East Kilbride East,  Helping you,  Kirsten Robb,  Local,  News,  Space to Play,  Uncategorized

Councillor Update, July 2022

During July, as well as some family holiday time off, I’ve been visiting various groups, progressing more issues for residents and planning for the start of the full council year which kicks off mid- August.

I’ve now dealt with over 75 items of case work for constituents. These include improvements to Brancumhall Pitch and Putt, helping with an urgent homelessness issue, path maintenance at Lammermoor Park, and getting the damaged substation at Ivanhoe cleaned up and made safe. Finally, after many months of me chasing it and years of it being in a dilapidated state, residents at Buchan Green have started seeing their wall repaired.

I visited local charity Share Alike with Gillian MacKay MSP, met with staff at Calderglen Park about traffic issues and chatted to the fabulous Universal Connections to find out more about their activities for young people.

Gillian Mackay MSP and Cllr Kirsten Robb with volunteers at Share Alike, East Kilbride
Gillian Mackay MSP and Cllr Kirsten Robb with volunteers at Share Alike, East Kilbride.

AUTISM SUPPORT

I have been trying to help families with autistic children with activities, school transport and carer support – please get in touch with me if you are interested in an EK based support group for parents / carers with autistic children. In the meantime ARCH Autism support group meets every Monday from 10am-12pm in ARCH Hamilton, and online every Wednesday on ZOOM from 11am – 12pm. More info available at Sail Autism

SPACE TO PLAY

I am continuing to work on lots of local Space to Play type projects: read on to find out lots of opportunities to have your say, help or get involved.

Hazelhead Park: Refurbishment of the park we saved as a community has now started. The council expect this to be completed within 8 weeks, around mid September.

Calderglen High: At weekends and in the holidays many young people are looking for space to play football informally with their friends on a decent pitch with a net. But Calderglen High pitch tends to be locked up and goals sometimes taken down at Brancumhall. I’ve been talking to the council and Calderglen can be opened if we can get a rota of adult volunteers to check in 3 times a day. If we can get 6 volunteers that means volunteers only pop in once in a weekend. You would be given a number to call if there are any issues. I’ve got many people interested in this already. Would you or your family like to use this facility? Please spread the word and get in touch with me if you can help.

Long Calderwood Pitch improvements: I’m working with Long Calderwood Parent Council on the multi-use games area. It’s shared between the school and community and we want to improve and maintain it for all to enjoy. But we need your views so the Parent Council can apply for lottery funding to deliver what you and the kids would like. Please speak to your families about it and complete this survey by August 19th.

Brancumhall: Locals highlighted that Brancumhall Golf Development Centre needed a bit of TLC so I’ve been working with South Lanarkshire Leisure to improve this great local facility. Grounds Services have been asked to patch up any holes in the fence, give the bunker and fairways some TLC and have ordered new tee boxes so people can navigate their way around the course more easily.

A new sign is now outside the facility from 8:30am to advertise it to a wider audience. The pitch and putt is good value at £4.10 for an adult and £2.10 for a junior (concessions available) and is a lovely walk around in mature gardens for an hour or so. Open 7 days a week, 12-4pm, with drinks and snacks available at a kiosk. Contact SLLC directly to ask about wheelchair access at any of their facilities. I’m looking forward to trying it with the family. Click here for more details.

Football cage off Cornfoot Crescent: I met with residents about this facility, getting the holes filled in, some signage to emphasise it is shared use, maybe getting the drainage improved and some goals put up. I will be meeting with the council to see what they could do to help and what we, as a community could do together. Get in touch with me if you’d like to be involved with improving this space.

ROAD SAFETY

Many people have raised speeding and road safety on Morrishall Road with me. This road is well used by families crossing to several schools, and also by children playing in the nearby parks and woods. Whilst the council say they won’t put in any physical measures to reduce speed at the moment, the more reports the police get of speeding in the area, the more priority this area will get for speed reduction measures. Please keep reporting speeding vehicles on the non emergency 101 number or online .

Get in touch with me if you would like to come along to a community walk about to share your views on road safety along this road.

SPACE TO GROW FOOD

The South Lanarkshire allotment waiting list sits at 549, with 255 of those being in East Kilbride. Some people who live in flats have asked if they can use their common areas for growing fruit and veg. If you want to do this you must submit your request to alter the common area in writing and email it to your housing officer – for East Kilbride it is housing.eastkilbride@southlanarkshire.gov.uk

The Housing Officer should consult with other residents and update accordingly.

More on the food growing in South Lanarkshire here.

LOOKING AHEAD

I hope to attend Allers Allotment Open Day on 6th August from 1pm and Wild About EK family outdoor club on 28th August and lots more volunteering opportunities in Calderglen.

My surgeries start in August but I’m always happy to meet face to face as requested.

You can contact me on kirsten.robb@southlanarkshire.gov.uk or 07385 467774.

Please follow me on facebook and twitter for regular updates.