Townhead residents celebrate work starting on their long-awaited village hall

Apr 11 2012 By Joe McGuire

RESIDENTS will today mark the beginning of work on their long-awaited village hall.

A turf-cutting ceremony will signal the start of the construction of Townhead Village Hall – after eight years of work to get the project under way.

The turf cutting on the long-vacant site of a former print works will be carried out by city council leader Gordon Matheson, who represents the area.

He said: “I am very excited that this new hall will at last be built after all the efforts of the local community and partner organisations.

“It will make a big difference to the lives of the local people and I thank everyone involved.”

In 2004, residents in the area, which is the oldest part of Glasgow, formed a group to develop a “safe and pleasant place at the heart of the community”.

Although Townhead is only five minutes walk from the city centre, many residents are elderly or have young families and feel isolated because of busy roads. It also lacks facilities for providers of health, employment and youth services.

Betty Dougan, the chairwoman of Townhead Village Hall, said: “I have been involved in this project for many years.

“After all our hard work it is really good to see that this Village Hall is happening. I look forward to being able to walk into our new building early next year.”

The building will contain a large
activities hall, a learning space with a bank of computers, a nursery area, two flexible activities rooms, a kitchen, changing rooms and two office spaces.

GlasgowLife are also redeveloping the football pitch next to St Mungo’s Primary and the community will be able to use the pitch out of school hours.

The Hall will cost about £2.1million and is funded by the BIG Lottery Fund, Glasgow City Council, the GHA, Glasgow Community Planning Partnership, Compass Local Housing Organisation and the Hugh Fraser Foundation.