East Kilbride East

The Space to Play campaign wants South Lanarkshire to be the best place to bring up children. So we want to know what our elected members will do to act on play. To do this we need your help. Please use this letter as a guide to contact your councillors where ever you are in South Lanarkshire. Change it to mention any particular issues around play in your community. And please send this Space to Play a copy of the reply on spacetoplaysl@gmail.com. The letter is also available as plain text if your device cannot read .odt files You can find contact details for your South Lanarkshire councillor here.  

South Lanarkshire Council acted unlawfully when it removed Hazelhead Play Park. They should have applied for planning permission to make this material change to land. When they acted without consultation, they also ignored their own planning guidance which states that communities should be involved in the management of their open spaces. These are the conclusions of the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (https://www.ercs.scot) who have looked into the Hazelhead Park case. We have now submitted a formal complaint to SLC raising these points, as follows: Stage one complaint Removal of Hazelhead play park equipment I wish to make a stage one complaint as per the Council’s complaints procedure regarding the above matter. Around the end of May 2021, the play park equipment was removed from Hazelhead play park by South Lanarkshire Council employees. There was no consultation with the local community and planning permission was not first obtained by the Council prior to the removal. At the date of this complaint, the Council has not confirmed that it plans to restore the equipment to the play park. The play park has been left without play park equipment. Our complaint has two grounds. First, the Council should have obtained planning permission prior to the removal and its failure to do so was unlawful. Second, the removal of the play park without any public consultation was contrary to Council policy. We are seeking to have the play park equipment reinstated as soon as possible as a result of this complaint. 1. Ground of complaint 1 – failure to obtain prior planning permission As you will be aware, Section 28(1) of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (‘the 1997 Act’) provides that planning permission is required for the carrying out of any development of land. The meaning of the term ‘development’ is defined in Section 26(1) of the 1997 Act and includes, “the making of any material change in the use of any buildings or other land”. Our view is that the removal of the play park equipment amounted to an act which resulted in a material change in the use of the land on which the play park is located. By removing the play park equipment, the Council changed the use of the land from one of a play park to one of vacant land which can no longer be described as a play park. As such, the removal of the play park constituted a development within the meaning of Section 26(1) and planning permission should have been obtained by the Council prior to the removal of the play park as per Section 28(1). My view is that the Council’s failure to obtain planning permission before removing the play park was unlawful. 2. Ground of complaint 2 – removal of play park contrary to Council policy South Lanarkshire Council has produced supplementary guidance to assist the implementation of the South Lanarkshire Local Development Plan. The 2014 document, ‘Supplementary Guidance 8: Green Network and Greenspace’ contains guidance on the mechanisms and actions to deliver high quality greenspaces and is directly relevant to this complaint. Table 4.1 of Supplementary Guidance 8 contains a list of ‘greenspace design principles’ which are intended to guide how developments can be designed to enhance and deliver the local green network. One of the principles referred to at page 26 is ‘community involvement in management’. As stated above, the removal of the play park equipment constituted a development and there was no public consultation prior to that development taking place. Our view is that the removal of the play park equipment was contrary to Supplementary Guidance 8, because it failed to take account of the greenspace design principle of community involvement in management. There was no community involvement in the removal of the play park equipment, the equipment was removed by the Council without any involvement from the community.

The photo montage in the East Kilbride East Winter 2022 newsletter shows examples of Kirsten Robb, local council candidate, in action, working in the ward where she lives. The images are as follows (from top left to top right and bottom left to bottom right) 1. September 2021: Kirsten Robb and the local community enjoy the games area she helped to open. St Leonard’s Primary MUGA had been closed for many years but after persistent pressure and meetings with SLC officers, these fabulous facilities have now been reopened for community use outwith school hours. 2. Autumn 2020: Kirsten working with volunteers and the council’s countryside ranger service to plant a ‘biodiversity bank’, improving a grassy bank to make it richer in wildflowers – better for wildlife and people. 3. 2020: Delivering Green Newsletters in Brancumhall 4. 2015: Fighting to save Calderwood Library from closure with the local community. SLC gave the local community an impossible 3 months to develop a plan but voted to close it anyway. A big part of the community axed in a few short months. No elected members put forward options for revenue funding to pay for staff to keep it open and it was left to local people to try to save it in an impossible timescale. 5. Summer 2021: cleaning up the river at Castle Falls, Calderglen Country Park 6. Kirsten organising a community clean up in and around Hazelhead Park as park of EK Community Litter Pickers.

Local campaigner, Kirsten Robb, has been selected to run as a Scottish Green Party Candidate in the forthcoming local elections, in the East Kilbride East Ward where she has lived with her family for the last 14 years.  Kirsten said; “I am delighted to be selected as the candidate in my local ward. Helping people in my own community makes my day, and I’d love the chance to help more as a councillor. If elected, I will build on the work I’ve done for the area to date. Together, I feel we can make our community one we can all take pride in.” Kirsten has previously been a community councillor for the ward, has started up a number of local organisations and currently volunteers for “EK Community Litter Pickers”, “Wild About EK”, “Calderglen Volunteers” and the “Space to Play” campaign. As part of the “Space To Play” Campaign she successfully worked to get South Lanarkshire Council to re-open three primary school multi-use games areas in the ward and examine how a fourth could be opened up to the public out-with school hours. Kirsten said “Children have a right to play, it is essential for their wellbeing and development especially during this time of increased isolation. What’s more, they should be able to play close to home.” Speaking at an online event where she was confirmed as candidate Kirsten said “South Lanarkshire desperately needs Green Councillors – not just in this ward but across the authority. In the last decade, we’ve seen millions cut to South Lanarkshire’s services, despite some reductions to cuts by Green MSPs. The social care service is struggling. Support for additional needs children in schools was cut. Councillors opted to close Calderwood Library, Hazelhead Park and our local msueum, but waste millions on building bigger roads’. Maintenance has been cut. Youth services downsized and 118 play parks across South Lanarkshire closed. If elected I promise to protect the services we all rely on. I’ll work to address poverty and use my skills as a community development project manager1 to secure more funding for East Kilbride East, so we can restore what we’ve lost and build what we need. Not just for local lives but also to do our bit globally for climate change too – by insulating our homes, improving our parks and making it easier to get about by walking, wheeling or by public transport. Most importantly, I will continue to ask local people what they want and do my very best to help do it. My approach has been to listen to what people want and then help them. People wanted action when Hazelhead park was taken away without consultation and I’ve been supporting them ever since. People told me they wanted paths, roads, parks and lights fixed, I helped them get it sorted. I know, and have shown, we can do better. But there’s only so much I can do as a volunteer, and that’s why I’m standing to be South Lanarkshire’s first Green councillor.” Kirsten worked with the Rural Development Trust, managing a team of people developing and carrying out projects to improve local communities

Campaigners are celebrating the re-opening of community facilities, some of which have been closed to the public for many years. In January, Kirsten Robb from the Scottish Greens and The Space to Play campaign wrote to South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) to highlight that in and around one council ward, 4 of the 7 multi-use games areas (MUGAs) attached to new primary schools were closed. This is despite the intention for these MUGAs to be open out of school hours for community use and only to be closed for a short period if there were vandalism issues.  After several emails and meetings between SLC and the campaign, another 3 MUGA’s were reopened, including the one adjacent to St. Leonard’s Primary School, which had been closed for years, and those at St. Hilary’s and Long Calderwood Primary Schools. South Lanarkshire Council also confirmed they are investigating how informal access could also be made for the games area at Hunter Primary. Kirsten said, “Free-to-use play spaces are really important for children’s health and well-being. That’s why it was absolutely right that the new MUGAs were to be available to local communities out with school hours. Even more so as some of these schools were built on previously open greenspaces. I’m really pleased that the campaign’s efforts helped open up another 3 MUGAs for my local community. I would like to thank SLC, schools, janitors and communities for their help to get the MUGAs reopened and in keeping them clean and tidy for everyone to enjoy.” A list provided to the campaign by the council shows that there are 125 primary schools in South Lanarkshire, 73 with informal access to a pitch or MUGA that could be open. Of these, the list states that 9 are currently closed. If your local MUGA isn’t open and you think it should be, check this council provided list of sports facilities and access within the school. If it should be open and is not, then contact kirsten.robb@scottishgreens.org.uk for help. Scottish Greens Central Region MSP, Gillian McKay, added: “I’m delighted to see South Lanarkshire Council have reached this decision and MUGA’s are being opened up out-with school hours for community benefit. At a time when many young people have been stuck indoors for a sustained period of time, these Multi Use Games Area’s will bring a great deal of joy as well as health & well-being benefits. I’d like to thank Kirsten and everyone at the Space to Play Campaign for their hard-work and dedication, without them this wouldn’t have happened. This highlights the importance of community organising and solidarity, and long may it continue.” To support the campaign to open up more MUGAs to local communities and for SLC to prepare a play strategy to recognise the importance of play, sign here https://greens.scot/space-to-play . Join the Space to Play South Lanarkshire community on  https://www.facebook.com/groups/spacetoplaysl

Many local people told Green activists that one of their top concerns is a lack of things for young people to do. Since then, local resident and Green campaigner, Kirsten Robb, has been investigating local play spaces and working with the community to get improvements.

The latest East Kilbride East newsletter is now being delivered. Our website has more in depth coverage about the stories covered in the newsletter.

Multi Use Games Areas (MUGAs) and football pitches in schools are fabulous spaces to help increase health, wellbeing and community activity, safely away from traffic hazards. They are meant to be freely available to local communities outwith school hours, but many of these are now locked up. Support our call for South Lanarkshire Council to open up more MUGA’s and school football pitches for local communities.  New Multi Use Games Areas (MUGAs) and football pitches have been built alongside new primary and secondary schools across South Lanarkshire over the past decade or so. Investigating these in her local ward, East Kilbride East resident and Green campaigner, Kirsten Robb, was told by South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) that MUGAs should be open out with school hours, unless closed ‘for a period’ for maintenance or vandalism. But when Kirsten visited local sites recently she found only 3 out of the potential 7 play areas in the ward open, with many other grass areas waterlogged and unplayable. She was also told that pitches linked to secondary schools, such as those at Calderglen High School are not available either, as responsibility for them lies with the private owners of the school built under Private Public Partnership (PPP).  Many of these spaces to play, often built on previously openly available greenspaces, are now locked away from local people.  Issues around vandalism have been raised, along with the impact on janitor workload. And in the case of Calderglen High, the council does not even have responsibility for the pitches. Yet, it comes down to this – these sites were intended for community use too and that is not happening in many cases. And with other greenspaces waterlogged, there are less and less traffic-free places for children, families and young people to play and exercise.  With support to maintain, manage and improve them, these spaces could be opened up to the local community as originally intended.  Support our call for South Lanarkshire Council to open up more MUGA’s and school football pitches outwith school hours