The Hidden Glasgow Forums

Peekay wrote:^ That is fucking bollocks!(not you AD, the quote) If I vote/put my wee tick in a box for someone then it's my right to know what, and who, that wee tick gets me!

Anyway, the cooncil has a short memory what happened last time they tried to tinker with Pollok park(M77). I will personally make the whole thing 'financially unviable'

I think its more important that any councillor represents their community before they go pandering to some ranter on an internet forum. I'm sure you will agree Peekay? Also, I don't think there'll be any need for any vigilantism... you planning on stealing the petty cash tin or something?

If you draw an imaginary line around all of the proposed sights, that takes up a pretty huge chunk of the woods. To imagine that these sites will be discreet form each other would be naive to say the least! Parties of people will be constantly traipsing between them all day, every day. Will they keep to the designated trails? Don't think so. Or perhaps there will be fences along these trails too? The more you think about it the worse it gets...

How would people feel if it had been proposed for the wood at Corkerhill, across from the recently refurbished and expanded playing fields on Corkerhill Rd?

Pollok Park, dark green
Proposed site, dotted green
Playing fields, blue
Corkerhill wood, yellow

Smartalex wrote:I don't think I like the idea of this at all.

The area they are planning to build on is extensive and will destroy a large part of the woodland walk areas, I don't see why they have chosen the middle of Pollok Park for this when there are plenty of other sites that could house their "Theme Park".

Also does it need to be so closely sited to the Burrell and Pollok House

Go Ape apparently admit that it is their company policy to site their developments where the appropriate infrastructure is already in place i.e. car parks & toilets. Presumably that saves them a lot of money and maximises their profits? Customers for the Pollok "attraction" will be directed to the toilets/car park for the Burrell.

Excellent letter in yesterday's Herald and an aspect the Council really need to consider in their mad rush hand over public assets to private business

http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/let ... p#comments

Looking at your map, Crusty, the site does not seem that big.

Which site HH, the proposed site or the Corkerhill one?

The Corkerhll is roughly the same area, only in a linear strip, and is an equally tall and thick woodland. It also has car-parking, showers and toilet facilities across the road in the playing fields and is a stones throw from Corkerhill station.

it wouldnt work in the area you marked in yellow crusty, the whole point of the go ape thing is a treetops woodland walkway / assault course, which needs to be in acres of woodland to work. really the one at aberfoyle (i know i said callanderbefore) was great fun, and not hugely damaging and its unlikely folk would be straying from the path. good clean fun, if at a hefty price ticket.

again though, thats by the by, fun though it is, the commercialisation of our parks shouldnt be allowed. and for sucha low cost!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hmmmm i might take part of that back, it wouldnt be the same in a small area of woodland, but would still have the scary treetops thing...so maybe.

Here's Glasgow council on record on beech trees, and the ones in the North Wood in particular (from the info board at the Pollok Beech)



Those woods are like an Enchanted Forest - I've been there in the spring with sun dappling through the new leaves, and on the day it snowed a couple of years ago. Magical.

Magical enchanted forests are in short supply (are there any others in Glasgow?), which is as good a reason as any for being very very careful about making changes. There's not a lot of magic in stockades.

But could the council's strategic thingie rethink about Pollok Park effectively have been a decision to make it more suburban? All the tarmac-ing of paths and clearing out of undergrowth seems calculated to make it seem less remote and wild, more tame and garden-like. Woodlands do need to be managed (see all the bits of blown-down decayed tree at the moment), but turning them into gardens is a bit over-zealous?

Looking at your map, Crusty, the site does not seem that big.

HH, the aerial pic of Pollok Park is very misleading about the size of the actual park bit - although it looks like a huge green circle it's all golf course and playing field round the outside, and there's an large inaccessible area in the middle (fields where the cows are, and some kind of farm house). I'd estimate only about a quarter of Crusty's big green circle is park proper (I mean,where ordinary people can go and mooch round). The Go Ape site is a very big part of the woodlands.

I love the idea of swinging through the tree tops, but I'd want to do it somethere where only a small fraction of the trees are affected, I want to think that the trees and the things that live in/on/under them are carrying on with lives undisturbed by the mechanics of my swinging.

Sunflower wrote:HH, the aerial pic of Pollok Park is very misleading about the size of the actual park bit - although it looks like a huge green circle it's all golf course and playing field round the outside, and there's an large inaccessible area in the middle (fields where the cows are, and some kind of farm house). I'd estimate only about a quarter of Crusty's big green circle is park proper (I mean,where ordinary people can go and mooch round). The Go Ape site is a very big part of the woodlands.

Nice post and a good point, looking at the map again, I can see exactly what you saying.

Can anyone show me the limits of the Park proper? I've looked on the City Plan Maps but it shows the entire area (Cowglen Gold Course included) as green belt and does show the limits of the park.

Sunflower wrote:But could the council's strategic thingie rethink about Pollok Park effectively have been a decision to make it more suburban? All the tarmac-ing of paths and clearing out of undergrowth seems calculated to make it seem less remote and wild, more tame and garden-like.

Something I've been wondering about as well. Much of the enjoyment of wandering about in Pollok Park, for me anyway, has always come from those areas where you could imagine yourself deep in some rural wood, well away from the urban jungle. I'm not knowledgeable enough to know to what extent the extensive clearing out of the undergrowth was really necessary - it has certainly made some parts of the Park look more "open" but at the same time this has made it lose some of its mystique in my view.

As for all the new tarmac paths, I much preferred them as they were before. I suppose the Council would argue that it has improved "access", meaning presumably that people arriving in cars can get out and walk through the Park without getting their shoes dirty. So what? It's supposed to be a country park for godsake.

I think we are getting to the heart of the problem here. No one at GCC seems to understand what it means for many of us to have a semi-wild woodland that can be wandered in at will in any season (or at any time – day or night). Over the years I've watched the spread of 'amenities' in the park with dismay, because its the lack of these that is, and should remain, the main attraction of Pollok Park. Panels 'explaining' what is going on are a modern blight and creeping privatisation of our public spaces is just another symptom of this. The fact that its spun as something that is a part of a 'healthy lifestyle' is just insidious. Those in power just love fences and signage and rules. They honestly cannot see why we do not.

crusty_bint wrote:Can anyone show me the limits of the Park proper? I've looked on the City Plan Maps but it shows the entire area (Cowglen Gold Course included) as green belt and does show the limits of the park.

I'm not very good at this but I've outlined in red what I understand to be the boundary of Pollok Country Park itself.



Of course not all of the area outlined is accessible to the public - the Park contains substantial grazing land for the famous herd of Highland cattle. South of the White Cart the public is more or less confined to the path which leads from the bridge opposite Pollok House to Sheep Park Farm and onwards to Pollokshaws Road, although you can get into the woodland area on that side of the Cart by climbing over the fence or walking along the riverbank from the bridge.

jim wrote:Over the years I've watched the spread of 'amenities' in the park with dismay, because its the lack of these that is, and should remain, the main attraction of Pollok Park.

Indeed. Well said, jim.