Jordanhill Community Council

General – meetings and membership

See also the Council’s website at http://www.jordanhillcc.org/

Jordanhill Community Council meets 10 times a year on the first Monday of the month, excluding July and August. If the first Monday falls on a public holiday, then the meeting is held on the second Monday. Meetings are held at 7.15 pm. in Jordanhill Parish Church Hall (enter from Munro Road near Woodend Drive) and normally last less that 2 hours.

Our Constitution currently allows for a membership of 14, but at present there are 4 vacancies and new members would be welcomed. Candidates must be over 16 years of age, resident in the area (see map) and must be listed on the electoral roll. Our area includes about 2100 houses with a population of around 6000.

Glasgow City Council which administers the scheme for Community Councils within the city insists that members must resign every three years and submit themselves for re-election. This is to guard against accusations of permanent cliques and nepotism which had been a problem in certain areas of the city in past years. Our election process took place in October 2006, with the previous members being re-elected. The City Council provides an annual grant for running expenses which include the hire of the hall, postage, newsletters etc.

Members annually elect an executive comprising chairman (we don’t use the term chairperson), vice chairman, honorary secretary and treasurer

Our local community police officer attends the first part of most meetings and updates members on local crime .

Members of the public who live in the Community Council area are welcome to attend any meeting and to raise matters which concern them. Once a year we have an AGM at which our audited accounts and an annual report are submitted for approval.

Following the local elections in May 2007, Jordanhill is now part of the large Partick West Ward (Ward 12) and we are represented on Glasgow City Council by 4 councillors, Stuart Clay (Scottish Greens), Aileen Colleran (Labour), Christopher Mason (Liberal Democrat) and Kenny McLean (SNP)

Contacts

Our Community Council Chairman is Ian Anderson, vice chairman Jean Brown

I am the current Secretary and have held this post for some 25 years. For any further information on the Community Council please contact me by email at wsmclean2@hotmail.com

Other useful contacts include the following:

Councillor Stuart Clay, City Chambers. 287 4352 or 07789 033 516 stuart.clay@councillors.glasgow.gov.uk

Councillor Aileen Colleran, City Chambers. 287 5616 aileen.colleran@councillors.glasgow.gov.uk

Councillor Christopher Mason, City Chambers. 287 4448 or 07815 851 775 christopher.mason@thetallship.com

Councillor Kenny McLean, City Chambers. 287 5968 or 07825 503 859 kenny.mclean@councillors.glasgow.gov.uk

John Robertson, MP, 131 Dalsetter Avenue, Glasgow G15 8TE 944 7298

Bill Butler, MSP, 129 Dalsetter Avenue, Glasgow G15 8SZ 944 9441 billbutlermsp@gmail.com

Sandra White, SNP list MSP, 50 Wellington Street , Glasgow 202 0679 Sandra.White@scottish.parliament.uk

Community Police Officer, Stuart Ash, Glasgow West Office, Dumbarton Road, Glasgow 532 3507

Community Councils Resource Centre, 40 Cochrane Street, Glasgow G1 1HL 287 4723

History

In the summer of 1975 when the concept of Community Councils was first suggested in Glasgow, a public meeting was held in St Thomas Aquinas School and a steering committee was formed. Prior to 1975 an old system of local “ward committees” (based on electoral wards) had largely fallen into disrepute and some areas of the city had active residents’ groups. Jordanhill had no such formal groups.

The first activity of the steering group was to determine the boundaries for our new council. Jordanhill is a well defined residential area but at the outset there were approaches from many residents in Claythorn (the residential area to the east of Jordanhill, see map) who felt they should be part of our council. This was understandable since Jordanhill School catchment includes Claythorn, many members of the Jordanhill churches live in Claythorn and there are close connections through scouts, and tennis clubs etc.

A well attended public meeting was held in Anniesland College in 1976 to discuss this matter and it was clear there were mixed views. Some residents felt that Claythorn should be a Community Council on its own even although there were only some 600 houses in the area, whereas others felt there would be strength in numbers by joining with Jordanhill (2100 houses). One very well known lady who lived in a large Claythorn villa stood up and expressed the view “surely it is not so much a matter of quantity as quality”. This produced an embarrassed silence. However the meeting agreed that each household should be sent a voting paper with options (including the possiblility of joining with Kelvindale) and the result of the referendum was to set up Claythorn Community Councill on its own, totally separate from Jordanhill.

In the early nineties, the City Council decreed that all files containing past correspondence etc relating to all Community Councils in Glasgow should be deposited with the city archives for safe keeing. Jordanhill Community Council complied, but a few years ago when I tried to refer to my old files for details of the referendum mentioned above. officials admitted that due to a massive bungle, all the files had been destroyed.

Community Council Activities

Community Councils are statutory bodies which are formally consulted on matters such as planning applications and other public concerns. However there is a general feeling within most community councils that although the City Council pays lip service to community councils by “consulting” them, any opinions expressed by residents are habitually ignored. For this reason it is difficult to retain active public-spirited members. Council departments often take up to six weeks to reply to formal correspondence.

In earlier years when our constitution allowed for 21 members, all positions were filled and we organised local activities including an annual fun run for charity, garden competitions, swimming club and ceilidhs. Gradually over the years, interest has waned, we had difficulty in attracting new members, we amended the constitution to include only 14 members, but we still cannot fill the vacancies and fail to attract younger residents to become involved. We are not alone in our dilemma since many other community councils are struggling and indeed many have been disbanded.

We produce a newsletter annually which is distributed to every household in the area.

8 October 2007

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