018.

Learners will benefit from a free meal as well as a crèche and supervised play activities for children over three years old. Over the summer months there will also be some trips designed to give learners the chance to practise their spoken English out of the classroom.

For more information about the ESOL classes please get in touch.

Major Progress with Major Repairs

Several phases of the Govanhill Housing Association’s major repairs programme are complete, with others under way. Window and kitchen replacement work is at the heart of the £4 million programme for 2017/18.

Phase 9 of the window replacements – covering a number of addresses in Allison Street, Cathcart Road and Hollybrook Street – has been completed and work on phases 7 and 8 (addresses in Langside Road, Coplaw Street, Cuthbertson Street, Carfin Street, Cathcart Road and Govanhill Street) is due to finish by the end of June. Further window replacement work will start later in the year, with many properties to get brand-new additions!

Housing Association tenants have been informed and many surveys are already under way. Kitchen replacements at addresses in Annandale Street, Butterbiggins Road, Calder Street and Coplaw Street are due to be complete by June. For more information or enquiries about the Housing Association’s major repairs and planned maintenance programme, contact Development and Regeneration Services on 0141 636 3684.