Planning permissions, and the ownership of a small section of Bellahouston park

Earlier this week, I became aware of a planning application adjacent to Bellahouston park, a large park on the south-side of Glasgow. The application was to turn a disused building (formally restaurant) into a nursery. I tweeted about it quite extensively (thread), and thought I’d try and bring it together/summarise.

I’ve had very little experience with the planning system, so I was a bit perplexed to see included in its scope some land, adjacent to the property, that is not in its deeds. The applicant had simply incorporated this land, which they did not appear to own or have rights to, in the proposals.

It turns out this is something that is legal, and can and does happen: There’s apparently nothing stopping anybody applying for permission on any land they like.

The question of course is, why would you? You as the applicant go through a costly process only to give – if it is granted – the owner of the land some permission they didn’t have before. Unless you’ve already agreed some terms, you’re increasing the hand of the land owner you presumably want to agree something with. It’d surely be entirely counter-productive to do this.

I therefore got to trying to understand the only possible scenarios: whether it was a misjudgement by the applicant; whether they actually had an agreement in place; or if I had completely misunderstood something.

Just to briefly cover the application itself, before returning to terms of let and deeds: It is hugely flawed. As well as a creating a private car park on adjacent land that is public parkland, it also proposes creation of an access road to service the carpark, utilising a nearby predominantly pedestrian entrance area to the park. Whilst this entrance had some limited car usage (for an adjacent property), it would have been a major uptick in volume, as well as introducing all manner of traffic flow issues into the Palace of Art, and – of course – the park itself. Naturally I’ve objected to the proposal, and have encouraged others to do so too.

To return to the question of rights of ownership, reading the documents in the submission, it seemed that the applicant had a conversation with Glasgow Life. To quote:

The location of this proposed parking area was suggested by Glasgow Life, the owners of the site, at a meeting on site who considered that a car park in this location could best serve the proposed facility

Extract from applicants supporting statements on planning reference 20/00106/FUL

This seems odd. Glasgow Life are the arms-length, council-controlled charity that manages various facilities on the councils behalf. But it does not own the land. A quick look at the 2018-19 annual accounts, where on page 19 they even state this themselves:

All buildings operated by the charity are leased from Glasgow City Council for a peppercorn rental.

Culture and Sport Glasgow (trading as Glasgow Life), Report and Group Financial Statements, Year Ended 31 March 2019

A look at the ScotLIS registration (GLA195297) for the Palace of Art confirms this to show it’s a Tenancy interest. It’s interesting that the existing car park is not included in the public deeds, further evidence that it’s council/public land there too. It’s certainly not Glasgow Life’s.

So, the applicant misunderstood the organisation who owns the land. But I still couldn’t get my head around why they would even apply for this permission on this land, without some form of justification. If they didn’t currently own it, might they have some tacit understanding with somebody about it?

Given I am confident it is the council’s land to manage (on behalf of the residents of Glasgow), I wrote to my elected ward councillors (who also cover the location in question) via the excellent writetothem.com, in relation to this planning application’s inclusion of this land:

I would request your assistance in understanding whether this is: a) simply an overreach or misunderstanding on the part of the applicant (which should surely therefore be grounds for outright refusal); b) whether there has been a transfer of deeds or rights in relation to this part of the park not reflected in the public records, or c) some suggestion or agreement this may or is likely to occur post-application.

email to ward councillors

I received the following admirably prompt response, via two of the four councillors, quoting an officer at Development and Regeneration Services:

“1. The area of land to the south of the site between the existing Class 3 and The Palace Of Art has been included within the red line boundary of the planning application by the applicants agent. According to the submitted planning application the applicant has owner notified Glasgow Life, 38 Albion Street, G1 1LH as part owner of the site. Any queries with regards to any potential Transfer of Deeds would require to be directed to Glasgow Life. This information is not available to Development And Regeneration Services”

Development and Regeneration Services officer response

Concisely, that’s “The applicant included it for some reason. They’ve notified Glasgow Life. Talk to Glasgow Life about transfer of deeds. We don’t have any information.”

For reasons outlined above, I question this response. This is not Glasgow Life land. So, whilst I’m anxious I may rapidly be turning in to “the sort of person who writes long letters to councillors and newspapers“, I replied with the following clarification request:

Alas I have a further question raised by the response: Glasgow Life does not own the land or buildings. It is, itself, a tenant. They state this in their most recent Annual Report (page 19, Leases “All buildings operated by the charity are leased from Glasgow City Council for a peppercorn rental.”). A tenancy arrangement is also recorded on the Palace of Art ScotLIS ref. GLA195297.

It is surely therefore, for Glasgow City Council, on behalf of the people of Glasgow, to discuss and manage leases, lets and transfers of right of this part of Bellahouston Park, not Glasgow Life as the officer suggests.

I feel my query – whether any lease, let or transfer has been discussed or entered in to in relation to this plot of land – remains unanswered and will not be served by addressing it to Glasgow Life. I am a touch concerned the responsibility for said lets, leases or transfers is not clear. I would therefore appreciate your assistance in clarifying this point, or correcting my understanding if I have misunderstood some element.

Email to councillors

So, to wrap this all up, just now the situation is:

  • A private planning application was submitted, covering a part of public land that an applicant does not own.
  • That this application is deeply flawed in its assumptions of getting rights of way over public land, to the detriment of park users. But also in its analysis and proposal (very little detail about proposed construction methods, or impacts)
  • That creating a private car park on public land would (I suggest) fly entirely counter to a great many park, council and government planning policies relating to retention and enhancement of green spaces (eg. CDP6/IPG6, PAV65)
  • But additionally I was concerned the applicant has perhaps been given some indication that they may have, or get, some lease or let. Otherwise, why would they even apply for this permission?
  • So I wanted to understand if that had happened, or some suggestion given (by some part of the council) that it would or could happen.
  • So I wrote to councillors, who contacted council officers.
  • Council officers replied suggesting Glasgow Life should be contacted in relation to the deeds
  • When such matters are not the responsibility of Glasgow Life, as they are a tenant to the council.
  • So I have asked the councillors who responded (and may be regretting doing so) to find out who is ultimately responsible for this patch of land.

The simplest explanation is still “the applicant simply made a mistake”. It fits with the overall application being poorly considered or advised, and just getting the wrong end of the stick during a site visit with somebody.

But I still struggle to completely shake the prospect of some agreement or suggestion being given, or Glasgow Life/City Council operating under some premise I don’t understand. So I’d be grateful if somebody was able to explain if the terms of lease to an organisation like Glasgow Life could include, or grant the right, to allow them to let the land they for such purposes?

If so, how could we find that information out? My wife has submitted a FOI request to try and and chase down if there have been any council discussions around this. Other ideas/corrections welcome.

Will be updating this as I go. Also on twitter on this rather involved thread. Unpicking the thread was the reason for this post, but expect I’ll continue to update both.

Original twitter thread

Pictures from the inaugural Scottish/Glasgow parkrun

As flickr seems to be about to kill off its free service (at least in a way that is useful to me), I figured it was time to move the pictures I have from the first Glasgow/Scottish parkrun, somewhere else

The full set of pictures are available via this shared album link to Google Photos. A selection of my favourites[1] below.

Pictures were taken by Paul Flood. Alas Paul was the first Scot to discover that taking pictures of fast moving runners, in a tree lined park, was a lot trickier than we expected. It was also very cold.

 

[1] – By favourite, I mean representative of the event[2] and my memories. I cringe a bit at me-in-the-orange-vest
[2] – A couple are from after the first event (The C3 car and Burrell picture). Let’s call it artistic license.

Friends of Pollok

Back in June I attended a meeting of Friends of Pollok park. From my time establishing Pollok parkrun, it’s a group I’d always hoped would appear: It’s a stunning park, and in the climate of cuts and reduced expenditure, really would benefit from an advocacy group to work constructively with council, park managers, and nearby groups/organisations to support the park.

The council is helping support it, but the attendance at the June meeting was a bit… sparse. So I got home and registered a few domains (friendsofpollokpark.com), popped a basic Hugo site together, and got in touch with the owner of the current facebook group to get some of the content updated.

A month later, and a big uptick in the number of followers on the facebook group, the next meeting was standing room only. A fantastic result, and shows what social media can help achieve. Fingers crossed it’ll help get things progressing.

Slightly tricky part is the group is in a bit of an odd place just now: The council is trying to help the group to form (as an unincorporated group), so it can move forward under it’s own committee. Understandably attendees want to raise many of the issues with the park and see it progress, but it’s hard to see that happening without a committee making decisions and working with members.

Hopefully the next few weeks will see some progress and an enthusiastic park user or two taking on the fantastic challenge to form a much needed advocacy group in the community.

First 10 mile run!

I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself today. It all started yesterday when I picked up some new trainers. My old pair were really starting to look rather worn. I knew I was safely over the 400 mile point when it’s generally recommended to get new trainers, but holidays and general busy-ness just meant I couldn’t get myself out to sweatshop. But go I did, and I have a new pair of trainers. Marvellous they felt too that I couldn’t resist going for a short run yesterday.

This morning however I wanted to go a bit further as the half marathon approaches. I’ve been building up the distance for a while now, so was feeling good enough to see about going for a couple of kilometres more than I’d previously managed. I’d investigated a couple of route possibilities yesterday, but in the end opted to join a couple of long routes together that I’d previously run, and managed to run 16.1km (10.01miles) in 1:32:21. Funnily enough I hadn’t aimed to break the 10m distance at all – I’d been aiming for 15km, and felt good enough to do a little bit more.

By the magic of some new behind-the-scenes google link technology I’m hoping you’ll see the route of my run, in all it’s glory, below. If not, and you’re curious, you can click here for a new window:


View Larger Map

The start is a bit further down from our house: My Garmin is taking it’s precious time to find the satellites in the morning. But the first section of the route follows our road down to the Maxwell park, which I loop, then follow one of the nice long roads along the side of the railway. It’s then a cut across Pollokshields road and around Queens Park. I stuck to the outside as the hill on the southern tip is a bit easier outside of the park. The 4km mark is pretty much the highest point in the park.

I then headed over to Nithsdale road, which I recently ‘discovered’ as a great way of linking Maxwell Park to Bellahouston park. It’s long and straight, and there are only a couple of pedestrian crossings along the way. Into Bellahouston park for a small loop. I had been tempted to go all the way around, but by this point was thinking I’d be better making decisions like that after I’d reached Pollok Park and all it’s route options, just incase I started feeling it was getting a bit tough. At the exit of Bellahouston park I’m safely at 10km.

So in to Pollok park, and around what I call the ‘outer loop’ – Past Pollok House and the river, past the Cricket club, then doubling back down towards Pollok House. If I’d been feeling the strain a bit, I could have cut things a bit shorter and headed back home past the Burrell collection, but I was feeling good and the weather was super, so I carried on through the tree-lined paths. Only difficult bit was around the 14.5km mark, where the road gets rather steep. Normally I run down this path, and it was hard work going up the path at the end of such a long run. But managed it ok, to bring my run to an end at just over 16km, with another 5-10 minutes of cooling down, followed by plenty of stretching. So a bit tired and a little sore. With the rain, my tops got rather wet. Suffice to say I’m sore in unusual places!

All in all, I’m feeling *very* positive about my efforts. It’s a great distance to have under my belt, and I felt extremely good about myself all the way around, managing an average pace of 9:19/mile (5:47/km) was better than I’d expected too. fetch translates the run into a half-marathon time of 2:04:06. So with a few more miles to add to that distance, I’m feeling very confident about my half marathon estimations.

On the half-marathon front I’ve scarily already raised well over my target of £500! Not sure if I’m going to revise the target higher, or leave it as it is and see where it gets to (details are here, and in the right hand sidebar if you would like to sponsor me!). But it’s smashing stuff, and the notes and comments received from everybody have no doubt at all been, and will continue to be, a massive help in keeping me going in my training!

First 10 mile run!

I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself today. It all started yesterday when I picked up some new trainers. My old pair were really starting to look rather worn. I knew I was safely over the 400 mile point when it’s generally recommended to get new trainers, but holidays and general busy-ness just meant I couldn’t get myself out to sweatshop. But go I did, and I have a new pair of trainers. Marvellous they felt too that I couldn’t resist going for a short run yesterday.

This morning however I wanted to go a bit further as the half marathon approaches. I’ve been building up the distance for a while now, so was feeling good enough to see about going for a couple of kilometres more than I’d previously managed. I’d investigated a couple of route possibilities yesterday, but in the end opted to join a couple of long routes together that I’d previously run, and managed to run 16.1km (10.01miles) in 1:32:21. Funnily enough I hadn’t aimed to break the 10m distance at all – I’d been aiming for 15km, and felt good enough to do a little bit more.

By the magic of some new behind-the-scenes google link technology I’m hoping you’ll see the route of my run, in all it’s glory, below. If not, and you’re curious, you can click here for a new window:


View Larger Map

The start is a bit further down from our house: My Garmin is taking it’s precious time to find the satellites in the morning. But the first section of the route follows our road down to the Maxwell park, which I loop, then follow one of the nice long roads along the side of the railway. It’s then a cut across Pollokshields road and around Queens Park. I stuck to the outside as the hill on the southern tip is a bit easier outside of the park. The 4km mark is pretty much the highest point in the park.

I then headed over to Nithsdale road, which I recently ‘discovered’ as a great way of linking Maxwell Park to Bellahouston park. It’s long and straight, and there are only a couple of pedestrian crossings along the way. Into Bellahouston park for a small loop. I had been tempted to go all the way around, but by this point was thinking I’d be better making decisions like that after I’d reached Pollok Park and all it’s route options, just incase I started feeling it was getting a bit tough. At the exit of Bellahouston park I’m safely at 10km.

So in to Pollok park, and around what I call the ‘outer loop’ – Past Pollok House and the river, past the Cricket club, then doubling back down towards Pollok House. If I’d been feeling the strain a bit, I could have cut things a bit shorter and headed back home past the Burrell collection, but I was feeling good and the weather was super, so I carried on through the tree-lined paths. Only difficult bit was around the 14.5km mark, where the road gets rather steep. Normally I run down this path, and it was hard work going up the path at the end of such a long run. But managed it ok, to bring my run to an end at just over 16km, with another 5-10 minutes of cooling down, followed by plenty of stretching. So a bit tired and a little sore. With the rain, my tops got rather wet. Suffice to say I’m sore in unusual places!

All in all, I’m feeling *very* positive about my efforts. It’s a great distance to have under my belt, and I felt extremely good about myself all the way around, managing an average pace of 9:19/mile (5:47/km) was better than I’d expected too. fetch translates the run into a half-marathon time of 2:04:06. So with a few more miles to add to that distance, I’m feeling very confident about my half marathon estimations.

On the half-marathon front I’ve scarily already raised well over my target of £500! Not sure if I’m going to revise the target higher, or leave it as it is and see where it gets to (details are here, and in the right hand sidebar if you would like to sponsor me!). But it’s smashing stuff, and the notes and comments received from everybody have no doubt at all been, and will continue to be, a massive help in keeping me going in my training!

Sponsorship details for my half-marathon

Yesterday I started merrily sending out e-mails to family, friends, colleagues and pretty much everybody I can think of, to ask if they’ll consider sponsoring me for my half-marathon run in September. I’ve already been delighted to have heard from a number of readers who are keen to sponsor me based on my earlier posts, so it’s only fair that I pop something up on this website! There’s a special website widget (oh, you lucky people!) in my sidebar now which you can use, or you can have a read about what I’ve been saying in the e-mail:

> I’m writing to ask if you’ll consider sponsoring me in support of The Prostate Cancer charity when I run my first ever half-marathon, in Glasgow on the 2nd September, 2007. My father was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer a few years back. Thanks to the medical and scientific advances in recent years, as well as his talking to the Doctor about the symptoms early on, he’s since made a full recovery.

> However I think it’s vital to both try and help improve the funding into research and treatment of this condition, and help raise awareness of it: I didn’t realise but it’s the most common form of cancer in men: 1 in 6 men will be affected by it in their lifetime.

> So if you’d like to sponsor me please visit this URL:

> http://www.justgiving.com/richardleyton

> For an easy way of donating, and also very tax effective! An extra 28% is added by the government if you’re a UK taxpayer!. I’ve also discovered that my consulting company will match your main donation, so there is plenty of incentive to dig deep! 🙂

> I’m hoping to try and raise £500 from friends, family, colleagues and anybody else that might be interested in supporting a great cause. A donation of any size will help bring me closer to that goal, so I’ll be grateful for any amount that you can help with.

> Some of you will know that I’ve been running for fun since September last year, inspired by the runners in the 2006 half marathon who went past our house (many of whom were running for charity). I’d thought about running plenty of times before, but that inspiration usually left when I turned my back on the runners! This time it was different, and it’s certainly been tough: I’ve still got a long way to go in my training!

> Needless to say, I’ve been writing about much of this on my website, and will continue to do so as I build up to the half marathon in September: The 2006 Run, My first run, My first race, and my running album.

> There’s also more to be found out about Prostate Cancer here: http://www.prostate-cancer.org.uk/.

> Thanks again for your time, and your support!

> Kind Regards,

> Richard

Update
I should confess – just in case! – that there’s a ‘reasonable’ limit on the company matching amount of £2,500: It’s my own company after all, and I’m actually starting to worry a little! Hope that’s not beyond what folk think I *can* raise, especially given my initial target of £500 has now been revised up to £1500 due to the immense generosity of friends and family so far!

The 10k that wasn’t

A while back I mentioned I’d entered the East Kilbride 10k run, as part of my half-marathon training. To be honest though, since I discovered the very local MHFS 10k, the East Kilbride 10k lost a lot of it’s lustre. No matter, I still figured it’d be good to get the race practice under my belt.

Unfortunately, nature intervened and I didn’t end up going. I’ve unfortunately been battling a bit of a cold, and running just hasn’t felt like a particularly sensible thing to be doing. I’ll save you the specifics, but suffice to say the idea of running for protracted periods of time just doesn’t seem very sensible right now.

So sadly no 10k race time to report, and a general feeling of frustration that I’ve missed out on a weekends running. Hoping I’ll be able to manage a run later today or tomorrow, rain or not. Fingers crossed.

Men’s Health Forum Scotland 10k run

I’m pleased to say that the MHFS 10k went very well, and that I managed to get around in a reasonable time. I’d been hoping to finish it in 60 minutes (That’s what I put on my form), but had hopes for 55 minutes if I pushed a bit harder. In the end, I actually managed it in 53:56 – That’s my own time, not the ‘official’ time which I think I get tomorrow in the Evening Times special supplement.

I doubt I make a particularly photogenic runner (much less that I’ll appear in the 12 page supplement tomorrow!), but here’s a mug shot that Frances snapped just as I entered Pollok park, at around the 3.5km mark. A few more in my flickr ‘Running’ set. Richard at the 3.5km mark

The event itself was great, and a super atmosphere. Something like 2,500 entrants I gather. A delayed start was a bit of a pain, and it was a bit crammed in the early part of the course. There were also far too few toilets (10 if I recall, and no urinal that would have made sense for a male-only event), so a huge queue. And no water available at the start, at least that I could see: I’d forgotten to bring some along, but was well hydrated before hand.

But minor gripes aside, the weather was brilliant. Almost too sunny(!) along the earlier stretches. Pollok park was a relief with all the shade, and lovely and familiar. A great atmosphere, plenty of vocal support, and some great drumming from a marching band that seems to show up at most of the marches I’ve been on… Only downer was I seem to have lost my free t-shirt. So ‘only’ have a medal to leave hanging about in obvious places 🙂

I slipped in to old habits a little and ran a bit harder than I really ought given I’m trying to manage my training by heart-rate at the moment, but I didn’t feel much the worse for it at all. I paced myself nicely so that by the last few kilometres I had plenty in reserve and was able to overtake most of the folk I’d noticed rushing past me earlier on. Next week there’s the East Kilbride 10k to look forward to, although I’m undecided yet as to whether I’ll run it quite as hard as this.

But all in all, a great event, and I’ll definitely be back next year!

Update – Ok the official results are in, and I came 1307 out of 1975, and my official time was 00:55:47 – so quite a disparity from my own time. Must have paused it or something accidentally, although that really doesn’t make much sense. Or maybe the chip didn’t record me at the start. No matter, it’s still about the time I was hoping for, and gives me something to aim for next weekend in East Kilbride! 🙂

Men’s health forum Scotland 10k for men

I do apologise for folk who perhaps visit this website expecting apple-fanboy posts, or why being a humanist is a positive way to lead your life, only to be confronted by lots of posts about how much I’m currently enjoying running. Of course, folk reading it for the running might be in for a bit of a shock when my interest radar veers off in one of those directions 🙂

Anyway, just an addendum to my previous post about half-marathon training, and that’s that I’ve discovered and signed up for, another 10k. This one is quite literally “around the corner”, as it follows one of my own long training routes I started using recently. In fact it goes practically past our house! (We’re on that little ‘J’ shaped bit of road in the bottom-right of the map)

The 2nd Men’s Health Forum Scotland 10K for men is on the 17th June. It was a successful event last year, and it sounds like it’s going to be even bigger this year. My friend Keith, who I met up with on Tuesday, is running it, and a lot of his colleagues at work are taking part. It should be a lot of fun, and it can’t get more convenient/familiar than this, so a great way to start ‘proper’ running events.

Of course, it’s not a picture of perfection. The 17th June is Frances’ birthday, so not entirely sure she’s particularly enthusiastic at the prospect of my getting up early and disturbing her birthday lie-in…. But it *is* for the great cause of raising awareness of health issues in Men, and one very closely related to the cause I’ll soon be raising sponsorship money for: The Prostate Cancer charity