Bishopbriggs Sports hall facing demolition - again!

CONFUSION surrounds the fate of an £800k sports hall in Bishopbriggs.

Muse Developments submitted an outline planning application in May to transform Bishopbriggs town centre as part of a £32million project.

The proposals included the option to keep the former Bishopbriggs Academy sports hall after residents opposed to it being knocked down.

A campaign group was asked to come up with a business plan to run the hall as a community facility.

Read the full story here on the Kirkintilloch Herald website.

Source: Kirkintilloch Herald

Bishopbriggs housing plans on school land put on hold

PLANS to build 50 new homes on the site of a bus terminus have been put on hold to allow councillors to visit the location.Developers MacTaggart and Mickel want to create 10 town houses and 40 flats on surplus land at the former Thomas Muir High School, in Bishopbriggs.

However, several residents have objected to the proposals because the development would be built on a bus terminus, as well as concerns over the increase in traffic and noise they fear it would create.

The plans went before the council's planning board last week and were recommended to be granted, subject to a list of conditions, one being that an alternative bus terminus is provided in the area prior to work starting on the development. 
Following a site visit, the plans will go before the next planning board on June 30. 

Meanwhile, plans to build 32 new homes on a derelict site have been continued, for the second time, to a planning board meeting later this month. 

Hallam Land Management Ltd want to create 32 new homes - including at least 40 per cent affordable housing - on a site adjacent to Kirkintilloch Road, in Bishopbriggs. 
However, the application has been recommended for refusal because of concerns over access. 
The application has been continued to allow for talks to try and find a soloution to the issue with access.

Source: Kirkintilloch Herald

Locals near the building site of the new Bishopbriggs Academy claim construction staff are ignoring planning conditions by working on bank holidays.

FED-UP residents have been forced to keep the windows closed on bank holidays.

Donald Macdonald, chairman of Woodhill Residents' Group, said: "Over two years ago, the residents' group, along with local school boards, Torr Road residents and Bishopbriggs Community Council, took part in a planning hearing involving all 24 councillors.

"We were told that the 46 conditions applied to the site would protect our local amenities and properties.

"What we have since discovered is that no one in East Dunbartonshire Council is prepared to enforce any conditions that will inconvenience the builders."

Read the full story on the Kirkintilloch Herald site here...

School buildings a ‘scandal’ claims expert

From today's Herald...

A high proportion of new school buildings in Scotland are of completely unacceptable quality and being thrown up with no regard for the future needs of education, one of the architects of the current curriculum review is set to warn.

Keir Bloomer sat on the group which wrote A Curriculum for Excellence and was chief executive of Clackmannanshire Council for seven years. He is to speak at a conference in Glasgow next week, when he will warn that school buildings too often reflect a society that places little value on children and young people.

The event is part of the Future Scotland Debates series and takes place at the Scottish Parliament on June 10.

Read the full story here on the Herald website...

Town Centre Plans - first image flats and Care Home...

Click image to enlargeCheck out this picture of the plans on display at the Bishopbriggs Library. 

You can see the plans include three storey flats, sorry 'townhouses'  on South Crosshill road. Five storey flats behind the new Morrisons. 

Now look at the size of the care home.

More posts to follow...

Bishopbriggs High School £800,000 Sports Hall to be demolished just years after completion...

The Bishopbriggs High School (Academy) Sports Hall is coming down.

Just years after it was hailed as a great addition to community, now the council plan to demolish - it cost the tax payers almost £1 million to build.

As the comment on the last post said " So much for helping our children's level of fitness or providing activities other than hanging about the streets".

From Jo Swinson's website...

"Sports hall demolition would be a ridiculous waste"

In a survey of Bishopbriggs residents released by Jo in 2008, 93% of respondents said they would like to retain the existing sports hall. (the majority also want to keep the school on the High School site)

The building, said "We have not managed to find a viable use for the sports hall." (How about a Sports Hall?)

Jo says "it shows either an amazing lack of creativity or total disregard for the views of local people"


Members of the public will be invited to an exhibition at Bishopbriggs Library on 6th from 10am-2pm and 7th March from 10am-1pm to offer their feedback on this and other proposals for the development of the town centre.

Read her full post here...

PPP deal councils axe school pitches

School sports pitches have been sacrificed by one-third of Scottish councils undertaking building programmes financed by controversial public private partnerships, The Herald can reveal today.

Official figures from SportScotland, the national sports development agency, show 10 of the country's 30 authorities that have used PPP projects to improve their school estate between 1996 and 2008 now have fewer playing fields.

Read the full post on The Herald's website here...