Your Waverley Park Experience

We've lived here for around forty years. It has always been a wonderful, united community where neighbours continue to look after one another. In the space of a couple of weeks, this project has divided our community due to what I can only call some people's inflated sense of entitlement. The lack of neighbourliness being shown is shameful. We live on one of the cul-de-sacs in Ravenswood where people want a play area, benches and all sorts of amenities - all of which would realistically mean we would be unable to sit in our gardens or, potentially, sit in our side rooms all summer, or, in my case, work in my loft/office or my son to study in his room overlooking the cul-de-sac due to noise. Children deserve to play, to run, shout, scream and greet but can you imagine even 5 young children doing this for hours on end right next to your house? Do people really think that is fair to their neighbours when acceptable alternatives exist? I am sorry to say that it appears that some people posting on this site would appear to define 'community improvement' as 'doing things that I want for me and my family irrespective of the impact it has on others'. Most children in Waverley Park already have excellent amenities, including their own gardens. We live right next to a large school whose fields and playgrounds are underused throughout summer. Why are you not approaching the Education Department? (although our neighbours in Dinmont whose homes are closer to the pitches should be consulted on this). And in response to a previous poster, the synonym for ‘thoroughfare’ is 'through route', i.e., somewhere you walk through, not a place where you sit and talk to your friends. You have a garden and a house. You have coffee shops. You have the facilities of a school in the summer. Have you considered the problems associated with, in term time, the school pupils who would use the benches during the day and the teenagers who would use them at night to drink? And one more definition - 'community' to me isn't just those of us in highly privileged Waverley Park - it extends to those a lot less fortunate in our city, i.e. the vast majority. Even before covid hit, Glasgow City Council was having to cut its budgets across the board. As someone involved in mental health, I could tell you of an excellent women’s group run by Glasgow Association for Mental Health that has been shut down following its Council grant being slashed even though the project cost next-to-nothing to run. Quite possibly, some of these highly vulnerable people may be pushed towards ending their lives due to this simple loss of support. The Council will have to continually slash budgets for years to come as we pay for the economic consequences of covid. And yet we have the audacity to assume we should be prioritised for funding for these frivolous 'benefits' when that money should clearly be directed at those communities much more in need. This well-intentioned project started off looking to find a solution to the traffic problem. It now seems to be out of control. Having spoken to many neighbours in the last few days – by no means just those living at or near a cul-de-sac, I am by no means alone in my sense of anger at the impact on our much-loved community. I can assure you we will be supportive of any helpful suggestions assuming there is no great cost implication, but we are more than ready to organise and robustly challenge all of this if unwarranted proposals not backed by the majority are taken forward by the Committee.
Jim White